Last Friday night we had a storm. It included high winds that lifted the big round wooden sunshine face off my garage and flung it across the deck. I’m grateful that it didn’t hit the porch; it’s heavy enough to have gone right through the windows on both sides. The wind also knocked over a wrought iron table but again we were fortunate; the umbrella didn’t break.
On Tuesday evening, while making dinner, I noticed that one of the little maple trees in the back of the yard had a large branch broken nearly off. I went out with my loppers to cut it off.
After I’d trimmed the broken branch, I scanned the rest of the tree, looking for more broken branches and instead I saw a wire. It was thin, looked aluminum and following it up through the branches where it looped, I saw that it connected to the power lines that run over my backyard.
I have no idea if it’s hot or not. It’s hidden in the leaves of the tree and doesn’t reach the ground but it’s plenty low enough for Jay or Zack to brush it with a shoulder while mowing the lawn.
I immediately called Xcel, the energy company and reported a possible hot line down in my backyard.
The fellow I spoke to, Pete, was properly alarmed, told me to keep everyone out of the yard and that a crew would be out as soon as possible; that a downed line in a residential neighborhood was a top priority.
That was two days ago and no one has shown up.
It’s possible that a tornado ripped through town when I wasn’t looking. Perhaps large parts of town have been flooded that I’m unaware of. Maybe there are folks dying of heat stroke without their air conditioning, after all, it has been in the 80s.
Maybe there really are so many power related emergencies in the area that every single crew Xcel has is dealing with life and death issues and a possible live wire in a back yard in a neighborhood full of kids is something that takes days to address; I don’t know.
What I do know is that the last time this happened, we actually had a live wire arcing through the yard and burning up all the grass. That time, it took three days, a dead pet and an irate call from the Fire Marshal before Xcel got it’s ass into my back yard.
They are not improving on their track record and I don’t want to lose another pet.