A Day With A Lineman #43 ~ They have a long night ahead

avatar

17 degrees Fahrenheit, wind blowing at 15-20mph, the sun is going down and... it’s snowing. Yep, I gonna go ahead and say it, "I am glad this wasn't our pole that got hit!" I know what is good for me and it isn’t replacing this pole in these weather conditions. Bad for my health. Okay it’s not gonna kill me or anything but it can get miserable really fast. The process of changing a pole like this in these conditions goes from a run, to a crawl. Production level drops significantly. Welp, looks like the boys from the other power company are in for a long cold night. That’s the Linelife. To think our apprentice was disappointed that the car didn’t tear down our pole.... That kid ain’t right!!!

A Day With A Lineman #43

0C90549661C944188C92762337D6A223.jpeg

Living in an area with 2 power companies has always seemed a little weird to me. Our lines sometimes cross over the top of theirs and visa versa. We might have underground cables 10 feet away from their poles. It’s just odd growing up and then working in a area where one company owned and maintained the power-lines in the city or county. I work for a small coop and the other company is a big corporation that has a big footprint across Washington and Oregon. Yet, as Lineman working for different companies, we are still Brothers in the trade. It doesn’t tmatter whose hard heat your wearing we are all Lineman and want each other to return home every night to their families just the way left. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

We received a call from a Lineman from the other company asking if we could come out and install some protective covering on our lines that cross over the top of theirs. They had what we refer to as a Car-Pole. (A Car Hit a Pole, simple right) Without hesitation phone calls were made and a fellow co-worker and I dropped what we were doing headed to the location. Upon arrival we quickly discovered this was a “Good One”

99645D819939453D96148F56B068FC22.jpeg

She smacked that pole good!! If she was 10 feet to her right she would have taken out one of our poles. We have some big wire up there and it would have been a huge mess!! This accident took place on a sweeping turn just outside the “city”. The girl driving was 17 yrs old and it was her first time in the snow. She said, “I thought you drive in it just like you do the rain.” Ummmmm.... I can’t make this up. One of the Lineman said when they arrived she was sitting in the car on her phone. Well at least she got that part right, she stayed in the car. Though her thought process probably would have been more like this: “No sense on getting out in the cold when I can sit in my warm car and get some social media action in.” Now as far as her Mom’s reaction, ummm she seemed to be more concerned about the car than her daughter.... “Ma’am, your daughter is fine by the way

The way people react to accidents never ceases to amaze me and can be a little comical at times. Also the types of accidents I see when the driver comes out without a scratch, just like this girl. Maybe the pole she hit was rotten and broke really easily? Who knows. I tell you what, if she would have hit that pole in the background... umm things may have been a bit different. That bad boy is solid and it belongs to the company I work for. Our power-lines runs over the top of their power-lines.

9287C885491E47369A19E62E50CBEF9A.jpeg

Despite the pole that got hit not being ours we still had a part to play in ensuring that this pole replacement could be done safely. This is where the Brotherhood comes into play. The whole “different companies” thing gets thrown aside and we all work together to ensure the public is safe and the Lineman performing the work can do it safely also. We take precautions and necessary actions to make our power-lines as safe as possible. If they needed them de-energized... we would make it happen.

Could we have left our line uncovered and not changed the settings on our protective device?? Ya we probably could have and everything could have been fine, but why. It would have left the hazard center exposed and the worksite that much more dangerous. As a brother, when another brother asks about taking one more step to make things a bit safer than they already are, the response is “when, where and what do you need?”. There is no arguing. They asked for some cover on our energized lines... no problemo you got it!! So up I went.

143F45A6E18E4FA9989DAF521B8E1BE0.jpegThe neutral is the uncovered wire

Then they asked for us to change the settings on some of our equipment. So instead of the reclosure closing back in 2 times to test if a fault has cleared, once a fault is sensed it opens and stays open. This happens in milliseconds. Ya, it’s fast. I once had a discussion with one of our engineers about this subject and when he is talking milliseconds, my eyes got big and thought, “Dang... that’s fast”. We call this setting One Shot or Hot Line Tag. Anytime we are working or in close proximity to energized lines we go to the upstream reclosure change the settings to One Shot. You never know when something might decide to break or fail. “We have done this a million times...” but all it takes is one time and in a blink of an eye you have a nightmare on your hands. This change in settings minimizes the size of the arc produced by a fault and responds much fast then the normal settings. Alright enough of the “technical” jargon my head hurts. 😉😉

That wind was cold and along with the sideways snow it made things not so enjoyable. I felt like I couldn’t get this cover on fast enough. “I can’t feel my face!” Yet before I came down I did grab a selfie... just for my Steem peeps 😜😜

7B7D03D0ACB04C3EB03EFC07A848B2BA.jpeg
Also give you guys a Lineman’s perspective of the accident.
CE0FC6BDF5A14449A8A63CAC394E867C.jpeg

The Lineman from the other company had been basically working non-stop since the snow hit. I really feel for them. They are really undermanned for the amount of power-lines and customers they serve. Ya, they get a lot of outage calls and over time but what about living life. I have been there and worked like that for a good amount of years. It wears on you over time I can tell you that. Money ain’t everything.

