Amber & the Sound of One Amber Sleeping

The intercom system in my building is a whole barrel of boondoggle. When I moved in, it worked fine; visitors could buzz me to let me know they arrived, I could ask who they were and then listen to their reply, and then, if I wanted, I could buzz them in the front door. My management company ruined everything by installing a so-called upgrade.

With the new system, I have a fob instead of a key for the front door. I am only allowed one, so whoever gets my spare keys can’t get in the building to use them on my apartment door. And, once they installed the new system, it no longer worked for me. When visitors buzz, I now yell to them out the window, go down the five flights and let them in. Upgrade? I think not.

The final straw has crippled the camel. The system seems to be malfunctioning. The speaker at the front door emits a “nnnn nnn nnn nnn” noise every few seconds at full volume, which I can hear in my apartment. And the speaker in my apartment actually is working for the first time, nicely broadcasting the “nnnn nnn nnn nnn” noise in my hallway at a lower volume. You cannot imagine how annoying this is unless you’ve ever had a neighbor who went away on vacation and forgot to turn off their alarm clock.

Worst of all, the “nnnn nnn nnn nnn” sound does indeed sound like an alarm clock. I could not sleep last night at all, since the intercom kept telling me it was time to wake up…all night long. At 4 am I downloaded this Sleep album to play in an attempt to drown out the sound of the intercom. It was a mellow mix of world music and it worked quite nicely. Only, when my fancy mellow alarm clock went off, I didn't hear it at all. The chimes just sounded like background sound in the music for the first two hours. Luckily, at 8 am, Ginger decided he loved me too much to let me sleep a minute more and nosed me awake.

Thank goodness there is a 6 pm showing of Shirley. I might need to go to bed a little early tonight. And that intercom better work.

Wait, did I mention my rent is about to go up $4 per month to pay for the capital improvement of the buzzer system? I wonder if the 24-hour torture sounds will increase it by another $1.