The Homeowning Adventure Continues
How about a day that starts at 1:30 in the morning with what sounds like a bomb going off behind the house?
I jerked awake to what sounded like an explosion, and looked out back to blazing orange shooting into the sky behind the garage. Threw on clothes, grabbed flashlight, and extremely cautiously went back to discover a sizable chunk of tree down right on the electric pole. No downed wires, and the power was still on, but it was raining fat orange sparks. Hoo boy.
So I phoned it in (had to report it as a downed wire, because DTE's stupid automated system doesn't have an option for "the wire's still up, but you guys might want to get out here and deal with this ASAP"), and then sat up reading and periodically checking out back to make sure there still wasn't a fire. About 3:00 am, the beep of a utility truck heralded DTE's arrival on scene. Luckily the guy was on shift anyway and wasn't fussed about the inaccurate report. Apparently, what I heard and saw wasn't the branch itself hitting, but the power company's automatic response of sending a surge through the lines to try to blow off whatever had landed on them. "Looks like the world's biggest firework?" "Yep." Which, well, let's just say it's a good thing it's still very wet back there.
(It actually was kind of cool, now that I know the house isn't going to burn down.)
So then he phoned it in, and 9:00 am brought three utility trucks and a pickup, the inhabitants of which all went back, said "Yeah, that's a branch on the pole," and called the actual tree crew. Who eventually arrived, sent one guy up the tree like a monkey with a chainsaw, and chopped the offending former tree-top into firewood and brush.
And then they all went away, and everything was fine, and the worst effect was that we had to reset the clocks after they turned off the power so the guy could clear the line.
Can't say I'm particularly sorry that the planned mailbox project got rained out just after they left. Because maybe five hours cumulative sleep plus heavy physical labor is not the world's best combination.
This entry was originally posted at https://lizvogel.dreamwidth.org/204215.html because I got tired of dealing with whatever LiveJournal had broken this time. Comment whereever.
I jerked awake to what sounded like an explosion, and looked out back to blazing orange shooting into the sky behind the garage. Threw on clothes, grabbed flashlight, and extremely cautiously went back to discover a sizable chunk of tree down right on the electric pole. No downed wires, and the power was still on, but it was raining fat orange sparks. Hoo boy.
So I phoned it in (had to report it as a downed wire, because DTE's stupid automated system doesn't have an option for "the wire's still up, but you guys might want to get out here and deal with this ASAP"), and then sat up reading and periodically checking out back to make sure there still wasn't a fire. About 3:00 am, the beep of a utility truck heralded DTE's arrival on scene. Luckily the guy was on shift anyway and wasn't fussed about the inaccurate report. Apparently, what I heard and saw wasn't the branch itself hitting, but the power company's automatic response of sending a surge through the lines to try to blow off whatever had landed on them. "Looks like the world's biggest firework?" "Yep." Which, well, let's just say it's a good thing it's still very wet back there.
(It actually was kind of cool, now that I know the house isn't going to burn down.)
So then he phoned it in, and 9:00 am brought three utility trucks and a pickup, the inhabitants of which all went back, said "Yeah, that's a branch on the pole," and called the actual tree crew. Who eventually arrived, sent one guy up the tree like a monkey with a chainsaw, and chopped the offending former tree-top into firewood and brush.
And then they all went away, and everything was fine, and the worst effect was that we had to reset the clocks after they turned off the power so the guy could clear the line.
Can't say I'm particularly sorry that the planned mailbox project got rained out just after they left. Because maybe five hours cumulative sleep plus heavy physical labor is not the world's best combination.
This entry was originally posted at https://lizvogel.dreamwidth.org/204215.html because I got tired of dealing with whatever LiveJournal had broken this time. Comment whereever.