We shut everything down, power wise, and went outside to watch the action.
The guys unloaded their equipment and a large cooler of water and went to work. They strung a new line by tying a rope to the line on the ground and the fellow up the post pulled it up, no picker truck for these guys, they climb the poles.
They also took every ones meter off, brushed out the inside with a small , dry paintbrush, and then sprayed the inside with something in an aerosol can (for conductivity or to get rid of moisture? I don't know) and then replaced it.
We went downstairs and sat in the shade with the landlord and landlady. He said they were running the new line to put another streetlight up as it is too dark on the street at night. I asked if the crew was from here or if they were a traveling crew, he said these guys go all over the place working on things. I also asked him if there was a schedule of when the lines were replaced and he told me that new ones get put in every 10 years. Our power here is very good, it rarely goes off and if it does, is usually only out for a couple of minutes. So we have no complaints with the power company. Last September during Hurricane Henriette we lost our power for only a short time.
So for awhile, there were guys scrambling all over the place, on peoples roof checking their hookups, at their meters and stringing new lines. Then the excitement was over as quickly as it started, they packed up and took off further up the street. The new street light was not installed so I have no idea if the regular CFE guys come along and do that or if I mis-understood the landlord.
At the same time on the corner there was a couple of fellows taking a motor out of a vehicle. They set up their frame and chains and while all the CFE excitement was going on, calmly pulled the motor out of the vehicle while chatting with all the guys hanging around.
