Hard wired

What do you think so far?

Good thoughts and wishes for the new directions you are taking, Uncle Ken.  I'm of the "pleasing mixture of colors and shapes" school of thought myself, and that's what makes a painting good.   Other opinions may differ.  I have thousands of (badly) archived images taken for the simple reason that I liked the way the scene or objects looked.  I suppose I should do something with them someday but then I'll end up with piles of drawings or paintings and I don't have the room for them.  I don't think it's a seller's market.

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A couple of summers ago new poles were being installed in the alley behind my building and I got to talking with one of the guys doing the work and made the mistake of calling them "telephone poles."  Not so; they are utility poles and don't you forget it.  I forgot what kind of trees they came from but their size is impressive when they are laying on the ground and you pace them off.  I think they are sunk ten feet into the ground, maybe more, and it's nice that a key component of our high tech society depends upon big wooden sticks stuck into the ground.

Despite my best efforts I was never able to catch a crew in the act of installing new poles.  I saw plenty of workers but never anybody working, if you know what I mean.  It seems that one day, out of nowhere, big wooden poles would be lying in the alley or along the curb.  They must have been very quietly dropped off by a truck; I would think that such a delivery would make quite a racket but it's like the poles magically appeared.  And then a few days later the old poles were gone, new poles were in the ground with all the wiring and other equipment attached, with no disruption of service. 

Uncle Ken raised a good question: Who's responsible for those utility poles, anyhow?  Since they are installed on city property I suppose City Hall has a big financial stake, charging a hefty fee for the use of a hole in the ground.  Since different utilities make use of the poles I think a privately held group holds control; more research is required.

Another good question is "what's the deal with landlines?"  A good answer is that they are extremely reliable, they are already installed, and they have uses besides telephone service, data transmission for instance.  My internet service is done through the old copper phone lines and it works swell; outages are extremely rare.  I know a lot of alarm systems use phone lines, and so do ATMs, vending machines, and other equipment that require a robust level of security.  Since the phone lines are  independent of the main power grid it's not a big deal if the juice goes out; the phone line is still good.  Even if landlines are no longer used for general telephone service they are not going anywhere.

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Last week I read about the political blunder of Mike Pence and his convoy on Mackinac Island and was expecting to hear from Mr. Beagles.  Was it a big nothing burger?  I can see the need for special vehicles containing security stuff, but why not take the helicopter to the hotel instead of an eight-vehicle convoy?  I know this is not the biggest political story of the week; it's the only one I can relate to since I've actually been to Mackinac Island but I'm no expert.  A single afternoon did not make much of an impression on the nine-year old Young Pup.