The BIG TREE adventure continued
As I've said before, "ah Mexico, the adventure that just keeps giving - and giving - and (enough giving already!)".
Some of the dust from the big tree adventure has settled since our last visit, so here's how it went, and is going. I finally got the Rental Office's attention and they sent someone out to do a bit of logging here at Casa Abuelo. They came with ladder and chainsaw as I had suggested and began clearing away some of the branches to see how big the real problem was. Next it became obvious the cement electric pole was broken and laying against the tree and would have to be moved first. El supervisor from the CFE arrived and after a discussion left apparently leaving the impression a truck would return in an hour or two, maybe even manana - Gonzalo and his helper continued logging. While they waited I had them cut a sizable limb off the Cherry Moia tree out by the pool which was a major improvement, we can now actually open the pump house door rather than shinnying thru it.
Later I went out to check on progress and found the CFE had not returned, big surprise, so as near as I could determine they would start again manana at ocho (8am). Now I was interested in this because I've never seen a Mexican working at 8am and thought this would be cool to document. Of course 8 came and went, 9, 10 and it was about then I realized my stupid mistake, I had rashly assumed they meant 8am Central Mexico time, ultimately it was about 8am Hawaiian time which was more like 1pm Central when they arrived. They were clearly not pleased with the CFE no shows which made me smile to actually see a Mexican irritated by what generally irritates us - I smiled quietly, one of those priceless moments to savor.
In the middle of all this excitement I went to a 60th Bday party for my Spanish teacher and so had been concerned the gate would be blocked by all the activity and moved the car outside the compound just to be sure I could make my escape. Sure enough that part of the plan was a good idea, the rest of the mayhem was unscripted to say the least.
Pretty soon two more guys arrived with a really big chainsaw and this fellow was the "upstairs" guy who climbed and cut the tall stuff - and he's very good. Still no CFE, but pretty soon plan B arrived, the ubiquitous backhoe, they're the main source for clearing lots and most any other sizable job here in MX. He pushed the concrete pole over breaking it in two pieces and pushed it off to the side. Next he used the front bucket to lift the tree off the arch a bit and the chainsaw guy climbed up in the bucket and started cutting. Eventually all came down and the dissection began, it really was a big tree.
I had been eyeing another limb hanging out over the main house power lines out back and decided I might as well use the resources at hand. This time the guy climbed to the very top of the 24' extension ladder and then onto, and further up, the offending limb. He began cutting off sections ahead of himself while the ground crew dragged them onto a large pile next door, ah yes, the good old vacant lot next door (when they build on it we're going to have a problem). When finished he was so high the ladder would not reach so they threw up a rope and lowered him down, so at least I won't have to worry about that limb cutting off power to the main house and I'm beginning to learn you don't loose power for a few hours, you loose power until the CFE plugs you back in, which in the case of the casita was over a week. So Tuesday came and went with progress, at least now we could see the damage to the wall which had been cracked by the weight of the tree, so a call to the insurance company was in order. My tree trimmers said they'd be back in the morning to clean up - right, I remember how this works.
Wednesday morning I heard some activity out front a bit before 9am and sure enough they were back to MX time and sweeping and even using a leaf blower to clean up out front. I hiked up on the roof and did the same up there as we waited for the CFE crew to arrive and reconnect us. Finally the CFE truck arrived and this is where the real entertainment began.
One truck started hooking up a new wire to the pole across the street while a big one with a hoist set about picking up the broken pole. The guy running the controls had obviously just fallen off the tamale truck as he studied the row of levers controlling the hydraulic arm, pushing and pulling until he finally figured out which one made it go up, which one made it go out and which ones rotated it right and left - which also rotated it directly into the limbs of a tree above, breaking several limbs, I expressed my astonishment and displeasure with facial grimaces and shoulder shrugs ending in a down facing rotation of the head side to side - none of which impressed him in the slightest. By now the missing supervisor arrived and took over control of the infernal arm of botanic destruction and managed to pick up and load the remains of the pole on the truck.
