New Orleans Lite - or if FEMA Was on the Ball

As my Mom used to say, 'it's all over but the shouting'.

Tuesday I stayed home from work - a brilliant move if I say so myself. Early in the morning the SMUD trucks lined the street in front of my house.

Knock, knock. Who's there? SMUD!

A friendly guy from SMUD told me my electrical lines were pulled right out out of the roof and - no surprises here - SMUD could only work the power lines and couldn't touch my house. So, I would have to call an electrician.

I had a friend from work call around for an electrician for me because my cell phone was due for a charge and I had no way to charge it unless I either charged it while driving my car, or GASP asked a neighbor to let me charge it on their line - like that's ever going to happen. Chris called three electricians, all three promised to call me and only one did. He and an assistant made it over to my place around 3 o'clock.

I was stunned how much money I had to shell out, which included having county guy come out to ok the electrician's work before SMUD was allowed to reconnect my house. The SMUD crews worked all day long and a little after 5 o'clock I was back on the meter good to go - except - the Internet was down. WAH! I was off line from Monday night until this afternoon.

The SMUD guys were a hard working and cheery lot. They worked in teams up and down the block, replacing downed poles and climbing up to work on &/or replace the transformers. Although the sun was shining like a sonofagun there were impressive claps of thunder but it wasn't even raining! Really bizarre weather. With each blast of thunder the SMUD guys up and down the block cheered their approval of Mum Nature's might. Cool.

There are 4 men on this pole!
Look for the hard hats - Believe it or not!

Getting the Internet back up took most the day because those lines were also torn from my house. When the pole lines were back up another cable guy came to hook me up in the house. He told me my Internet lines were all squirrel chewed & he replaced all the lines, right up to my house.

So although the loss of the Old oak tree is still a bit traumatic for me, it did bring about some good. I got all new, and likely more dependable Internet lines, and while I had the electricians out I had them do a fair bit of work in the garage, including putting up new dusk to dawn lights on the garage for safety. So another old saying comes to mind - no great harm without some small good.