Sunday, August 16, 2020

Bucket Brigade

 Next Tuesday will mark two weeks since tropical storm Isaias hit the area, taking down a lot of trees, blocking roads, and downing power lines.  Lingering power outages remained until a couple of days ago, and there are still trees and branches precariously dangling over roadways.  Convoys of bucket trucks have been a feature on the local roadways, dispatched to the locales where problems remain.

Last night, while running an errand at Stop-and-Shop before working the graveyard shift, I saw an entire brigade of bucket trucks parked in the lot the supermarket shares with a hotel:

 


Truck-obsessed five year old me would have been sent over the moon by the sight of so much heavy equipment, arrayed like the closest equivalents we now have to the dinosaurs that also obsessed me (and still do).  Older, staider me was sent over the moon by the site of so much heavy equipment deployed to get our infrastructure back in order.  

For the record, our company e-mail still hasn't been restored since a post-Isaias power outage and generator malfunction (not to mention the fact that our IT guys are working remotely).  At least I sent in my expense reports before this problem came up, by which I mean came down.

4 comments:

Anathema Device said...

"Bucket truck" had me completely bewildered. Never heard the term before!

Over here, we call that kind of vehicle a cherry picker.

Glad things are being put right, regardless of nomenclature.

Ali Redford said...

DH works from one of those trucks for a living; they call them bucket trucks in Kansas, too, but we hear cherry picker from people in other states. They have lineman rodeos here, too, though DH tends to lead the cheer section for the younger guys. Heck-if we were younger, possibly he'd be up there helping out-he went to Florida and to Greensburg, KS to help with restoration after catastrophes. Your words about being obsessed with heavy machinery and dinosaurs reminded me of our son when he was a boy-thanks! I hope your infrastructure is repaired soon. Looks like a good crew of trucks there!

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

"Bucket truck" had me completely bewildered. Never heard the term before!

Ah, yes, divided by a common language! We call them both cherry pickers and bucket trucks, but bucket truck fit the post title better.

hey have lineman rodeos here, too, though DH tends to lead the cheer section for the younger guys

Kansas, eh? There's a 'Wichita Lineman' joke in here somewhere. That lineman rodeo sounds like it would be a blast to watch.

Ali Redford said...

There absolutely are such jokes, especially since we're only a half hour South of Wichita!😃 I can't remember one of those to tell, though. 🖖