Electric excitement
Oct. 14th, 2019 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizillaA few weeks ago, maybe a month? Steve and I woke up in the middle of the night thinking there had been an explosion. We both woke up, to a loud sound, and I could swear when I opened my eyes there was a flash of light that disappeared even as I struggled to awareness. But nothing was happening, all was quiet, and we went back to sleep. Anyways, I think this was the first incident, but we didn't realize it at the time. I wish I had updated my journal when this happened because if I had I would be able to refer back and find which day it was.
Now, fast forward to the weekend just ended.
As we were getting ready for bed, Saturday, the lights were flickering. But they flicker all the time; this is why I have UPS.
After we turned out the lights and lay quietly in the bed, I could hear noise outside. I thought someone must be lighting firecrackers or maybe a vehicle was backfiring. We live in town, there are always noises, so I didn't worry much.
Then at around 2:30am I woke up because the fireworks were going off outside again. Lights were flashing in the trees on the vacant lot behind my backyard. I could see the flashes from where I lay in bed. It did it a few more times and I realized, this was not fireworks. This was electricity. There were sizzling pops and bright flashes as substantial amounts of power arced around out there. A mini lightning storm was happening in the woods out back.
So I got out of bed and called DTE. I spoke to a very bored sounding rep with a script, and he said he'd send someone out.
I went back to bed. The eerie crackles and flashes would die down for a while but always happened again, and I didn't doze for long, just lay there waiting for the next zap. Around 3:45 I saw lights without noise. Someone was in my backyard with the brightest flashlight I have ever seen, shining it around in the trees. I opened the window and called to him. It was the DTE guy. I told him roughly where the flashing was last seen. Then I heard the now familiar crackling ZAP and saw a flash light the trees. The DTE guy saw it too. He said it was not something they can work on in the dark and to keep people and pets away, they would fix it in the morning. He left, and the show continued.
The sun rose and even in daylight I could see the flashes, now that I was paying attention.
Around 10:30am, three trucks arrived and a crew trimmed a very small number of branches back there. You couldn't even see any change in that thicket.
Our power has not flickered since. Did this just resolve a long term issue that was causing all those power flickers? I guess we'll see.
Now, fast forward to the weekend just ended.
As we were getting ready for bed, Saturday, the lights were flickering. But they flicker all the time; this is why I have UPS.
After we turned out the lights and lay quietly in the bed, I could hear noise outside. I thought someone must be lighting firecrackers or maybe a vehicle was backfiring. We live in town, there are always noises, so I didn't worry much.
Then at around 2:30am I woke up because the fireworks were going off outside again. Lights were flashing in the trees on the vacant lot behind my backyard. I could see the flashes from where I lay in bed. It did it a few more times and I realized, this was not fireworks. This was electricity. There were sizzling pops and bright flashes as substantial amounts of power arced around out there. A mini lightning storm was happening in the woods out back.
So I got out of bed and called DTE. I spoke to a very bored sounding rep with a script, and he said he'd send someone out.
I went back to bed. The eerie crackles and flashes would die down for a while but always happened again, and I didn't doze for long, just lay there waiting for the next zap. Around 3:45 I saw lights without noise. Someone was in my backyard with the brightest flashlight I have ever seen, shining it around in the trees. I opened the window and called to him. It was the DTE guy. I told him roughly where the flashing was last seen. Then I heard the now familiar crackling ZAP and saw a flash light the trees. The DTE guy saw it too. He said it was not something they can work on in the dark and to keep people and pets away, they would fix it in the morning. He left, and the show continued.
The sun rose and even in daylight I could see the flashes, now that I was paying attention.
Around 10:30am, three trucks arrived and a crew trimmed a very small number of branches back there. You couldn't even see any change in that thicket.
Our power has not flickered since. Did this just resolve a long term issue that was causing all those power flickers? I guess we'll see.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-15 06:04 pm (UTC)I am reminded of an incident near our house, a few years ago. There was an earth-shattering kaboom and a pillar of fire that reached up above the neighbouring houses. Con_girl, who saw it before me, says that it was more than twice that height, in the first moments. We called it in and saw the emergency response.
I rode past the house in question, on my bike, the next morning. A large shed behind one of the houses was pretty much gone. I remember that I found a short, very uninformative news article but we never did find out what exploded. My bet would be a propane tank except that there was no visible damage to the side of the house, which was no more than twenty feet away, compared with the height of the flames, which was at least fifty feet.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-15 09:22 pm (UTC)Was anyone hurt in your explosion?
no subject
Date: 2019-10-16 05:13 pm (UTC)