In that case I'm sure no one here would object if we issued you a bubba redneck card to replace it.

Meh they took that one a few months back when eveyone though I was saying any white person with a rebel flag was racist

I had the blessing to go to Alaska when I was in college and stay with a close family friend that lived there. He was a lineman and worked on the Kenai.
I was in my twenties then, and he was close to 3X my age, but he was a beast of a man when it came to endurance, strength, and perseverance. I would go out with him and he'd throw a 36" stihl chainsaw on his back, all his gear and put snow shoes on to get to where folks were having an outage. One day, a little town called Hope was out of electricity, I went with him and tried to carry things to help, but he could do it all himself. We hiked down that ROW through the snow; him carrying everything on his back to fix it. He found the problem cause he was that good, crawled up that pole and fixed the little town right up. Lots of people came out from that little town to thank him.

Linemen certainly don't get the praise they deserve.

As far as Houston goes. Yes, its a craphole, but DEI is probably why people are dying because Centerpoint cant get the power on after a week.
Who you put in leadership matters. Biden and the last 4 years is a perfect example.

It sucks hauling in everything that you think you might need, only to find out it’s a blown transformer…..no access…lol. Haul most of the gear back, go and get the equipment you need to change it off the stick. The Milwaukee stuff in the last few years sure make life a lot easier.

Here’s a link to a FB vid….
https://fb.watch/tm6cDQ50oa/?

I worked in a village hydro utility for 36 years, most of the time , just myself. Had a few bad storms , both wind and ice. The one that stands out, was an ice storm started on the opeening day of deer season. I hunted the opening morning, by night ,the whole utility was shut down. Actually , I shut it down , before the lines burned down.. I had good help from several local utilities, Local firemen a nd volanteers . By about the Thursday , things were , coming togather. I was just about tapped out , body and mind. About mid afternoon, I got my old 243 sav, and went hunting. By near dark, I shot a nice 4 point, Funny how that changes your attitude. Old243

My one grandson is an apprentice linesman and his dad is a linesman that was on Katrina people don’t understand it’s a dangerous job and they bring the power with them you can put up lines all day long but if there isn’t juice it doesn’t matter. Lost power here in 2006 ice storm for 9 days wired a plug in cord to the furnace on the breaker box and lived fine off the generator, stuff like that makes a person realize how cheap electricity is

When you change over a pole like this energized and leave all the cut off hardware on our material stores loading dock to strip, and get in crap from their supervisor for leaving a safety hazard on the dock......you start thinking "this is a safety hazard?".....LOL

A fellow lineman I’ve worked with over the past 20 years died this morning on a trouble call. Not much for details yet, but electricity was a factor. RIP Kyle Spalding, a brother from another mother.

Very sad to hear prayers for him and the family

Stick the power underground and lives would be better.....except for yours.....

$$$$ to install and more time & $$$ to repair when Lil Johnny finds it with his hoe. Overhead is exposed but easy and cheap to fix. Play safe out there.

Not to mention emergency generators that some schmuck is too cheap to isolate from the line, causing a reverse voltage.

It’s all speculation right now and we all know which rules we can bend. Was he the first one scene with his partner showing up to see him hanging from his belt and had to do pole top rescue?…...sure hope not. We practice it every year but hope we never have to do it.

Prayers sent for the family and the coworkers . My son’s company lost a worker this past week on some underground don’t know any details besides said he was pulling in some new underground.

I had a career in the hooks and wouldn't have done another job. I loved every day being a lineman.

Yea, it’s not just a job, it’s who we are. There’s a few that leave as soon as they get their ticket, no problem with that, but it’s usually a good thing they move on.
One of the questions we ask each other before someone is offered a job is “can you see yourself working with this person at 3AM in -40 or a thunder storm?” There was a guy in the top 5 who’s dad was a manager and uncles were all retired Mb Hydro linemen. I answered no to this question. His dad asked for an explanation why his boy was graded so high and wasn’t offered a position, we told him and he was very understanding……kinda like he knew. (His boy was my operator for 6 months and had poor work ethic and attitude)

It is who you are and a unique career. I will say the job isn't for the weak and you need to love the job. When you are on top of a 60 footer in hooks wind blowing and 20 below. Been there and have worked every weather extreme and conditions there has been. I still wouldn't have traded the risk job for no another career.

People in other positions take stress leave, work is my stress leave…lol. Must suck to wake up and dread another day of work.
They young trainees do the brunt of the physical stuff, a few years after you get your ticket, our utility pays you to use your brain not your brawn. If something doesn’t feel quite right, change of plans. When I was younger, I’d just kinda wing it. If you do it real quick you might be fine, but it’s tough to beat 60 cycles per second, or gravity. My old call partner was at the transformer on top of a 40’ stick when the it snapped 15’ up. Was good access but instead of waiting for the bucket, he decided to strip the transformer to save a couple minutes before it showed up. Died a few times and will never be the same. The lightning arrester caved his skull in above the eye socket. He’s at home stuck in our medical system. Life ain’t good.
I had to guard the scene at 1AM until the province showed up. They beat our safety officer to the site. Windy, rain mixed with snow. Air ambulance couldn’t fly.