My civic duty

Yesterday I was determined to stay on schedule. Since my mother died and one child went to college and the other got her license my job duties as a SAHM have been reduced. I have started mapping out my days so that I don't just sit idle watching soaps and eating bon bons. Tuesday was mapped out accordingly:

• Strip beds, laundry
• Wash comforter at the cleaners
• Grocery
• Clean bedrooms and bathrooms
• Blog
• Work on picture project
• Pick up charge #1
• Guitar Lessons
• Pick up charge #2
• Make dinner

I felt it was a full day and one that would keep me very busy. I got through the first two quickly and was feeling pumped. In the middle of the grocery while looking for chicken breasts I received a text from daughter #2:

Darcy: "Hey mom will you call the doctor bc I'm having trouble breathing not like I can't breather it's sort of like my body is telling me to sleep a deep breath but I'm not able to get that breath and then I start breathing a lot of short breaths and I don't know what's wrong it's been going on for a couple of days and I just can't take it anymore. Plus I have other issues so kill multiple birds with one stone."

I got hung up on the first part of "I'm having trouble breathing" and suddenly I was having trouble breathing while holding packages of chicken breasts in one hand and the phone in the other. I took a deep breath and continued reading. Then I read it again. And again. Trying to decipher teen text language isn't easy, but I got the gist of the message. It wasn't anything new for Darcy who has experienced this once before in 2012. She had a chest x-ray and when all came back normal that was the end of it. I assured her I would call the doctor and she texted back a schedule of when an appointment would work for her which calmed me as it obviously wasn't an emergency.

I finished shopping, loaded the groceries in the car, and then called the doctor's office from the front seat. The man next to me was loading his groceries into his trunk and talking on a cell phone, and I was watching him as I spoke to the receptionist. Suddenly a loud BOOM shook the atmosphere like a huge explosion and both the man and I looked at each other and then turned toward the noise. Across the parking lot, behind the laundry mat I had been in earlier, an electric pole had something dangling in its wires. The object immediately exploded again and caught on fire in a ball of flames that I was sure would set the trees behind it on fire. We watched as the ball grew in flames and then as suddenly as it started it was out as if someone had doused it with water. 

I was still speaking to the doctor's office, and I turned back to my parking lot neighbor where we each mouthed to the other, "Holy Cow" or some such words. He got into his car and left and I finished my conversation after making an appointment for later in the day. I noticed that a few grocery store employees had come out of the store to see what had happened, but I also saw that the power appeared to still be on. From my vantage point it looked like a small drone airplane was dangling in the wires, and because it was interesting I decided to drive over to it to get a better look.

When I got to the pole I saw that it wasn't a plane, but the top of the pole. It was as if the top of the wooden pole had rotted and just fell over into the wires setting off an explosion. The pole itself was smoking from the top and I wondered if that was a concern. I needed to go to the Walmart grocery store across the street and I thought about the pole as I made my way there. I could still see it from the Walmart parking lot, and because I had recently put in Duke Energy's Outage number into my phone I called it.

Pedro: "Thank you for calling Duke Energy's Emergency number, how can I help you?"

Me: "Hello Pedro. I was just at the Publix grocery at (insert address) and south of that, behind the laundry mat and spa one of your electric poles exploded. The top of the pole fell and is dangling in the wires and it caught on fire when it fell, but the fire immediately went out. I'm not sure if anyone else reported this or not, but I drove by it and it is smoking."

Pedro: "Oh, my! And you said this is where again? The address?"

Me: "The Publix at (insert address). The pole is south of the grocery behind the nail spa."

Pedro: "And you say something is dangling in the wires?"

Me: "Yes, the top of the pole is dangling in the wires. It is as if the wood rotted and the top just fell off into the wires."

Pedro: "And there was a fire."

Me: "Oh, yes there was a fire. An explosion, a boom, a fire, and then it was all out and over. But there is smoke still coming from the pole. I'm not sure if businesses lost power or not, but I thought you needed to know about it."

Pedro: "May I have your name and number in case the technician would need to ask you questions once he gets on site?"

I really wanted to make a comment when he said that. "Absolutely, Pedro, have the technician call me if he needs helps repairing the damage. I'm an expert in repair jobs. Better yet, I shall get on my black, repair, bangled shirt, look up some repair advice on the Internet, and I can even meet the technician in the parking lot." I didn't though. Instead I gave him my name and number.

Pedro: "I want to thank you Cara, very much for taking the time out of your day to report this. I shall have a truck and technician out there shortly. You have done a great service. You are a queen in my book. You have saved the world!"

Well, he said the first part of that, but the rest of it I added when I told the story the rest of the day. By the time I got out of Walmart there was a fire engine and a Duke truck at the pole taking care of business. I decided to rubber neck and headed back across into the parking lot when I remembered that I really did need to go to the bank in the same plaza. I parked and headed inside, but was stopped by a lady coming out of the bank.

Lady: "Nope. Closed. They have no power. The whole plaza is out of power. I live in the condos behind here and we have no power. I haven't a clue why, but suddenly we lost power."

Me: "Well, I can tell you what happened because I saw the whole thing and was the one who reported it to Duke Energy."

Lady: "Really? Well, tell me! Tell me!"

The thing about these snow birds is that they love to be in the know and to take that information back to the rest of the group. So I filled her in, pointing and acting out the boom and the explosion, and ending with my heroism. She was dutifully impressed and could hardly wait to get back to the condos to report the news and as she hurried off she kept telling everyone else who pulled into the lot or tried to walk into the bank to talk to me. Suddenly I was holding court outside the bank telling everyone who listened the story of the exploding pole and my part in the rescue of the smoking pole. I eventually was saved by my friend who drove up, yelling out the window, "Hey Cara! I know you're responsible for this electric outage, what the hell did you do?"

And in that moment I realized that when one door closes, another one opens, and I told him not to worry that the technician and I would have this thing fixed in no time and then I would return to my SAHM job and get my non breathing kid to the doctor schedule be damned!