The Light Guy

The street lights in our parking lot have been out for a while. Then our front porch light broke and our new neighbor doesn't keep his porch light on all night anymore. It's been really, really dark around lately and I finally remembered to call the power company about it. Dominion Power sent a guy out within a day to fix all the lights. Thursday night they came out. I noticed a flashing light out the window. Brian was on a work conference call for several hours and Ben wasn't feeling well and had been vomiting earlier. I figured the fresh air would do us all good, so we grabbed some blankets and lawn chairs and set up camp on the sidewalk. They had the company trucks with the bucket lift on them and the guy was working at the top of the light pole. We got to see him go up and down and around. After a while he got the first light fixed. He drove over to the light closer to our house but Ben was starting to feel sick again so we didn't get to seem them up as close as I had hoped. They ended up not being able to fix our light in the end and eventually the truck left our street. Still the kids enjoyed what they got to watch. Saturday night Brian noticed they were back. Brian had the kids get ready to go outside very quickly and the three of them journeyed out to the parking lot to see the work in progress. When the man saw them, he stated that he would be out of the way very quickly. Brian responded that they were there to see the show. The man quickly finished fixing the light and then decided to give a real show. He started showing Ben and Maddie how the bucket could move up, but quickly bumped into the tree branches just above his head. He then lowered the bucket just enough to turn it away from the trees and then the real show started. When I came out the door, the bucket was fully extended and he was several stories high. He looked like he was in some sort of carnival ride--the bucket went up and down several times while making a few turns. Ben was impressed by how high the man could go and asked how the bucket was controlled. Maddie enjoyed the show a little bit, but didn't seem to understand how high the man had gone. Brian and I watched the truck lurch side to side each time the bucket made a sudden movement and were amazed that the truck didn't tip over on its side. Finally the man lowered the bucket and parked it on the truck. He turned the light on, shook hands with the kids and then drove away.