November 26: Panic

I've got my clean, flannel sheets on my bed and I have the covers drawn tightly over my bare shoulders. The heavy quilt that lies on my bedspread keeps the warm in and the early-morning cold out. My head rests peacefully on my down pillow and I'm lost within my tranquil dreams when everything is torn apart by the obnoxious interruption of the car in the parking lot just outside of my window.

I'm visiting with an old friend at a neighborhood eatery. The sun is at its maximum height for the day and there isn't a cloud in the sky. A gentle breeze is the perfect balance of the hot sunshine on my face as we take our orders to a unoccupied table on the patio. The sounds of other patrons and their soft conversation can be heard as we set our things down and collapse into our respected chairs. For a moment, we marvel at the perfect weather before beginning our meals. Just as I'm about to make my rebuttal to a point he is trying to make, we are violently interrupted by the deafening reverberation of a nearby car alarm.

There are quite a few things in life that annoy and irritate me, but the car alarm has got to be near the top. I understand the point of having one; my truck has one installed, but I feel like there are some major renovations that need to be looked into by the manufactures. A car alarm isn't exactly a new technology, so why are they still so unoriginal and sensitive?

Who came up with that cliched tone that belongs to nearly every alarm? Honking, siren, slower-siren, high-pitch honking, repeat; I used to have an electric toy gun that made the exact sound! What came first? The toy or the alarm? I know I had the toy before I heard a car mimicking its sound, but is that really the order of the sound's existence? If that's the case, who wants the alarm that is protecting their cars from thieves sounding like a cheap toy?

A car alarm is supposed to go off when someone attempts to break in; not drive by. Living right next to a six-story parking garage in college was really irritating every time someone drove through with their bass pounding or their exhaust growling. Are thieves actually scared off by the sound or are they more deterred by the silent, blinking red light just below the steering wheel? If it's the latter, can't we just disconnect the sound part?

More times than not, a person will set his or her own alarm off by attempting to open the door while the alarm is still activated. These people are never prepared for this to happen because it always seems to take a good two to three minutes of their car wailing at them before they find the remote to turn the sound off. I have a car alarm and I have never accidentally set it off so why do so many other people set theirs off so early in the morning in my complex's parking lot?

Something has to be done in the vehicle security department. The same tone on every car? Being set off by passing cars and unloading grocery baskets? We're figuring out ways to video chat on our cell phones, so why can't we figure out a way to protect our cars without being so damn irritating?