I did something exceedingly stupid today. And because the parties who
\nforbade this excercise from taking place already know about it, there’s
\nreally no use in keeping it a secret anymore.<\/p>\n
Alabama Power is putting up a row of huge towers to support some power line
\ngoing to Mississippi. Or something like that. There’s a substation just to
\nthe north of us, so power poles go from all directions from it. Especially
\nnow. They bought some land from us near the back corner of our property to
\nmake way for this monstrosity. If we hadn’t have sold, they would have taken
\nus to court and then bought it for whatever price THEY thought was fair. We
\ndidn’t think it would be too bad, because we have woods back there to
\nseparate us from the lines. But one of the main power towers is so tall that
\nit sticks out above everything else around it. There’s a nice reflection of
\nit in our lake.<\/p>\n
They’re just starting to put the wires up for the electricity. The cables
\nare still attached to the spools they were wound from lying on the ground, so
\nthey’re not juiced up. Yet. I know this because I went back there this
\nafternoon. I had on my BDU pants and was carrying my blackberry picking
\nbucket and club, but that was only for show. My main purpose in taking a
\nwalk back behind our house was to climb the tower.<\/p>\n
Dad expressly forbade us to do anything of the sort a week ago. I decided
\nSunday would be the best time to do it because there would be no Alabama
\nPower people up on there yelling to each other as they worked on the wires.
\n And it was empty when I reached it. But that particular tower is in plain
\nsight of our house, and I really didn’t want to give my dad, who was cutting
\ndown even more privet bushes, a heart attack. So I cut through the woods to
\nget to the next tower, not quite as visible from our house, but there just
\nthe same. As soon as I entered the forest, I was accosted by several flies.
\n They tailed me, and something even nailed me right on the forehead, till I
\nemerged from the woods. There it was. The tower.<\/p>\n
I went up to one of its four legs. Bolts were screwed into hole of the metal
\nall the way up, just like a ladder. I gripped one of them and hoisted myself
\nup, then on up to the next bolt, testing each one to make sure it was screwed
\nin well. The thing about climbing is that it’s fine to look downward, just
\nnot focus on the ground. I had to look to see where to put my feet every
\nstep I took, but the ground simply looked the same distance away each time.<\/p>\n
Finally, where the four legs and the connecting struts stopped converging and
\nthen spread out again to send out horizontal beams to hold the cables, the
\nbolts ran out. I could have shimmied up around on the struts to wear they
\nstarted up again, but by then I’d looked down to see just how far I’d come.
\n It was a long way down. Nice view of the surrounding woods too. I thought
\nabout what someone had told me about not dying any time soon and decided
\nagainst continuing upward.<\/p>\n
The flies tormented me all the way home.<\/p>\n
I climbed the near tower tonight with someone else. Bolts ran out again near
\nthe top. Fireflies flickered in the distance. A sattelite passed overhead.
\n And the ground was invisibly far below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I did something exceedingly stupid today. And because the parties who forbade this excercise from taking place already know about it, there’s really no use in keeping it a secret anymore. Alabama Power is putting up a row of huge towers to support some power line going to Mississippi. Or something like that. There’s a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonclassified-nonsense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nachzen.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}