yeah, probably not a *good* noise to hear

So!  I got home from work last night, and headed to the mailbox to grab the mail, when I heard a sound.

zzzzzzt          zzzzzzzzzzzzt         zzzzzzzzzzzzt

It was coming from ... up in the air.  Up where the power lines run through the trees in my front yard.

zzzzzzzt  zzzt zzzzt zzzzzzzzzzt

"Meh," I thought.  "It sounds like something arcing, but I don't see any arcing.  Probably nothing," and I walked into the house.  All the power was on, TV/phone were working just fine.

A little while later, I had to go out to the car

 zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt   zzzzzzzzzt  zzzzzt zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt

And this time I could smell something.  Something ... burning.

"Oh, for f*ck's sake," I thought.  "My first day back to work, and now I've gotta deal with this?"

I went back in and called the utility company.  The woman I spoke with was very nice, said she'd get a truck right out, and added, "If anything else should happen before the truck gets there, please call us back."

"If anything else happens, the FIRST thing I'm doing is LEAVING," I said, and we both had a little laugh.  Arcing power lines!  Are funny!

So a little while later, up pulls the utility company truck, and a dude gets out and starts walking around the front yard, looking up into the trees.  Because I feel the need to inject myself into every event, I walked out and asked him, "do you hear it?"  "Naw, not right now," he said.  "Um ...," I said, "You might want to ... shut off your truck?"  That great big diesel was idling about ten feet from where we were standing.  "Oh, yeah!," dude said, and shut off the truck, and sure enough

zzzzzt   zzzzzzzzzzzt   zzzzzzzzzzzzt  zzzzzzzzt

"Yep," the dude said.  "I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take down some of those branches."

"Take 'em ALL," I said.  "Those trees are a pain in the butt!"  They are.  They are locust trees, nearing the end of their lifespan, and they keep dropping branches and drooping and in the fall the little tiny leaves are too small to rake, meaning they stay on the lawn all winter.  I don't know who ever thought that planting trees directly under power lines was a good idea, anyway.  IT WASN'T ME.

The dude laughed.  "Usually people get upset when I tell 'em I have to take down branches," he said.

"Take as many as you want," I said, and went back inside.

So dude got up in his bucket with his saw thing and went to work.  About twenty minutes later, there was a great big pile o' branches in my front yard, one of the trees looked decidedly ... lighter, and no more zzzzzt zzzzzzt zzzzzzt.

It's just one dang thing after another, I tell you.  It's always lively at my place.