Saturday, August 8, 2009

Big Toys

Yesterday was the Day of Big Toys in front of my house. Last week, we received a notice from So Cal Edison to expect the electricity to be cut off starting apx 9am on Friday. The reason was 'extraordinary maintenance" that needed to be performed. We were cautioned to safeguard computers and other sensitive electronic equipment, and advised to keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed.

No mention was made of the equipment that would arrive--

About eight the trucks started pulling up right in front of my house. I found out that my driveway would be blocked for the duration, so I had to move my car and park around the corner or be trapped.

I watched as they assembled the crane needed to perform this "maintenence", piece by humongus piece. This included a mammoth crane to put up the crane...

The workers were business like as they assembled the structure -- I noticed the flatbed trailer rise noticibly as parts were lifted, indicitive the incredible weight of each section.


I left the house before they finished, having decided to hit a movie (or two) during our forced return to 19th century technology.

I saw Julie & Julia -- (check out my review over at RTVW) and then did a little illicit theatre hopping and saw G-Force, which was worth the price I paid.

It turns out that they had to replace a telephone pole just outside my back fence (the power lines are very close). They didn't remove the old pole, just added a new, slightly taller one right beside it.

2 comments:

  1. Oy. Reminds me of the year that they dug a new subway tunnel only a hundred yards away from my house. My room was in the basement and they woke me up almost every single day at 7:00 am sharp as that's when the neighbourhood rules say they can start using loud machines (lawnmowers, leaf blowers, construction vehicles, etc.).

    The vibrations were so great from the tunnel borers that it made me bounce around in my bed on some mornings and eventually led to cracks opening up in the ceilings of the kitchen and the dining room of our 145-year-old house. (The construction folks did fix the damage, though)

    Nice excuse to get out to go see a movie, though!

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  2. We had a similar non-electricty event at our house. A main transformer broke. We were without electricity from 7 pm until morning, then it was on and off all weekend. Our phones and, therefore, our computers were out for 4 days.

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