8.5.2020

In my blog post from yesterday, I said that Tropical Storm Isaias was blowing through the area and we were to get peak winds about 8:00.  I had just taken dinner out of the oven about 7:30 when the power went out.  However, the outage behaved differently than normal and went on/off for a bit, even tripping our arc breakers.  But once again we are so grateful for the generator!  

When Jim went to report the outage online, he discovered we were the only ones on our branch affected.  That made him a bit nervous because the only way that could happen is if something happened between our house and our neighbor's.  But by that point it was dark and rainy and not a time to investigate electricity.

This morning, I had an early morning haircut appointment and Jim told me to text him if there was anything discernible happening on the road.  Well, there certainly was!  This tree branch had fallen on the wires and knocked a live wire down.  The town had put cones up for protection.  By the time I got home, a National Grid van had put even more cones up and was sitting in a van awaiting line crews.  We went down mid-afternoon and they had a change of guard but there was still someone in a van waiting.  They said they aren't allowed to leave live wires untended.

Jim worked in the wood shop this morning on plastering...

Looking fabulous!

Then it was back to installing drywall pieces in the stairwell dormer window, putting up the side front piece...

Then the first piece of corner bead...

And the last piece of corner bead on the top...

Looks so good!  

Our power came back on about 4:00 this afternoon.  We walked down to see how they left things.  The cones are still on both sides of our driveway so maybe someone will be back to take care of trees; otherwise, we'll have to do that.

But when we were down talking to the National Grid person this afternoon, Jim told her that he could smell burning and she said she could too.  Well...there was definitely charring on this branch where it was touching the wires.  Thankfully, we've had enough rain so things aren't dry but still scary to see.

We walked into the woods to see - it was a branch from our big maple that fell...

We also spent time today talking with the company about the shaper damage.  The technician was very nice; we have to send some pictures and they said they would replace parts.  

We are counting our blessings today that we didn't have more damage plus we are grateful for our generator and National Grid's quick response!

High 77/Low 52 - beautiful - the calm after the storm!