Bottom Of The Barrel

How to spend the night

So we are driving home last night [with the top down] and the sky was getting dark. As we get closer to our exit, it looked like a dust storm over the highway and there appeared to be dry leaves blowing through the air. This was odd since it is still sprint time in New England. Lisa thought they looked burnt. As we arrived to the exit ramp, it began to sprinkle and at the traffic signal [which happen to be red] we stopped and put the roof up. As we drove down South Street toward home, the lightning began to pop and the first big flash we saw was about a mile from home and it was pretty close, only a couple of miles away. As we drove into the drive way and right into the garage, the rain began to really come down. We brought in the groceries as the thunder and lightning continued to pound away and we were not in the house more than a few minutes, and I had just said not to be surprised if it happened, when we heard a loud pop and the power went out.

As we stood there looking for a flashlight, the lightning and thunder was getting closer and louder so we decided to light some candles and head downstairs into the cool basement to play cards. After a few hands of Gin, the storm was finally passing by so we headed back up to the dinning room with a bottle of 2003 Artesa Pinot Nior to play some more cards. I mean really, what's better then candle light and a nice bottle of wine? [And this wine was delicious!]

Around 8, I decided to fire up the grill and make some dinner. We placed some cut carrots in tin foil with some butter and spices and they came out awesome. The chicken was really good too. Just a bit after 9, the power came back on and when it did we heard this strange sound coming from the front yard. I thought it was our neighbors sprinkler system coming to life but Lisa didn't think so. We looked outside and suddenly the telephone pole was on fire. The transformer, which serves the top half of our neighborhood was actually burning.

I jumped in the car and drove down the NStar workers at the end of the street to inform them about our little fire at the end of my driveway. They came quickly up the street and got the bucket working toward the fiery transformer. Once there, he used a wooden pole to disconnect the transformer which put out the fire. It was hard to see, but it looked like something had landed on it just right to catch fire. From the bucket he removed a couple of parts while his partner worked from the truck reading new ones. The man in the bucket came down to the truck just once to get 2 parts and he returned to the pole and had it all fixed in just a few minutes. Those guys really worked quickly and were experts running the bucket. Up over a set of lines, around a street light and back down [twice] with out even touching anything. It was really awesome to watch.

So all in all it was a pretty eventful and good night. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be eventful without the lightning/thunder/power loss/fiery pole that last night was.

posted by TheWino @ 9:19 AM