Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Powering Down 2008

We lost our power again today. No surprise there. We’ve lost power to this house more times than any other home I’ve ever lived in and I’ve lived in a lot of homes. If there is any hint of inclement weather we make sure we have the propane tanks full and fresh batteries for the flashlights.

Today it was more of an annoyance than anything else. Our office was closed because the chances of someone needing a commercial real estate broker on New Years Eve are relatively slim. We took that chance.

The annoyance was that I was hoping to get a little work done from home and maybe write a final 2008 post.

That wasn’t happening so I ventured out. We had an empty propane tank that required exchanging. On my way back from the exchange I ran into a bit of traffic bottleneck on Main Street. I could see that the cause was a utility crew fixing some lines.

The crew was from Pikes Electric in Mt Airy. I asked one of the guys if this was connected to my power problem. When the last outage occurred in October the source of the power interuptus was in this same spot. I told the guy where I lived.

“”Nope.” Yours is something else.”

He was a friendly guy though a bit brusque.

“I guess this weather is pretty good for business,” I offered.

“Not really. This isn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing on New Years Eve.”

I get the point.

When I got home the power had been restored. I am thankful to all those who don the white hard hats, leather gloves and Carhartt jackets and battle the elements to keep us up and running in good times and bad.

I propose a toast to all who man the lines for a safe New Year.

Happy New Year!