The Farmers Rural Electric Coop came around yesterday checking the lines and poles and miscellaneous parts of our power infrastructure. The dude on the big, quiet four-wheeler found that one of the insulators on the post going past the old Wilson Ford Road pole had broken. That line is such a frail reed in getting us electricity back into the holler that the utility guy said he was going to call in an immediate work order and that, perhaps, it would be completed today. And they did come.

Two bucket trucks, one pickup, and one four-wheeler came post haste. Two pole climbers were pretty funny as they pulled the old insulators off and put the new ones in. One said to the other, “I don’t know if we should both be on the pole at the same time.” Later I heard the other one, laughing as he exclaimed, ” You trying to kill me?” This was the banter of folks who work together in a very dangerous environment trying to make light of that danger. Make no mistake they were risking limb and life to bring safe power back to us. Bless ‘em.

No muss, no fuss. Power was off for less than two hours. This is how a rural utility cooperative works. If we didn’t have rural electrification (aka, socialism) we would have neither power nor data. Population density is insufficient for corporations with “bottom lines” to do it. I can’t imagine Kentucky Utilities bringing me power. I fear that we may in the very near future get a relapse into pre-utility times as the grids decentralize, but for now we take care of each other in very uncertain times. Thanks to FDR for creating these mutual aid institutions. In hard times you need more of these. Let us keep supporting and expanding them. They work.