Another little adventure

 So Sunday, after I got home from church and lunch, I was sitting in my chair and my lamp started flickering. I groused to myself about "cheaply made lamps, only thing I can get locally, will probably have to replace it"

 I didn't notice other lights flickering (come to think of it, it was probably early enough the fairy lights I have strung up over the entryway weren't on yet). But then I went into the bathroom and that light flickered. 

This always makes me anxious - older house even though the wiring was updated before I bought it, but also I had that issue last May, about the tree coming down and damaging the electrical box, and at first my only clue was flickering lights. So I went back to my sewing room to be sure nothing had come down on the line.

Then I head a bunch of rapid fire pops. At first I thought it was someone shooting off little firecrackers, it sounded like that. But I went out back anyway to get a better look.

And then, out there, I saw it: when the wind was blowing, a tree right at the corner of my lot and a neighbor's (and out in the alley, which I don't own) was touching one of the smaller lines and making it arc. At first I didn't believe what I was seeing but then it registered and I ran back in my house, shut down every electrical thing I could, and called O G and E.

O G and E is pretty good, at least in my region, and when I finally did get through to a person I described what was wrong. I admit I was a little flustered because....well, an arcing power line is scary. She said she'd get someone out as quickly as they safely could get there and took my contact information in case they needed to call me. 

And then I debated - was that a polite "we'll get to it during business hours on Monday" or a genuine "we have guys in the area but they're clearing up another job, just be a little patient"

I needed to do a workout (if I skip more than one day, arthritis kicks in) but I also worried he'd knock on my door and I'd have only my crummy sports bra and short-shorts on. So I did put a simple loose sacky t-shirt dress nearby so I could pop that on. (As it turned out, I didn't need it). Went and did the workout. Sat down after and realized the lights on the modem and router were off - the power had been turned off.

And yeah, there was a service truck out in  the alley. So they were on it.

I watched for a while - guy went up in a bucket and cut branches. I guess that the power being turned out was for that - he needed to be safe (and yeah, he bumped the lines once or twice while moving the big cutter around, so it's good he had the power off)

It took a while. So I got bored and went back and sat. I was able to dink around on my phone just using bars (and that tells me I can still use Pandora without wifi here, because the power was already out when I was working out). Eventually though there was a big click, and my CO detector beeped and I heard the dvd player kick on....and the power was back. And gradually the modem cycled through back to life. And I put the AC back on (it's been in the upper 80s and humid here) 

A few minutes later the O G and E guy phoned me - he wanted to be sure my power was back. I told him yes, and thanked him for his effort - I was glad how quickly they got out and dealt with is, as I said, the arcing was scary to see, and we're supposed to get even more wind later this week. 

Driving home after CWF tonight I peeked down the alley - the guy removed all the branches he cut (I think they're supposed to do that anyway) so it's all fixed