I was working the 8am.-4:30pm. shift. The lead man had 23 years and I
myself had 17 years. We were no fresh faced cubs at the time. Dispatch
called with a rather strange trouble order for us. The caller had stated
that our big green box kept killing her flowers. The address was in a
well to do suburban neighborhood on the west side of Houston. It was hot
summer time in Texas with day time temps. well into the 90's. The area
was underground residential distribution. We guessed the big green box
was a padmount x-fmr. Well we got to the address and no one was home,
high fence gate locked, you know the drill right? We got our ladders and
after rattling the gate to check for dogs we were just climbing the
fence when the customer arrived. She opened the gate and led us around
the corner of her house. Expecting to see a x-fmr we were suprised when
all we saw was a beautifly landscaped yard. there were boxes, flower
gardens, lily ponds. She had the whole shootin' match but no
transformer. She led us to the corner to a fine dirt filled box with
maybe a half yard of dirt covering the urd pot. we did'nt have a
thermometer but the dirt we removed must have been 300 degrees!! When we
explained to her that dirt and flowers were not an option in this
corner. She complied and we left. Called back to the same address a few
days later, She proudly showed us the painting she had just finished.
All sorts of lovley flowers on our transformer! Red Local 66