Hurricane Repairs, Proof of Guardian Angels, Homeland Security. . .

[MichaelC 160]

So we're still in the midst of Hurricane Wilma repairs here in south Florida. Finally, I found someone to make some needed fence repairs. He has done some work for two of my neighbors. He is honest and reliable and takes pride in his work. I snatch him up at the first chance to tackle my fence, and the fences on two other properties.

Saturday morning, eight o'clock, here comes Marco. His helper, who I had never met, is in tow. He's quiet and slow, and a little down on his luck by all appearances. They begin their work and all is well. A few hours into the job and suddenly a loud boom and crackle can be heard throughout the neighborhood. The house is without power. Being the bright star that I am I put two and two together and realize a transformer has blown.

"No big deal", I tell Mrs. C. "I'll call Florida Power and Light and see what's going on". I get the automated line and I am told that there is a problem on a main line in my area, affecting 47 homes. Thinking quickly in an emergency, I jump to action and grab what may be my last cold beer before power is restored. One sip into my Sam Adams Summer Ale, a panicked Marco comes to my back door. Looking worried, he explains to me in his best broken English that there is a problem. "Come agui, Senor".

I walk around to the side of the house where they have been digging and I find his dazed and dopey helper looking, well, dazed and dopey. Seems as he was digging he sliced through a main power line with a metal cutting tool! He got zapped and the neighborhood lost power. They both assure me that they are fine, which I find hard to fathom. But I run back inside and call FPL once again to them what happened. Within minutes two emergency trucks are on the scene. They weren't too pleased when they got there and saw the evidence of a fool, a metal slicing tool, and a cleanly sheared electrical line.

The workers proceeded to open the nearby transformer and test the damaged line. 13,000 volts of juice!

The old guy scratches his head and wonders, "How the hell is this guy still alive"?

They kept asking him if he was OK, and he kept insisting he was fine. Turns out he is in the US illegally, from Honduras, and just got out of the County lockup. Forty days for public drunkeness and brawling, apparently. His only concern was being deported and he just wanted out of the spotlight.

Twenty minutes later our power was back, and I await any fallout from this whole episode. Moral of this story: don't believe anything you hear about electricity being dangerous, kids. Feel free to stand in puddles and play with downed wires. Have fun slicing through high voltage power lines with metal tools. Electricity is all a myth. It doesn't exist.

Time for me to finish my Sam Adams. . .

[Jason (AL) 1]

Haha!

 

13,000 volts and the dude's worried about deportation.

 

 

 

 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTT........(man, I'm going back to Honduras)

 

[bbrunelleb 0]

So we're still in the midst of Hurricane Wilma repairs here in south Florida. Finally, I found someone to make some needed fence repairs. He has done some work for two of my neighbors. He is honest and reliable and takes pride in his work. I snatch him up at the first chance to tackle my fence, and the fences on two other properties.

Saturday morning, eight o'clock, here comes Marco. His helper, who I had never met, is in tow. He's quiet and slow, and a little down on his luck by all appearances. They begin their work and all is well. A few hours into the job and suddenly a loud boom and crackle can be heard throughout the neighborhood. The house is without power. Being the bright star that I am I put two and two together and realize a transformer has blown.

"No big deal", I tell Mrs. C. "I'll call Florida Power and Light and see what's going on". I get the automated line and I am told that there is a problem on a main line in my area, affecting 47 homes. Thinking quickly in an emergency, I jump to action and grab what may be my last cold beer before power is restored. One sip into my Sam Adams Summer Ale, a panicked Marco comes to my back door. Looking worried, he explains to me in his best broken English that there is a problem. "Come agui, Senor".

I walk around to the side of the house where they have been digging and I find his dazed and dopey helper looking, well, dazed and dopey. Seems as he was digging he sliced through a main power line with a metal cutting tool! He got zapped and the neighborhood lost power. They both assure me that they are fine, which I find hard to fathom. But I run back inside and call FPL once again to them what happened. Within minutes two emergency trucks are on the scene. They weren't too pleased when they got there and saw the evidence of a fool, a metal slicing tool, and a cleanly sheared electrical line.

The workers proceeded to open the nearby transformer and test the damaged line. 13,000 volts of juice!

The old guy scratches his head and wonders, "How the hell is this guy still alive"?

They kept asking him if he was OK, and he kept insisting he was fine. Turns out he is in the US illegally, from Honduras, and just got out of the County lockup. Forty days for public drunkeness and brawling, apparently. His only concern was being deported and he just wanted out of the spotlight.

Twenty minutes later our power was back, and I await any fallout from this whole episode. Moral of this story: don't believe anything you hear about electricity being dangerous, kids. Feel free to stand in puddles and play with downed wires. Have fun slicing through high voltage power lines with metal tools. Electricity is all a myth. It doesn't exist.

Time for me to finish my Sam Adams. . .

Hi MC. I can relate to that. Some years back I was in the fence business in New Jersey. I was living in Toms River at the time and all the New Yorkers were headed up my may to buy houses. At that time they were selling for peanuts. I had a house with 4 bed and 2 baths and a huge back yard (which I had to cut the grass).

I had just paid a whopping 13,500 for it. Anyway, getting back to the subject...I was digging holes with my partner and was down about a foot when...shazammm I hit a live power line. I was whacked back about ten feet and landed on my ass. When I hit the cable there was a big flash and I thought I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I had no idea how much power I knocked out. Anyway, what saved me was that I had wooden handles on my post hole digger and that kept me from getting lit up. Needless to say, I headed down the road and had quite a few Rolling Rocks. I've been drinking then for a lot of years but now I'm on Heinken. God Bless the man who invented canned beer!