Storm Repair Finished

I am calling the job finished because the major part was done this morning by a 3 man crew that contracts out for Spectrum and AT&T. By 11:30am not only had they hung the three cables on the new pole but tightened my AT&T fiber wire and started the job at my neighbor's backyard by connecting her Spectrum wires back up to the pole in her backyard.

A very considerate crew that went above and beyond as I will explain later. Before they backed their truck to the pole in my side yard, I heard a knock on the front door asking if it was ok they could back up their heavy truck on soft ground ... I told them do anything you need to do to make your job easier.

They had spent the last two days in Eddyville and Dawson Springs KY across the Ohio River that was leveled by tornados for the 2nd time in a year. They said some families told them they were suppose to move into their new rebuilt houses this week, when the tornados hit Sunday night. Their new houses were leveled to the ground.

I was expecting them to hang one cable but not all three. The silver cable is Spectrum.

You can see that thin wire to the left of the orange sign, that is my AT&T Fiber wire. The other black cable is Astound Internet.

I told them I would open the left gate in case they needed to get in my back yard. While sitting at my computer desk I was keeping an eye out for any trucks with lifts so I could get all the hounds and dogs into the garage and out of the way. When I saw a truck with a lift pass I woke the hounds and dogs up from their morning nap and said "lets go get water" ... when they hear that they know to run for the garage. It's cool and dark in there with a large bowl of water.

They were hanging the cables higher this time and by the end they had tightened up all the cables and applied new rubber insulation around their connections.

A few weeks ago if you remember when I was trimming the bushes on the bank back ... I had climbed as high as I could on my unstable ladder due to uneven ground and cut limbs back and out of the cables it surrounded. I asked them if they minded or if they could cut that back all the limbs back and out of the way, even with the higher cables.

That lower cable is Astound's. They will come out, splice it at the pole and then tighten it which will raise the cable higher and out of my way when I mow that area behind my fence. After they do that it will be near that middle cable.

Tree limbs cut back just like I and the neighbor wanted.

I spent all morning leaning on my damaged fence, talking to the third man of the crew that would toss tools up to the guy in the bucket when needed. The more I leaned on it, the more stable it felt. My brain cells started churning and wondered "why not".

Does my yard and fence have to be magazine cover perfect? How about adding a "little character" to the fence? I leans a little to the left, that corner pole is partially torn at the bottom but still very stable. I cannot move it in any direction. No part of that fence to the gate moves, wobbles in any way .... so ... why not save a minimum of $2,000 of my money and more insurance money to repair the fence if it is still stable?

All I really need is for them to design a custom made gate that will fit that bent space and still lock. The fence to the right of the gate was never damaged.

Like new and mounted higher on pole than before.

You can barely see the thin fiber wire they tightened from the house to the pole.

You can see the fence lean to the left and that back corner section bent slightly backwards at the corner. Yet all as stable as the rest of the fence.

CenterPoint Energy will come out and fixed the damaged side yard with dirt seed and straw. One of the crewmen said that Astound will come out eventually and cut their cable at the pole and then pull it tight that will raise it higher.

My fence foreman will be out today at 2pm that thinks he is giving me an estimate to repair/re-install the whole side of the fence .... but that will change to "can you build me a gate that fits the new size opening and/or do you have a machine that can pull those fence posts forward and back to their original position.

I can't tell you have much better I feel with all that was done today.

It's a great morning here in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.