The power went out. Again!

I looked out my second story office window and knew exactly why. I could hear the sounds throughout the morning. This crew of 4 men and 3 bucket trucks stringing power lines along the new poles they had been planting in the front and back yards of my neighborhood the past few weeks.

Often during this time, I would be working on my laptop on the front porch and watched this professional teamwork in total synchronicity, moving from pole to pole in planned sequence. First it was connecting the phone lines. Then, cable. Today, and finally, from the back alley, the electricity.

What was of extreme interest to me was the foreman of this well- oiled machine. A big, burly middle-aged fellow whose sheer stature and hard look would intimidate most. But, he always uttered his commands, some very loudly as his underlings were often thirty-five feet in the air, with warm authority.

You could tell his crew really liked and had great respect for him. Although this was far from your typical ‘lean on your shovel’ squad, they still joked while working at a well-managed pace. Bossman, whose job description no doubt mandated a no hands-on, no physical labor approach, was always doing something to speed things along, be it picking up refuse or spooling wire. In fact, while they were in the process of connecting my power, guess who was pruning the overgrown pine tree branches in my backyard to make it

easier for his boys? It was at this point that I brought

my high-wire friends a

sampling of my special blend coffee (I prepared this, just prior to ‘lights out’), reserved usually

for special company. ?

There was no better way to get going—sankyscorner.com