Summer Bridge Comes Out

This post is a bit old, but it wanted telling. We were perfect in our timing: we waited long enough to see salmon swimming under the bridge, but soon enough to get the bridge out before the water got too high.

Short + Rain = Explosion

It's been raining and storming off and on for a couple of weeks, so it was no real surprise when the power went out Sunday morning. Every winter we lose power a couple of times for an afternoon or day or three days, so we are well prepared with candles, kerosene, generators, etc, but it is always a pain in the ass and always makes me appreciate electricity.

For once it was polite enough to wait until daylight, so we were spare the hassle of waking in the utter dark and puttering around by candlelight. About three hours later, it came back on for ten minutes and went out again. I was upstairs and I heard a terrible zipping, ripping explosion. I looked out the window and saw the power pole down in the pasture engulfed in a cloud of smoke. A bright blue and yellow light was shooting out of the smoke, pulsing in time with the ripping noise.

Much kicked-anthill-scurrying ensued. Our phone was out as well, so we couldn't call anyone but Billy had seen it as well and called our co-op, Blachly-Lane. They showed up and tramped around for a while as I hurriedly got my boots on and grabbed the machete to clear out around around the transformer. The two guys messed around in the transformer box and pulled out the arrester before heading down to the power pole.

In a marvelous display of engineering and skill, the electricians proceeded to use a giant telescoping pole to fix the pole from the ground. The pole is equipped with a hammer and an unturned hook. The cylinder (fuse?) had burned up, so first the electrician knocked out the charred remnants. Then, using the hook and an ingenious loop and clip system, snapped a new fuse in place. It blew out, which was bad. It meant we had an underground short.

They left and two hours later showed back up with a digger (a third worker) and grudgingly drove across the bridge ("That stupid bridge.") They attached some kind of magic instrument to the transformer which told them how far away the short was. Then they dug it up and fixed it.

The only lasting damage was to Mizu and my fantasy football teams. We'd waited until Sunday AM to set them and in a 78-80 loss I had the Giants D (v. the Seachickens!) on the bench. Mizu had three starters on byes. Oh well.