Different Standards

 

In September, we had a pretty significant thunder storm with high winds.  Not prairie winds, mind you, but high winds for here. I noticed blasts of sparks flying over our house and at first thought firecrackers (not uncommon here at any time of day or night).  But they were so close.  As it turns out, a power pole on our corner had blown over (or more accurately, broken off at the base) and the live power lines were sparking as they lay in a tree in front of our house. 

Not familiar with the procedure, or vocabulary, for such a situation, we called a neighbor who called the power company.  I was impressed that for a culture who doesn't put an enormous significance on promptness, the power company arrived within 10 minutes and shut off the power.  Then left.  Lucky for us, the power for our house comes in off the cross street, but this pole was servicing power down 2 legs of this corner.  Dozens or more houses were without power.  For the whole night.  And the next day.  And the next night.  And the next day.....you get the idea.  They turned off the power, and never came back.  We called neighbors, offering our fridge space to store their perishables.  They all assured us they had called "a friend at the power company" who guaranteed it would be back on by midnight, or this afternoon, or by 3 o'clock, or whatever magic time was given.  This is how things get done in this country.  A series of personal favors.  Unfortunately, it fell through this time.  DaddyHealy told his colleagues that Americans would never stand for this.  The problem was just a broken pole and it took several days to get power restored.  His colleges just shrugged.  They have to live with different standards, they are used to it.

The power company finally came out on a holiday, (naturally) with 5 guys.  One to break up the concrete, one to talk on his cell phone, and three to have a snack and a break under our tree.



DaddyHealy would call this a critical failure.  He also explained that treated wood would have prevented the pole from rotting at ground level, thus breaking in the wind.  Details.

I love this picture because it shows the extreme angle the pole sat at for several days while our neighbors waited for power to be restored.  That's our house (and the tree which sparked) on the left of the picture.