JR, Part 4, JR and the Disarmed Alarm

At this certain residential care facility, we had a battle going with the head of maintenance.

The artists enjoying fresh air, we kept the studio door open to the courtyard.

Normally if you opened that door an alarm would sound.  Guess they needed to know if any of the quadriplegics were trying to escape.

We let the alarm sound until it died, the painters pleased with the flow of fresh air.

Oh, the storm when our open-door policy was discovered by the head of maintenance.

Stomping into our studio, he pulled the door shut with a slam, put a key into a black box and turned it to arm the alarm.  When the alarm rearmed it gave a set of two high-pitched chirps.  Then he shouted at us, his face red, his recent cosmetic surgery making his angry eyes look like those of a baby while the rest of the face sagged.

Those of you who read A.R.T. Confidential know JR had a pressure switch mounted on his headrest.  You know this switch could deliver a recorded message.

We figured out how to record the chirp chirp of the door alarm being rearmed, pulled the batteries from the alarm and our door to the fresh air swung open, the artists cheering.

When the head of maintenance discovered the door was once again open, he stormed into the studio.  Yanked the door shut, and as he turned the key to rearm the alarm, back arched JRs head to ignite the recording: chirp chirp.

Satisfied the alarm had been rearmed the head of maintenance could not for the life of him understand why we were all laughing ourselves silly. All of us looking to JR, he gave us his quizzical, ‘What, me worry?’ look which made us laugh even harder.