D93BCDA46F504214A0A1C51638A2C708.jpeg

After a few handshakes and a few “be safe’s” thrown back and forth, it was time for us to call it day. They had a long challenging night ahead of them and we all knew it.

Stay Safe

Until Next Time...
EECA0AA8-7C65-4C01-9ADE-BDDD875C98AC.gif

Steem On
and

991D8C149A0149F5AFF4EDA4A36EE6B0.jpeg

Yes, It was Cold
Can’t you see it in my face

2A8E5EA3-896C-48D8-ADD3-62C820E1B247.gif
D880665B-863E-4459-83AC-2B16E6992DBB.gif
6BE164FF-F560-424E-84C4-06E56C01E51A.gif
Don’t forget to mention @splatz
when you encounter a post that deserves a good Splattin’
by the @splatz trail
E9F8C7D5-0D5D-45F6-AC37-B9B42E9B98D4.gif
Join the @splatz trail
On Steemauto.com
Where we catch those
Splatworthy Posts
Hot off the Press



0
0
0.000
15 comments
avatar

According to the Bible, Is it sin against God if a law enforcer is forced to take someone's life in the line of duty?

(Sorry for sending this comment. We are not looking for our self profit, our intentions is to preach the words of God in any means possible.)



Comment what you understand of our Youtube Video to receive our full votes. We have 30,000 #SteemPower. It's our little way to Thank you, our beloved friend.
Check our Discord Chat
Join our Official Community: https://beta.steemit.com/trending/hive-182074

0
0
0.000
avatar

You are annoying everyone with your spam. You are driving people away from your version of Christianity. Please stop

0
0
0.000
avatar

Damn dude, you live a crazy work life. I made a post about not taking a painting job because the scaffolding was just too much for me. I couldn't imagine getting in a cherry picker, in the winter, with the snow, wind, and freezing temps, way up in the air around electrical wires...you might be crazy splatz! ;)

0
0
0.000
avatar

I am gonna pretend you didn’t call my bucket truck a cherry picker... LOL. Many do call us crazy and when my dad first brought up the idea to me about getting into the trade he said, “ya, you’re crazy enough”. Lol. Stupid or crazy not sure sometimes. But I do enjoy hanging from the bottom of a helicopter on a 60 foot rope flying from tower to tower. Feet never actually touch the ground until the end of the day. That is fun. 😉

0
0
0.000
avatar

LOL! I was under the impression that any truck with a movable bucket was in essence a cherry picker. No mean to insult your truck, haha. Please feel free to enlighten me on the difference :)

The helicopter ride sounds fun, but still not for me. Glad to know you get so much joy out of it though.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Hahaha I am just giving you a hard time. It was funny to me because me being in the trade I have never heard of it called that. Lol. This guys knows how to drive a cherry picker. 😜😜
89E61BE2-3C14-48D6-8581-33D00128FF40.gif
I don’t know why but I laugh every time I see that along with this one...
483768F4-AE76-4B7F-82ED-5D436BAF6F46.gif

Ya... I’m not right in the head....
Bucket trucks are highway worthy cherry pickers have to be hauled on a trailer. Not sure if that is the exact definition but that is a lineman’s definition. I have seen vans with a boom and bucket on them. They look hilarious. I was trying to get our meter man to order one for his next company rig. Lol.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ok, that helps clear the confusion.

That second gif I have seen before, but like you, it got me lol'ing in my car before work. I probably looked like a lunatic, staring at my phone hidden from outside view, giggling like a school girl. Even now, catching a glimpse of it, can't help but laugh.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Not gonna lie, I am surprised how the pole did almost no damage to the top of her car.

0
0
0.000
avatar

The front of the car had a decent dent in it but ya... I think it was pretty rotten and broke really easily. “Na, it needed to be changed anyway, we just needed an excuse to change it”. LOL

0
0
0.000
avatar

Does it ever get complicated between the two companies from a logistical perspective? I mean treading other others toes or one doesn't want to work effectively with the other?

0
0
0.000
avatar

They have their lines and we have ours. We never touch each other’s lines... that came out a little weird. We really don’t have any issues. Most of our lines run out in the countryside or rural areas. Within the city we are mainly underground. The way they build their poles is totally different than the way we build our. As far as he workers go, we all get along great. With lineman hard hat logos don’t matter.

The 2 companies butted heads a bit when the golf course wanted to switch to over the our company. That battle went on for a couple years. The other company was really trying to screw the golf course and basically punish them for switching financially. After a long drawn out court case, we now service the golf course but people who want to switch over in the future... they have to pay a significant amount of money. Which basically makes it impossible for the customer to have a choice. So in the end I think the big company won.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ah ok, its good that any shenanigans don't spill-over to the linesman themselves and you guys (and galls?) have a good respect form one another. It seems a complicated system though.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Congratulations @jlsplatts! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You distributed more than 95000 upvotes. Your next target is to reach 96000 upvotes.

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
0
0
0.000