Personal Thanks to the Line and Tree Crews

We've been saying it for a week now, thanking the line crews for working around the clock, restoring power to Mainers. But this time, it's personal. A group of workers from Bangor Hydro came to our house last night and insured that we would not lose the power we were so relieved to have had restored on Friday.

Jim and I lost power on Monday evening, at around 8pm. We stuck it out that first night, hunkering under blankets and enduring the cold temperatures, hoping the power would come back on. After that, we were fortunate to get the loan of two generators, one to replace the other when it struggled to help us maintain heat.

Still, for anyone who lives in the country, you know that heat is only part of the equation. No power with a septic system and well means no water. That means....no toilet (unless you flush it with a bucket of water. Of course, we had no water!)

When the lights came on Friday afternoon, we were ecstatic. But then, a tree fell across our lines on Sunday and threatened to take it out again. Had that Hydro crew not showed up on Sunday evening, the lines would definitely have snapped.

At just after five, Jim was preparing to leave for work, and I was quite nervous. I knew we'd lose power and the power line would snap. Which would leave me to deal with the generator, call the Hydro, and possibly alert the neighbors that we had a live line across our private road.

I swear to you that when we saw those Hydro workers pull up to our driveway in Orrington, it might as well have been knights in shining armor. They got out of the truck, shadowed by the huge spotlight that was turning our trees to crystal, and all I could think of was a scene from a movie. The good guys, coming out of the gloom, to save the day. Wish I'd had my camera ready to film it! Thank you, gentlemen. You are definitely our heroes!