Ugh...

[altivo]

I see Wednesday coming up *peers over the top of monitor at wall calendar and makes a sour face*.

I hate Wednesdays.

Oh well, you've heard that before. In other news, they replaced the utility pole by the road in front of the house today. Yesterday when I got home from work they were just leaving the new pole lying by the road, so we knew it would finally happen. The existing pole was originally flagged for replacement EIGHT years ago. Yes, that's right. It has taken Comm Ed that long to get around to acting on its own work orders.

Apparently they used a big auger to drill a hole, and a cherry picker crane to stand the new pole up and set it in the hole, which was about three feet away from the original. The process of transferring the lines from one pole to the other seems to have involved cutting the top eight feet or so off the old one. Wires are now in place on the new pole, and a fifteen foot stump of the old one is still standing there. I hope they are going to come remove it soon, and not wait eight more years to finish the job. The only lines on these poles are the three wires that carry the 2400 VAC mains. Our own service transformer is on the next pole to the west, on the neighbors' lot. All phone lines in this area are underground, so those don't use the utility poles, and there is no cable television either. The 240 VAC two phase service to the house and barns is also buried, running underground from the pole with the transformer.

We had no mail delivery today, though it is not a holiday. No idea what caused that. It wasn't just that we had no mail (we always have at least some junk) but that the carrier never came by. There was outbound mail in the box, with the flag raised, and it's still there.

Oh, and a curious announcement: I gave in and got a cell phone. It will spend most of its time turned off, however, so don't get all excited about it. ;p Gary has been pleased with his, which he actually uses, and so far is only spending about $10 a month. That's reasonable enough, and he started bugging me to have one in the car in case of emergency. Of course, around here, half the time you are out of range of a tower anyway, but OK, for $10 a month, I can give in and get one. So I did.

Comments

[quickcasey.livejournal.com]

I reserve the right to be excited about your cell phone. Even though you won't have it on, or give out the number.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

It isn't working yet, so no point in giving out the number. Evidently there's a bottleneck somewhere in the activation process.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

A cell phone with a minimal service package and a AAA card, and one is all set for almost any emergency. As skeptical as I am about cell phone technology, it's handy to have when the car breaks down. Especially since pay phones have become an endangered species.

So... consider it insurance. Don't want to need it, but nice to have when you do.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Actually, I expect to like SMS. I rarely talk on the phone, but I'm an e-mail addict. ;p Texting isn't free on this one, but almost. You can get it down to a penny a message if your usage is large.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*looks at his phone* I haven't turned it on in months and the credit has run out XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. Won't happen with this one. I told them to automatically charge me a minimum at intervals to keep it active. If I use it at all, that will be no problem.

post

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

We have to actually go to a post box and post our letters rather than leaving it in the box with a flag up.

Re: post

[altivo.livejournal.com]

In the US, any letterbox used for delivery is also eligible for pickup. There are certain restrictions on what you can send out that way, but letters in envelopes, with stamps on them, are always eligible. We have to drive (or walk) 4 miles to get to an actual post box from here.

[calydor.livejournal.com]

My mom and I both have a cell phone. It uses prepaid cards, that for some reason will expire after six months unless you refill it, even if there's still money on it. A real scam. I think they both now contain around triple the value of the cheapest card for this reason.

Cell phones, IMO, have two good uses. One is to keep on you for an emergency - I even keep mine with me when out in the pasture alone, since the house is VERY sound proof. If I was injured by a horse, I wouldn't be able to yell loud enough to be heard inside.

The second is quick messages, the only GOOD way to use text messages; you can tell someone to remember to pick up a couple of grocery items on the way home, without necessarily disturbing them right here and now; though most cell phone users don't realize this, text messages do not have to be read and answered immediately.

I never make calls from my cell phone. I rarely send any messages from it, either. But I find it nice to have in case of needing to be contacted or contact someone when I'm far away from a landline.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

So make some calls or send some text. It's not really a scam. It costs money to maintain the account and an active number, even if it's rarely used, and you have to allow some kind of profit. The minimum on my phone comes to $60 a year. That's just $5 a month. By comparison, my landline phone costs $60 every month, whether we use it or not.

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

*passes over a homeknitted Wednesday Shield to the Librarian*.

Isn't it good that those nice and timely men are building you a new pole-dance pole AND leaving you the old one to practice on.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

A Wednesday Shield? Why didn't I ever think of that? You mean I can just hide under it until Wednesday is all gone?

Yessiree

[vimsig.livejournal.com]

hide under the it with your torch and book and quicker than two shakes of a lambs tail, the dreaded day has gone

Re: Yessiree

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ooooh good. Thank you. *hugs*

[alaskawolf.livejournal.com]

i wonder why the delivery guy didnt come but, if was still delvering mail and down there i would have brought you a lot of junk mail :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Probably someone got sick or had a vacation day and there was no substitute available. The rural delivery here is chronically short of carriers.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

I love it when you drive out in the country and see whole
roads, for miles and miles, with ashen old wooden power
poles leaning waaaay over.

One good October Suprise of a winter storm and...

Well, you know.

DOH!

Good that they did replace it though.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

We don't get the kind of snow and ice that you do. Here it's rare for a pole to break. More typically, a tree collapses onto the lines, breaking them.

I think the only reason Comm Ed finally replaced that pole was that they were about to hook up a 2400 volt feed to the new art studio Trudy built on her property across the road. That's going underground to a transformer by the building. But some guy came out and examined the setup a few weeks ago and marked the pole again for replacement. The new one is thicker and a little taller. I thought they were going to put the transformer up on the pole and send 240 across the street, but apparently not.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

About twelve years ago I lived in a small apartment. My small
boy (why is he bigger than me now? @.@) and I watched as they
replaced a whole line of big power poles. He'd run over to
the guys as I was trying to get him on the bus and say, "Hi
electric guy!"

I appreciate them but I've always wondered why we don't
bury ALL our lines. Wouldn't that be both safer and more
aesthetically appealing?

Oh, money. Sorry.

*gets a yuppie on the line and yells at him*

^_^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

More aesthetically pleasing? Absolutely.

Can we trust utility companies to know where their stuff is and find it again? Not in my experience, and I've had a couple of nightmare ones with that.

Safer? Not necessarily. When they can't reliably mark where it is five or ten years later, and another contractor accidentally puts a shovel through that 2400 VAC line? No, not safer at all.