Day 3

Post-dating again, trying to record these events in something resembling chronological order as I have access to the internet.  I'm dating this October 31, but it's actually November 1.

Remember that I said I heard a tree falling that fateful morning but with no impact to my house minutes before a tree actually did hit my home?  Turns out, it was one of the larger trees in the neighborhood, an heirloom oak up the road, and it fell over, crossed the road, and took out the power lines, even though it managed to narrowly avoid hitting any houses.

That Thursday morning, after I had called in my claim to Allstate and after I showed off the damage to the neighbors, I took a short nap, having been up for some 24-plus hours at that point.  As I fell asleep, I heard the reassuring sounds of chainsaws off in the distance.  The power-company crews must be clearing the lines, I thought, and fell asleep content that power would be restored in a manner of hours.

But I was in a fool's paradise.  After I woke back up and walked outside to see how they were progressing, I was disappointed to find no power-company crew anywhere in the neighborhood.  The "chainsaws" I head were actually the leaf blowers of yard-maintenance firms, out clearing off the leaves, twigs and branches littering other neighbors' yards. No one was working on the fallen tree.

The tree remained there all day Thursday with no crews anywhere around to remove it and restore the power.  No one showed up all day Friday, either.   

It wasn't until around 2:30 pm Saturday (Halloween) that tree-clearing contractors and the power company appeared in the 'hood.  Starved for any other entertainment or distraction, I stood nearby and watched them, eventually joined by first one neighbor, then another, then several more.  Eventually, an impromptu block party broke out - someone set up a table with candy for the trick-or-treating kids, someone else provided some beer, and eventually the table was loaded with hot dogs, hors d'oeuvres, wine, and the makings for margaritas.  Another neighbor ran a cable from his home generator to power  a boom-box playing classic rock hits.  We had a bona-fide, impromptu, Halloween watching-the-contractors party going.

The tree guys finally got all the wood off of the power lines by around 7:00, and it was a little disheartening to see them drive off while we were still in the dark (plus it was right around sunset and getting dark).  But as they pulled out, the linemen's trucks rolled in, stringing up new power lines on the poles and checking the blown transformers.  A collecting cheer and chants of "Power, Power" broke out at 8:30 pm when the lights finally came back on, some 64-plus hours after they had gone out.

I went back to my house to make sure the tree damage hadn't caused any short-circuits in the wiring, and that the revivified power supply wouldn't result in a house fire.  Once I was convinced that the house wasn't going to burn down, I went back outside and rejoined the party for another couple hours before calling it a night in my now electrically-lit and heated home. No cable or internet yet, but that would be asking too much.

Short version: power's back and seems to be working in my damaged house.  And happy Halloween!