big yellow sticks
I was sitting on my bed, reading the latest Newsweek (it's an all 9-11 issue, of course) looking at images of unspeakable horror and fire and awfulness and getting all sniffly over the people who lost loved ones, when I hear the loudest bang I've ever heard in my entire 23 years (and I've heard plenty of sonic booms). The power went out and, my heart thudding because who wants to hear A GIGANTIC EXPLOSION while reading about terrorist attacks, I went to investigate (accompanied by my mother who was woken up... I haven't been to sleep yet.) I saw the power thingie (transformer?) looked weird compared to the other ones on the street. A thingie was hanging off. Mama called the power company. It took them forever to come, but once they did, well, I drew a 3 act play (3 non-animated gifs) to show you what they did.
First I saw the dangly thing (that's me in the window!) I wondered how they'd fix it. Last time lightning hit a transformer, it took them a long time to fix and there were sparks and it seemed dangerous and they had to use I think a cherrypicker thing. IT WAS A HUGE DEAL OKAY.
But this time two guys got out of the truck and started poking at the dangly thing with a very long skinny flourescent yellow stick. They didn't even get on a ladder. They just poked at it.
SUDDENLY the poky man poked the dangly thing back into place! (it looks a bit like a corded telephone on a receiver that had fallen off and they poked it back on). The red hot second the dangly bit became undangly, the power came back on. Just like that. No need to warm up. Just a little honking sound (which I think may have been the microwave) and everything was back. Naturally I came to make sure my router was working, because it wasn't during the power outage which gives me a terrible creepy unconnected feeling I can't stand.
The two hardhat dudes took off their hats and stowed them in a little door on the side of their van, put the giant stick onto the truck, and drove away. My mother said they told her it may have been a squirrel, but I have no idea how the squirrel would have disconnected the dangly thing. Poor squirrel :(
I'm just really amazed that they had a special stick for the occasion. I wonder how often that happens and why they don't do something to make it harder for the dangly bit to get all dangly. Or maybe they do that so if something goes wrong it disconnects? I don't know.
anyway Boyfriend and I couldn't grill because rain (which also meant I had to take off my new wedges or they would have been ruined) but we had Chili's, which is almost as good.
-9:53 AM
First I saw the dangly thing (that's me in the window!) I wondered how they'd fix it. Last time lightning hit a transformer, it took them a long time to fix and there were sparks and it seemed dangerous and they had to use I think a cherrypicker thing. IT WAS A HUGE DEAL OKAY.
But this time two guys got out of the truck and started poking at the dangly thing with a very long skinny flourescent yellow stick. They didn't even get on a ladder. They just poked at it.
SUDDENLY the poky man poked the dangly thing back into place! (it looks a bit like a corded telephone on a receiver that had fallen off and they poked it back on). The red hot second the dangly bit became undangly, the power came back on. Just like that. No need to warm up. Just a little honking sound (which I think may have been the microwave) and everything was back. Naturally I came to make sure my router was working, because it wasn't during the power outage which gives me a terrible creepy unconnected feeling I can't stand.
The two hardhat dudes took off their hats and stowed them in a little door on the side of their van, put the giant stick onto the truck, and drove away. My mother said they told her it may have been a squirrel, but I have no idea how the squirrel would have disconnected the dangly thing. Poor squirrel :(
I'm just really amazed that they had a special stick for the occasion. I wonder how often that happens and why they don't do something to make it harder for the dangly bit to get all dangly. Or maybe they do that so if something goes wrong it disconnects? I don't know.
anyway Boyfriend and I couldn't grill because rain (which also meant I had to take off my new wedges or they would have been ruined) but we had Chili's, which is almost as good.
-9:53 AM