Wordy Wednesday

Today’s photo is one I took for Rinda’s scavenger hunt.

Know what it is?

It’s the shadow cast by a bucket truck on my driveway!

Know when I took it?

About 4 days ago!

Know how long the bucket truck has been in my driveway?

Going on 4 weeks and counting!

Yeah.

At the beginning of July we had a huge storm blow through the area and take out power all over the place. It also took out various pieces of equipment my ISP had on top of mountains, hanging from great heights. They asked me if it would be ok if they parked the truck in my yard at the end of the day for a few days to save them driving it 25 some miles into town every evening and then back 25 miles the next morning.

(my house is central to 3 of their sites. I just can’t see them due to topography)

I thought I might get a new mini tower out of it due to my ability to annoy the guys in person so I agreed.

A girl can dream right?

Towards the end of day two the bucket truck broke down. They were able to limp it down the mountain but it was only going about 5MPH & making horrible engine noise so they asked if they could leave it with me until they could get a tow truck out for it.

Have you ever seen a town truck that is big enough to tow a 60ft bucket truck?

Neither have I.

Nor has anyone else in town.

Which is why the bucket truck is still in my driveway.

Apparently it is cost prohibitive to get such a big tow truck to come down here from 70 some miles away to tow it. So they were going to have a mechanic come out and fix it on site. But then their other (smaller) truck died and they had to spend a bunch to get it fixed and so had to reschedule the mechanic, who insists on payment in full at the time of service. The mechanic is very busy, as any mechanic who makes house calls on industrial grade equipment would be. He’ll get back to them when he knows better when he can come fix it.

After a week or so passed, before I knew any of this, I called and asked when they were coming for their bucket truck. They waffled. So I tossed around words like “ground rent” and “I want a new mini tower for the inconvenience”.

I got neither.

But they did give me a new, upgraded radio that ought to vastly improve signal strength, and that they wanted to experiment with. The tech guy came out & installed it & I was not impressed. So the guy came back out and spent an hour on the phone saying things like “can you see me now?” and “how about now?” and “now?” over and over again until at last there was improvement.

I am currently getting a signal comparable to the one I was getting from the 75ft blight on the landscape but using my 50ft eyesore.

So yay!

Plus if it’s still in my yard come December the guys say they will come out and raise the bucket up so I can hang a big lit star off the bucket and run Xmas lights down the boom, giving me the first holiday lawn décor I have had in 12 years.

So there is that to look forward too.

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