Yes, Virginia...

There really is a Santa!  It was just before 5:00 on Monday, Christmas Eve.  I was bagging my vestments in preparation for our Christmas Eve service at Grace, Long Rapids — when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a bright red Freightliner M2 truck with an articulating, telescopic, hydraulic bucket on top.  Presque Isle Electric and Gas had finally arrived!  Santa wears a hard hat!

The truck briefly pulled into my drive, then continued down the road.  A few minutes later they drove back up Kauffman and about 5:20 my power came back on!

Powered up on Christmas Eve!  Having to leave for church,
I didn't take time to dig out the tripod for this photo.

Neighbor Floyd followed the PIE+G crew to the site of the problem, which he had identified and called in three days earlier.  A pine tree had fallen into the lines, shorting out the transformer nearby.  Floyd expected that the tree would be cut away with a chainsaw.  When the crew brought out fiberglass poles instead of a saw, he asked why.

The reason was obvious once the crew described the situation.  While the transformer had tripped, depriving the line of the Coop's power, that in itself was no guarantee of a dead power line.  If some homeowner with a generator had done his own wiring, rather than having this work performed by a licensed electrician, the generator could be back-feeding power along the power line.  (A properly wired home isolates the structure from the Coop's line when a generator is in use.)  Since electricity always wants to find the ground, the tree itself could be serving as a ground.  Therefore, if someone took a chainsaw to a "hot" tree, the result could be fatal.  Instead, the crew used their poles to bounce the tree off the lines.

Lesson: Remember that fools rush in where only trained professionals should tread.

Being without power for a little more than three days was a good experience, really.  I lost much of my food, but the greater inconvenience was being without plumbing and TV.  And my discomfort is minor compared to the plight of those rendered homeless by Superstorm Sandy.  I'll continue pondering purchase of a generator. •••