For the past few days, the utility sub-contractors have begun to use our property as a staging area for their trucks as they perform telephone pole inspections on our street. We have watched their "progress" as they've inched closer and closer to the heart of our privacy.
Today's encroachment resulted in an unfortunate event: an 18 wheeler, laden with telephone poles ran over and broke the main water line that feeds into our house.
At 4:35 pm, I contacted Farmer's Electric Company (FEC) to let them know their trucks were parked along the front of our property where our water meter is located. And sure enough, within moments after two trucks drove away, the water flow in the house diminished to half its normal flow. We have NO water. That's right, supper is cancelled, forget flushing the toilet and my thirsty tomato seedlings will just have to wait as the first triple digit heat of the season courses through the Dallas Metro plex.
I immediately called the Special Utility District (SUD) to let the water supplier know. Unfortunately, their office closed at 4:00 pm. So I dialed the emergency number and reached a very courteous worker, Terry, who promised to do a drive-by and check out our pipes. And he did, within minutes of my call. Sure enough, he announced that the main water pipe was broken.
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| Coincidentally, on today's NBCDFW News at 5 |
It's been a day for minor disasters, starting off with me losing Grandma's credit card when shopping for her groceries this morning. Then J broke off the key in the front door lock and later the knob broke off Grandma's washing machine.
All in all, I'm still grateful. Things could have been worse. When I finally drift into the slumber chamber and seek a little rest, I'll have much on my mind about today's events. When it rains, it pours. Or not.
I call this phase the ODTAA. Or One darn thing after another phase. It arrives too often and is a real pain. I am glad you survived the ordeal and have the sense of humor to write about it.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike.
DeleteThanks for dropping in on the water main blog. They did finally fix the broken pipe the next morning around 10 am. Thankfully the utility company took responsibility for trespassing and have promised to reimburse the expense. It was just one of those ODTAA days.
Did you notice that the scores are gone from our hubs? It was in their blog post that changes were coming. Guess they are here.
Peg
Hi Peg, I am not sure I like all the changes at Hubpages. So many of the people I enjoyed reading have packed up and left. You seem to be one of the few who worked the system to your benefit. So a pat on the back for that. Hope all is well (not that your home has water again.)
ReplyDeleteHello Mck. Change is difficult and I agree, some of the stuff that has changed is not working. Still, I like it there and haven't seen a better place that has the community feel of HubPages. Some of the old timers are drifting back, it seems.I'm not sure how well those who've left are doing on other sites.
ReplyDeleteAs far as working the system, I'm trying different things like adding a few new pics and reworking some old hubs and adding videos or maps. They seem to like that. Then I tweet the link and it always gets a few views.
The water is back on at the house, although it does seem to be with less pressure. I'm still happy to have running water.