The Ballad of the Red Button

So today will be the day of many posts. . .here is one of the ones we've been waiting to share since we moved in. If you read the previous blog, you saw that we promptly set off the alarm at our house when we entered the first time, resulting in us meeting our neighbors, et al.
Everyone has an alarm here, by the way. John says it's because they do not have firearms here. I guess in Texas when you have guns (and in our case, a german shepherd) why would you need an alarm? Sidenote: today I learned that the alarm going off is not as annoying as what we thought it was when we set ours off. Our neighbors are completing an addition to their house and somehow keep setting off their neighbors' alarm. It's not too annoying at all.
But that is not the story I wish to tell. . .
When we started exploring our new house, we discovered many things. For example: you have to switch on each outlet so the juice flows to whatever appliance you have plugged into it. This is annoying only when you realize you have not switched it on minutes after turning on the tea kettle on a cold morning. Or when the remote "refuses" to turn on the TV.
Another thing we noticed were the RED BUTTONS. There was one in the upstairs hallway, one in the master bedroom, and one in the kitchen. John and I thought these might be some sort of panic alarm. So on our first night after setting off the alarm once we were afriad to turn on the red buttons in case they would set off the alarm. (At this point we had the code, but we just didn't want to set it off again--although it was early in the evening, it felt like midnight after such a crazy day.)

So not turning on the red buttons was all fine and good except for one thing. . we suspected that the red button in our bedroom (pictured here) operated the electricity to the electric shower in our ensuite bathroom. Yes, we have a "suicide shower" just like in Costa Rica. Perhaps a little fancier, but not by much!!!
No problem with not using the ensuite shower, right? We have another shower in the hallway bathroom! Aha! And herein lies the rub. . .the boiler for hot water had not been turned on until we arrived that evening so we did not have much hot water and the house was FREEZING as it tried to warm up (we pumped up the heaters to 30C--like 80F--and it took most of the night to warm up enough to take off our hats and wool socks).
So the first night we both took very quick hot showers and climbed into bed, all the while wondering about the red button.
Saturday after our morning adventure to Blarney Castle (post and pics to come) we tried it out. You guessed it: no alarm. Just power to the electric shower. Whew!!
Oh, and the other red buttons turn on the hot water to the guest bathroom and the oven, respectively.
Well, that's enough on the Red Button, which you may not find amusing at all. We, on the other hand, found staring at it and considering its function rather intriguing. But then again, maybe that's what you do when you have no radio, phone, tv, or internet. And one book between the two of you about Irish history.
Up next: Blarney Castle.