Dad was feeling well enough today to summon a work gang. So Uncle Bob cleaned the gutters while Aunt Jean and I raked the lawn. Dad sat in the easy chair inside and napped.

Uncle Bob noticed that the house's power wire had a branch rubbing it. After some discussion, Dad called the power company. At six-thirty I was just about done preparing dinner, when the doorbell rang. It was two workers from the power company with a bucket truck, ready to look at our lines. Seeing as how it was after dark and past normal working hours, I was surprised to see them. We decided that there must be an on-call crew, and as it was a quiet night, they were bored and ready to be dispatched to deal with non-emergency issues.

They cut our power off while they worked on the problem. It took them perhaps a half hour, as they decided that the wire was not as bad as they'd thought. From the ground with a flashlight, it looked like the insulation was worn off and the wire corroding, which would necessitate replacement. But when they got up there on a ladder to cut the branch away, they found the wire intact except for the outer insulating jacket, which they just "fixed". We suspect some variety of electrical tape was involved. Anyway, problem solved, and the power line is safe again.

The house still needs a new power line run inside; the existing one is 100 amps, which is small for a modern house. Dad would like to get at least 150 amps, but the power company guy said 200 would probably be cheaper, because it's the current standard. The majority of the cost is probably labor, even with copper getting more expensive these days.

Posted by: Boviate at 10:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 300 words, total size 2 kb.