In my last post you'll note that I mentioned that we put our horse on a trailer bound for his retirement in Florida. That trip went well, by the way and he is settling in nicely. I need to ask Mrs's aunt for permission to use some of her pictures before I do a follow up to that post. Anyway, in that post I mentioned that we were getting a nor'easter. These really are not a big deal for the most part, unless they really ramp up. Combine heavy wet snow and high winds, then you might have a problem. And we have certainly had them. This storm seemed like it would be a medium deal and just give us a good soaking rain with some moderate wind.
I kept in touch with Mrs via text message while at work that evening. Eventually I got the 'power's out' text which isn't unusual or unheard of. She also noticed that neighbors on either side of us appeared to have lights. Hmmmm. She called the power company right away to try to get ahead of other reports, the idea being maybe they'll come fix it quicker. Whether that actually works, I have no idea. Within a fairly short period of time the utility had three bucket trucks in front of the house. After a couple attempts to reengage the power to the house, a lot of yelling by the crews and popping sounds, a member of the NStar crew came to the door and informed Mrs that the issue was our underground service between the pole and the house and that we would need to call an electrician. We were now the only customer in town with no electricity. This is NOT something you ever want to hear.
I came home to a dark house and retrieved some of our camping gear from the basement including our Coleman stove so we could heat water for coffee in the morning.
Wednesday morning (12/10) I called our electrician and explained our dilemma. He was unfortunately unavailable for several days, but referred us to another electrician. I called him and, though he had other jobs scheduled he would stop by later and assess the situation.
I called my supervisor and explained to him what was happening and had pretty much planned to take half or all of my shift off on an emergency personal day. The electrician arrived and said he could likely get it done today and get us back on line, but he had a few jobs to handle first and needed to get stock for the job. I told him that we did not have to go underground again knowing full well that this would be a huge expense, rather than a big expense of running an overhead service. I ran the generator to the fridge and to our chest freezer, though later on I removed everything from the house freezer and put those in the chest freezer and placed 4 or 5 jugs of ice I keep on hand for camping. These kept the fridge contents sufficiently cold so no need for an extension cord running through the house.
The day went on and I went to work cutting out tree limbs that I thought might be in the way. I had to do something! I became convinced that the electrician had become too busy and would not be coming back t do the work that day. I dressed for work after taking a camp-style bath and called him to let him know I'd see him the next day. He informed me that he still planned to come and was getting all the supplies he would need to get us online that night. He eventually made it to the house after 6:00 and went to work. He worked in the dark, damp misty weather for hours and eventually had the new conduit run up beyond the roof line, and the new box/meter in place and wired into the house. Next step would be to call the town's electrical inspector who is responsible for requesting the power company to send a truck to run the line from the house to the pole and after the electrician makes the connection n the house side, the utility crew would make the connection at the pole and all would be set. Hopefully.
The utility truck showed up around 11:00 that night followed by the inspector who was just checking in. Turns out he only lives up the road a mile or so. Super nice guy who didn't hang around long. Mrs and I waiting inside while the one-man crew went to work on the pole and soon we were dazzled by bright lights, humming appliances and the sound of the boiler firing up to heat the house and water heater. Strange thing is that when we lose power, it's usually with everyone else, in the immediate area at least. Knowing you're the only customer and about to write a check to have it turned back on this time was a little different. I felt a little helpless, but as the night wore one I was feeling better than I'd felt in the last 24 hours. He came in and collected his check which we asked he hold for a day or two so we could transfer funds from our emergency accounts. Thankfully he was more that willing to do that.
So, what did we get for our X number of dollars? Some really nice electrical work done under some not-so-pleasant conditions.
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