Kevin The Cable Guy
Posted by Kevin.....
Since I had an unexpected day off, I decided not to do anything of real importance today. I worked on fixing and cleaning old bicycle parts. I ate left over Halloween candy. I read about candidates on the ballot for the election. I watched a documentary on the modern day search for missing Egyptian mummies.
About 2:00 PM, my boring day had just shifted into extreme tedium when two dudes in hard hats jumped the fence into my back yard. I scrutinized their activities for the amount of time it took me to unwrap some more Halloween candy. Moments later, they were looking around and pointing a lot.
As I walked out my back door, it was obvious the hard hat guys were very interested in my trees in the far back edge of the yard.
"Hey guys, howya doin?" I said. They glanced at me like I didn't need to know what was happening. The taller guy was surly, with a red beard and tattoos. The shorter guy just ignored me as he held a tangle of rope. They were stringing what looked like a new power line through our backyard trees.
"You guys need me to cut some branches away so you can get through there?" I asked. "Yeah, that would help, thanks." said the taller guy, who wasn't so surly after all.
My excitement grew as I climbed my ladder into the trees with my branch lopper and my saw. I felt like I was actually working with these guys and I had become some kind of high voltage lineman / lumberjack all in one. I secretly wished I had a hard hat.
"What kind of line is this?" I asked before cutting anything. "We're repairing the cable TV line." said Red Beard.
I froze. I instantly flashed back to one day last month when I was cutting down a tree in my back yard and a branch had snagged on the cable TV line.
I tried to compose myself. "Here? In this yard?" I asked in as nonchalant a squeak as I could muster. "Everywhere. The hail did a number in these lines. They're banged up." said Red Beard.
I lopped off a couple of branches and then started sawing a thick branch right where the new cable was resting. "Aren't you guys nervous that I'm cutting right next to your new line?" I joked. "No." said the shorter guy. Red Beard laughed, "We got lots more cable in the truck!" he said.
After I cleared a path through the branches, the shorter guy climbed the telephone pole on the corner of my property and pulled the line tight. As a walked away with my ladder I heard a couple of muffled bangs. I spun around expecting to see a broken power line whipping towards me ready to chop me in half.
Instead the guy on the pole was loudly securing some kind of fitting to the pole. Then both hard hat dudes departed, leaving behind a heap of disconnected cable TV line extending off the telephone pole down onto the ground toward the next pole. "Must be quittin' time" I thought to myself.
I went back inside and plopped down in front of the TV. "Good thing I have satellite" I said.
Since I had an unexpected day off, I decided not to do anything of real importance today. I worked on fixing and cleaning old bicycle parts. I ate left over Halloween candy. I read about candidates on the ballot for the election. I watched a documentary on the modern day search for missing Egyptian mummies.
About 2:00 PM, my boring day had just shifted into extreme tedium when two dudes in hard hats jumped the fence into my back yard. I scrutinized their activities for the amount of time it took me to unwrap some more Halloween candy. Moments later, they were looking around and pointing a lot.
As I walked out my back door, it was obvious the hard hat guys were very interested in my trees in the far back edge of the yard.
"Hey guys, howya doin?" I said. They glanced at me like I didn't need to know what was happening. The taller guy was surly, with a red beard and tattoos. The shorter guy just ignored me as he held a tangle of rope. They were stringing what looked like a new power line through our backyard trees.
"You guys need me to cut some branches away so you can get through there?" I asked. "Yeah, that would help, thanks." said the taller guy, who wasn't so surly after all.
My excitement grew as I climbed my ladder into the trees with my branch lopper and my saw. I felt like I was actually working with these guys and I had become some kind of high voltage lineman / lumberjack all in one. I secretly wished I had a hard hat.
"What kind of line is this?" I asked before cutting anything. "We're repairing the cable TV line." said Red Beard.
I froze. I instantly flashed back to one day last month when I was cutting down a tree in my back yard and a branch had snagged on the cable TV line.
I tried to compose myself. "Here? In this yard?" I asked in as nonchalant a squeak as I could muster. "Everywhere. The hail did a number in these lines. They're banged up." said Red Beard.
I lopped off a couple of branches and then started sawing a thick branch right where the new cable was resting. "Aren't you guys nervous that I'm cutting right next to your new line?" I joked. "No." said the shorter guy. Red Beard laughed, "We got lots more cable in the truck!" he said.
After I cleared a path through the branches, the shorter guy climbed the telephone pole on the corner of my property and pulled the line tight. As a walked away with my ladder I heard a couple of muffled bangs. I spun around expecting to see a broken power line whipping towards me ready to chop me in half.
Instead the guy on the pole was loudly securing some kind of fitting to the pole. Then both hard hat dudes departed, leaving behind a heap of disconnected cable TV line extending off the telephone pole down onto the ground toward the next pole. "Must be quittin' time" I thought to myself.
I went back inside and plopped down in front of the TV. "Good thing I have satellite" I said.
posted by Kevin and Stace @ 8:56 PM
1 Comments:
At 6:02 PM,
Anonymous said…
Kevin you seem to have a THING with trees and squirrels. I won't go to the obvious to suggest that nuts has anything to do with this. I can see you hanging and swinging from the tree.
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