Dumb Luck

I rarely feel bad for anyone. Most of us make our own troubles and I just don't think that feeling bad is productive when that happens. Myself included.

However, you do hear of things happening to people that are not of their own doing. This is the case with my landlord Gordon and his wife Cheryl.

Earlier today, amid all the carnage of the thousands of trees being cut down on their property, somehow a telephone pole (why do we call them telephone poles when they carry wires for cable and electricity too?) got knocked down. With the dozens of trucks that have been going in and out of their driveway, I guess it wasn't that surprising that something like this would happen, but dumb, dumb, dumb on the part of the guy who was driving the truck that did this. The wires are less than 6 feet from the ground and, of course, they have lost power, phone and cable.

So the trucks have been lined out there; National Grid (the ones that started this entire mess,) Cox Cable and Verizon.

I called Cheryl to see if there was anything that they needed (a place to warm up, for instance) or if there was anything I could do for them, and Cheryl, who was in a much better frame of mind than I would be, said they were okay and coping well. This all happened around noon and they are just hoping that their utilities are back on soon.

I know all too well how a situation can go from bad to worse and I sincerely hope their nightmare ends soon. Let's just hope no one gets hurt.

UPDATE: 18:22 power is finally back on, Patrick's house was affected also. Only one electric company truck remains at this time - hopefully it will be gone soon