I have worked side by side with my cousin for almost 3 years now. He got
me into the linework biz, and showed me a few tricks and
things that the
linemen he worked under had showed him. We parted ways for a short while
when I got a job offer with a municipality, which didn't last long when I
ended up doing underground daily. I ended up going back to contract work
with a big multimillion dollar company that will remain nameless even though
the outfit is loved by all of its employees even the ones out of its home
office in central Florida.........lol......anyways........I got on with this
company and got my cousin to come work with me. He was hired on as a second
class and me as an apprentice, which made us automatically the workhorses of
the crew. While on storm break in western NC during the big ice storm in
early 2000, we were the ones walking out all the lines to see if there were
trees on the line and so forth. Armed with our little square looking
flashlights that went dark if you held them the wrong way, we made a path
into the woods walking out a 3 phase tap that fed an old lady's house and
the highway patrol station. We had got maybe a quarter mile into the woods,
and we came to a downward slope of a hill. we flipped a coin to see who
would go first, because we knew this meant impending doom. Unfortunately for
me, I called tails, and lost. I made my way down the hill, to my surprise,
without rolling. I then stepped forward into the knee deep snow (I am not
used to this being from eastern NC and all!!!!!) and when I stepped
forward........WOOSH!!!!!!
I went hip deep into a ditch full of icy cold water. My cousin
started
laughing as he was coming down the hill, and missed a step, and landed chest
first in the water. We were pissed!!!!! After locating the limb on the line,
we scouted out a way for the tree crew to get their truck in there, and made
our way back to the line truck which was the only truck we had with heat.
Needless to say our foreman, who loved us like his own kids, had a chuckle
or two as well as the tree crew, the groundmen ,and the first class.......They
carried a few
F- Yous that night.
Monk Doggy, Juggalo Lineman