30

Well this is it, this is the last installment of the 30 days of blogs challenge. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to make it there for a bit. This past week was especially hard for some reason and I will glad tomorrow to be able to kick back and catch up with those of you who are still writing blogs for your 30.

I was hoping for a great blog today. A blog that would top all of those previous blogs. A blog of something big, big and powerful and leaving you wanting more.

Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but it's not going to happen. Today dawned like any other day this past week. Hot and humid and nary a drop in the forecast. The only dark cloud on the horizon was the one that developed over my head.

I went out to water a bit. Being in one of the worst droughts we have been in since the 1950's, things are shriveling up quickly. Missing one day of watering, can result in the loss of several plants.It has me depressed and putting away all notions of getting anything accomplished this fall. No plants will get thinned and relocated. No iris will be separated and shipped to promised friends. No new thoughts of bulbs and plants will be entertained unless rain somehow materializes by August. It doesn't appear like that will be happening any time soon.

After staring at my problem tree again, I sighed and went back indoors and made another call to the utilities. It has been almost a week and no one had gotten back to me or been out to view the culprit. I again talked to one person, was transferred to another and then promised to hear back from the guy in charge. I waited all morning and finally just after 1 pm he called. The gist of our conversation went like this:

Me: I called last week about having you come look at and trim or remove a tree near the power lines.

Utilities: We have a very long list of trees to be trimmed, it will be weeks before we can come out.

Me: Can someone at least look at it to see if it is an emergency? It is developing a crack in the crook of the tree and I am afraid it will split and fall and take out the line.

Utilities: We have changed our tree policy

Me: The tree is right next to the line, not long ago you removed a tree several feet from the roadway that was no way near the line before.

Utilities: Home owners are responsible to keep all trees trimmed near lines leading to their house.

Me: The line to my house is buried underground, this is a main line that runs North and South and connects several of my neighbors.

Utilities: What is your address

Me: 1st street. The power lines run down an alleyway between 1st and 2nd.

Utilities: I have a map in front of me, there are no lines on 1st street.

Me: In an alleyway between 1st and 2nd, running North and South, just west of 1st street.

Utilities: That must be a phone line.

Me: There are several poles that run North and South, from the corner of my yard, North down the alley way (named all the neighbors on the block).

Utilities: Yes, that is a phone line, I have nothing on the map for power lines.

Me: There are THREE LINES running NORTH and SOUTH on a series of POLES down the alleyway, and yes, there is a phone line below those THREE power lines on those  SAME POLES.

Utilities: I will have to see it for myself, It will be several weeks til I can get out there.

Me: I can e-mail you pics to prove I have power lines on real poles.

Utilities: We have adopted a new tree policy, homeowners are responsible for any power lines coming into their house.

Me: It's buried from the pole to the house, if the tree goes it will knock out all the three lines to my house and all the neighbors on the block.

Utilities: I better see it for myself, but it will be a couple of weeks.

Me:....(pause).....thank you....(click)

After then was an assortment of words uttered by me, best left out of print. The whole conversation had me feeling like I had stepped into a really bad episode of Abbott and Costello's "who's on first"?

Needless to say I have been on the phone trying to line up tree arborists and referrals from people I know on tree removal and trimming. I left messages with two of them, and a message with my one neighbor who is closest to me to ask his opinion and at the same time warn him that maybe it would be best if he didn't drive down the alley for awhile.

I am of course still waiting to hear from anyone. It has me beyond annoyed and peeved and ticked off and not at all what I had hoped to blog about today.

There will be no rainbows, adorable puppies, fuzzy ducks, and all of that other assorted cute stuff. There is only a big black cloud over my head with dark thoughts thundering. But I thought I better get this blog posted in the off chance things go really dark here if the utilities should go off.

If they do, I hope they can find me on 1st street. It's right next to 2nd street, with an unknown, unmarked alley running between them with some powerlines.