The Electric Company

What a crazy run of days. Until Wednesday it was a series of Mondays that started on Sunday! I had the yard dug up again, but the problem still isn’t fixed. Digman thinks it is, I’m fairly sure it isn’t. He dug down, cut open the pipe, cleaned it out, sealed it back up, and filled in the holes. And also knocked the power line over the house. I thought it was an earthquake! The house shook! (he asked if I had power and when I said yes, he said it was ok. A couple of friendly souls suggested I call the power company, and I did.) So, I give you the couple of hours with two Power Rangers, or maybe Chip and Dale, or better yet, Ground Man and Sky Man. There was also another character I’ll call Odd Man, for obvious reasons!  I told this story in text to TnT, so I’ll go back and read the texts to see if I’ve forgotten anything!

When I was a kid, I watched this GREAT TV show called ‘The Electric Company‘. These guys were about as much fun. Plus, they were in my yard and cute. Win/win.

I was in the process of waiting for the electric company when someone drove in the drive. I thought it was my friend from Anchorage who said she’d visit. Nope. It was Odd Man. (I thought this guy was in his 70’s..it appears he’s not even in his mid 60s! He says he is handicapped, wears flip flops cuz his feet are swollen-they are- and knows almost everything.) I wasn’t sure what he wanted, I first met him during the estate sale. He is a neighbor, so to speak, and was asking me if I had sent him a friend request on FB. He said he didn’t accept requests unless he was sure the person was a real request. He knew my avatar and he knew my name (that isn’t a surprise, but I had NO memory of his! I’ve had some odd fb issues since trying to sell stuff on fb, so problems didn’t surprise me either!). I hadn’t and figured he’d be on his way, but he came inside and STAYED. I explained what had happened and he decided to wait with me. (I am still rolling my eyes!!) We chatted a bit and finally the electric company arrived.

These two men were wonderful and absolutely hilarious. (Perhaps working in hazardous situations means silly?) I got outside as Sky Man was getting into the basket.

Ground Man looked up at the lines above and said, ‘That doesn’t look good.’

Sky Man responded, “I don’t think she wants to hear that!”

He went up into the air and Ground Man shouted that he did NOT want to open the breaker box if it was hot. He wasn’t sure what had happened and was nervous about checking. Sky Man shouted back down that the third foot looked like it was secure (whatever THAT means). So, Ground Man gets out this funny yellow pole from the back of their rig. (Odd Man had pulled a yard chair from his car and was sitting down while I was taking pictures.) While he was doing this, I told him a bit of what had happened. I named no names and said my excavation worker snagged the line. He stopped mid pulling of his extension rod, looked right at me, and said ‘Digman?’ It appears Ground Man is familiar with Digman. I laughed.

Anyway, Ground Man tells us that this pole is new, each emergency rig gets called out frequently and has an extension pole. But, the one that was in this particular rig had a sticky section and drove them nuts. They finally told their yard crew guy to get them a new one or they’d break this one on purpose. They got a new one for this run. The pole is rather clever. It is used to unhook the power thingy so it is safe. Much faster, easier, and safer than climbing poles. Unless you have a guy like Sky Man on the other end of the lines. Ground Man extends the pole and attempts to hook it on whatever he was trying to hook. Sky Man starts tugging on the lines he’s holding on the house. This jerks the entire power pole back and forth. Ground Man starts yelling and the rest of us are laughing. (Odd Man suggests this is better than Laurel and Hardy) Eventually, the power pole stills and the crucial piece is unhooked. Ground Man now heads for the breaker box. He’s pretty worried. The loop in the wires was large and that might mean something in the breaker box was loosened or worse. Sky Man thinks it looks ok from his end, Ground Man wants to make sure. Sky Man moves his basket to wrap the wires, you can see in the photo where one was nicked. Ground Man is relieved to discover everything is ok.

Soon they were both standing on my freshly dug up drive. Ground Man kept reminding me to call the power company and tell them this wasn’t my fault. Then, Odd Man piped up. I was a little bit irritated anyway. At first, the two linemen thought we were together cuz we both came from the house. I soon sorted THAT thought, but Ground Man kept looking at Odd Man when he spoke. (It is a good thing Ground Man was cute and entertaining!). Odd Man did ask some questions I’d not have even imagined to ask. Yet, if it had been any other male in my circle of friends, it wouldn’t have bothered me so much. One of the questions he asked was if the seals on the pipe holding the power lines had been compromised. Ground Man laughed and said Digman should check that out and since his tractor was still here, I could keep it as collateral. Sky Man took pity on me and shared that the seals and shingles looked secure. (since it is raining, this is a good thing) Once more Ground Man told me to call and Sky Man reiterated it. Sky Man also smoothed out the divots in the soft sand of my excavated drive and told me to call if it got messy again. I just laughed, hugged them, kissed them on their cheeks, and waved them away. Odd Man finally left so I could call since it was getting close to 5 pm. (I was so glad.) Before he left he wrote down his name and number, in case I needed someplace to stay!!! (I said thank you, but knew that wasn’t ever going to happen in a million years!)

When I called, it turned out the operator was waiting for me to do so. It appears Ground Man had called him to give him a heads up I was going to call! He was glad I was prompt. I still have a tractor in the yard, I think Digman might be mad at me for calling the power company who charged him for their visit when my power was working just fine (He left before the linemen arrived!), and my drive appears to be stable at the moment! I’m not putting the rocks and plants back, I think it is going to need completely dug up again next summer.