Man at Work

This morning just as I dried off from my shower - BAM! - there was a loud noise and the lights went out. Since it was the first day of standard time and I was getting up around 8 in the morning, I had no trouble seeing to finish dressing and wander into the kitchen where the noise seemed to come from. Luckily, no sign of any trouble. I tried calling a couple of neighbors with no luck, so I put on my outdoor shoes and wandered down the driveway to see what was up.

My neighbor Dennis was on his deck and he called down to me. He had seen a bright flash and heard a loud bang in the direction of our house. He said he wandered down to make sure we and our next door neighbors were okay. (How nice to know he did that.) He had power but other neighbors near us didn't. We both decided that something had shorted on the pole outside our house that supplies a small number of homes.

When I got back inside I called Puget Power and found that eight houses had no power and they were planning to fix it by 1:00 in the afternoon. Our stove is a gas one so I had no problem making some instant Starbucks coffee and breakfast while we waited. An hour or so later the guy showed up and climbed aboard the cherry picker. Up he went and out I went to take some photos. It didn't take him long to fix the problem and reset the pole's circuit breaker.

Soon my brothers arrived as planned and we played a three way Carcassonne game. It was fun and when we were finished, Dave headed up to Lynden to pick up his new Havanese puppy. Steve headed out to visit his friend Kai to watch the Seahawks game. Arvin, Helena and I went off to do some shopping.

When we got back I saw a couple of deer so I headed out to see if I could get some photos. I had been wondering what had caused the short that blew our power out. I figured it was a bird or a squirrel. I saw our little neighbor cat Simeon and as I looked down to greet him, there was the answer. It was a squirrel that accidentally made the contact and it did not go well for him. I took a photo but will not post it. Pretty gruesome as the cat had also found the squirrel... Enough said.

It turned out to be a complex and interesting day today, starting with a bang and ending peacefully as Arvin, Helena and I plan to have a light dinner and a quiet evening at home.