No Run Last Saturday -
I have a thing with time off around the 4th of July. Something always happens.
2 years ago, I took the Jeep back country. It was Molly and I. I ended up on a very narrow trail. The Jeep slid off on the passenger side. The winch failed. Tom had to come and get us after a night in the dark with scary sounds all around.
Last year, Tom, Molly and I decided to go camping and ride a trail. The trail was far from town and it was difficult. It rained most of the day. When we finally got on the difficult trail, I spun a hub (that means that I jammed the steering causing the u-joint at the end of the axle to rotate incorrectly and break). We put it back together in the rain and headed back to home. Unfortunately, we didn't put it together enough with enough parts to guarantee safety. We forgot to install the wheel bearing. It was pretty surprising when the passenger front tire fell off the Jeep at 55 MPH. I was driving. It was an interesting experience. I stomped on the brakes, shifted into neutral and locked my arms, hands and wrists on each side of the steering wheel. The jeep finally stopped with the axle buried in the gravel at the side of the highway. 30 minutes later we had the wheel back on and drove slowly back to Denver.
That is some history.
Now - Saturday.
We were packed and ready to go to Jenny Creek, a Jeep trail near Rollinsville, CO. If you have ever taken Amtrak through Colorado, you've gone through the 6 mile long Moffat tunnel. It is on the route between Winter Park and Rollinsville. It is the train tunnel through the Continental Divide. We were about to get in it and head out when I got a cell phone call. It was 9:00 AM.
It was my boss. "There are problems at the office with the phones," he says. "Half of the upstairs is out and we can't get a dial tone anywhere!" I was soon on my way to the office instead.
I got to the office and tested around. Something catastrophic had happened. Now, what is it? I checked the phone room and the outside phone connections. Everything looked OK. I called our telecom vendor and explained the situation. He suggested that I call the phone company and put in a trouble ticket.
I called and scheduled a repair. 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, no later than 5:30. Oh Great. As it was a holiday weekend and it was a July 4th holiday, I expected to see the repair guy at 5:29 PM. I was pleasantly surprised when I got his call at 4:05 PM. "It's OK from the pole to the demark (outside connection point)", he said. I reached for a phone. Still no dial tone.
I called the telecom vendor again. He didn't want to come out and warned me about time and a half per hour. I had to get the phone system up again so he came out. He checked the connections in the phone room. Nothing. We went outside. He looked at the cabinet, looked at the wall, looked at the cabinet again. He looked at me and said that I had better file a police report.
Someone during the early morning hours (between 3:45 AM (the last received message on the voice mail) and 6:30 AM when the boss came in, a thief took 50 feet of 50 pair cable from the outside box to where it enterred the phone room wall. Just cut both ends and took it away.
A smart telecom guy can be a real asset. He was able to reconnect all of our lines in a more secure manner than before without having to string more cable to be stolen.
It took a while to get everything fixed up, but we were able to do it. I finally got home at 9:00 PM.
What did the thief get? Maybe $25 for the copper in the cable. It cost the company between $500 and a $1000. Hmmm...
No run on Saturday for me!
2 years ago, I took the Jeep back country. It was Molly and I. I ended up on a very narrow trail. The Jeep slid off on the passenger side. The winch failed. Tom had to come and get us after a night in the dark with scary sounds all around.
Last year, Tom, Molly and I decided to go camping and ride a trail. The trail was far from town and it was difficult. It rained most of the day. When we finally got on the difficult trail, I spun a hub (that means that I jammed the steering causing the u-joint at the end of the axle to rotate incorrectly and break). We put it back together in the rain and headed back to home. Unfortunately, we didn't put it together enough with enough parts to guarantee safety. We forgot to install the wheel bearing. It was pretty surprising when the passenger front tire fell off the Jeep at 55 MPH. I was driving. It was an interesting experience. I stomped on the brakes, shifted into neutral and locked my arms, hands and wrists on each side of the steering wheel. The jeep finally stopped with the axle buried in the gravel at the side of the highway. 30 minutes later we had the wheel back on and drove slowly back to Denver.
That is some history.
Now - Saturday.
We were packed and ready to go to Jenny Creek, a Jeep trail near Rollinsville, CO. If you have ever taken Amtrak through Colorado, you've gone through the 6 mile long Moffat tunnel. It is on the route between Winter Park and Rollinsville. It is the train tunnel through the Continental Divide. We were about to get in it and head out when I got a cell phone call. It was 9:00 AM.
It was my boss. "There are problems at the office with the phones," he says. "Half of the upstairs is out and we can't get a dial tone anywhere!" I was soon on my way to the office instead.
I got to the office and tested around. Something catastrophic had happened. Now, what is it? I checked the phone room and the outside phone connections. Everything looked OK. I called our telecom vendor and explained the situation. He suggested that I call the phone company and put in a trouble ticket.
I called and scheduled a repair. 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, no later than 5:30. Oh Great. As it was a holiday weekend and it was a July 4th holiday, I expected to see the repair guy at 5:29 PM. I was pleasantly surprised when I got his call at 4:05 PM. "It's OK from the pole to the demark (outside connection point)", he said. I reached for a phone. Still no dial tone.
I called the telecom vendor again. He didn't want to come out and warned me about time and a half per hour. I had to get the phone system up again so he came out. He checked the connections in the phone room. Nothing. We went outside. He looked at the cabinet, looked at the wall, looked at the cabinet again. He looked at me and said that I had better file a police report.
Someone during the early morning hours (between 3:45 AM (the last received message on the voice mail) and 6:30 AM when the boss came in, a thief took 50 feet of 50 pair cable from the outside box to where it enterred the phone room wall. Just cut both ends and took it away.
A smart telecom guy can be a real asset. He was able to reconnect all of our lines in a more secure manner than before without having to string more cable to be stolen.
It took a while to get everything fixed up, but we were able to do it. I finally got home at 9:00 PM.
What did the thief get? Maybe $25 for the copper in the cable. It cost the company between $500 and a $1000. Hmmm...
No run on Saturday for me!
posted by CewTwo at 2:36 PM
3 Comments:
Holy cow! What a story! No rest for the weary...
Wow! That is something else! Copper theft is pretty popular in Orlando.
$25 in copper and a ruined day for you.
Sorry you did not get to Rollinsville. My wife's Uncle lives there and we visit often. Beautiful area. Copper theft is real common for the drug types. Sorry for your bad day.
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