After the storm

This morning, the power was still off--no surprise--but the rain finally let up.

Robbie and I went over to Coe--that's how I managed the last blog post. Luckily I have these new nifty fenders on my bike, courtesy of Paul, who put them on for my 49th birthday present! The streets were wet, but I did NOT get an unsightly streak up my back.

When we came back, the utilities folks were busy at work, cutting up the tree, looking at the wires, etc.

They used two cherry pickers to restring the wires. It made me nervous to watch them, even though I knew the wires had no power. Still, it was really interesting to watch.

We also had to hire an electrician to come out and fix the pole that's attached to the house where the power comes in. It's called a "mast," not a pole, according to my neighbor. When the electricity came on, we cheered.

At one point, I went out to ask if I needed to hire someone to clean away the tree. They nodded. (They just cut up the tree so they could get to the wires; they weren't going to haul it away.) Then someone suggested I call the city first. The tree was on my neighbor's property, but it fell across the alley, where the city garbage trucks were going to need to drive tomorrow. . . so I called over there.

The city guy came out to assess the situation. He looked tired. Apparently, the northeast side of town got hit hard. (We are on the southeast side.) And he was skeptical about having to clear up a "private" tree. But because it was blocking my garage and the alley, he said he'd send a crew over.

They arrived just as the cable/internet guy was done, and they had a cool truck.

It worked like one of those carnival games: try to scoop up the toy you want. The claw easily grabbed the enormous logs and the big piles of branches. They crew even raked my driveway and patio!

The odd thing in all this is that our neighbor has never contacted us! We saw him last night, but not her. I'm thinking she's out of town--she would have at least come over to see if everything was OK. Really, it was their responsibility to clear out the tree. They should have hired someone to do it.

I'm glad the city stepped up, though. Our driveway clear, I went straight out to the grocery and bought celebratory steaks for dinner!