At this point things were beginning to swirl out of control, I didn't see a new pole and the guy on the roof of the casita was starting to stretch the hookup wire from the pole with intent to hook it somewhere other than a non-existent new pole? I questioned where the new pole was and the answer was basically "nada" pole. Now all this was going on in two distinctly different languages. So, he called his officina and put on a lady who spoke Inglish and I talked with her for a while until the phone went dead at a suspiciously convenient time? - so, I motioned for el supervisor to come into the casita and I called Rentals where my lady spoke Inglish to me and Espanol to him, this whole thing was like a Keystone Cops scenario - you really have to imagine the comedic component of all this as it was a hoot.
The incoming power wire is a cable which basically supports the hot wire wound around it and also acts as the second wire, so it has to be anchored to something solid as it's coming nearly 100' from the pole, through the notch of a tree (trim the tree? - why Senior?) across the street and to the casita where he wraps the cable around a small stub of broken off limb on one of my trees! - I swear I'm not making this up, he wrapped the supporting cable to a tree, then looped it to my incoming electrical service pipe on top of the casita (which is tied with a small loop of baling wire to the chimney - it really is, I don't have to make up stuff like this, "CFE Tree Pole")
I was beyond incredulous, I said "you can't do that, not even in MX" - still gesturing wildly while sprinkling my gestations liberally with down hung shaking head to display my disbelief not to mention my doubt and displeasure. As you might already have guessed it was rewarded with shrugged shoulders by el supervisor. This is a compressed version of events because I was up and down the ladder several times in disbelief and I kept repeating "you can't do that - not even in MX" - all in vain. Their position was that it was up to us to provide a secure pipe they could connect their cable and in lieu of that, the tree was "it".
Somewhere in this whole process the Rental Officina sent out Luis, a little guy who was their "electrico" goto guy who did speak a reasonable amount of Inglish so I began the whole explanation again of how you just can't hook a power wire to a tree - it just ain't done! - but then again, this IS MX. Luis said he'd have to put a new pipe from the meter up to the roof and bolt it to the side of the house so the cable could be connected. I wasn't excited about the solution, but could see any further attempts to redirect Mexican culture was a fool's errand and said "ok". But seriously, I mean really? - the old service pipe had worked for 40 years, why should we have to replace it now because the CFE wasn't putting in a new pole - well senior, you have to do it because the CFE isn't putting in a new pole - oh, now I see? - this IS MX. (just as a side note, for the exorbitant per KWH fees we pay the CFE should put in custom designer poles)
Meanwhile the 3 man CFE crew was working on removing the remaining stub of a pole. You have to envision a 12" round concrete stub sticking about 6" out of the ground with probably 8 pieces of steel rebar sticking up. The unseen part of the pole is probably 5' in the ground, so they got out a grabber and tried to pull the pole with the infernal arm of botanic destruction - no joy, they got a bigger grabber and tried again, still no joy, so they got out a sledge hammer, bent over the rebar and piled a mound of dirt on the remains giving it a decent burial, I looked at it, shook my head and said to el supervisor "esta muerto, hay una cruz" (it's dead, we need a cross) - he either wasn't impressed with my attempt at Spanish, or maybe my attempt at humor - he just shrugged his shoulders (the more I think about it, that may be a primary requirement to be el supervisor). Actually I was still in pretty good humor through all this and still howling with laughter about tieing an electric wire to a tree, but we did have electrico in the casita and no tree laying on the gate, we parted company. So ended Wednesday.
Now, you might assume this ended the adventure in connecting trees to power lines (or visa versa) but no way, adventures in Mexico never really end "el camino va para siempre y el partido nunca termina" (the road goes on forever and the party never ends).
Thursday was pay-the-rent-day and I told them to call before sending Luis out to work on the electrico so I could let him in. Friday saw the arrival of the insurance adjuster which all went rather well, so I decided I'd go to Guad to get the car insurance thing settled which was a whole other adventure in finding an address in Guad. The guard at the gate said "Billy" would take care of me, he spoke muy bueno Inglish, unfortunately that was about the time "Billy" decided to disappear, so another young guy who wasn't as adept at Inglish as Billy helped me - we got through the whole thing, they gave me a check and I headed home.
About 6:30 Friday evening a moderate ill wind kicked up and sure enough, the main power to the casa grande went out, actually it dropped to about 60 volts, I strung the extension cords to the pump house to power the PC's and TV and retired for the evening secure in the knowledge that el supervisor and his merry band of pole climbers were not going to fix the electrico until manana.
Saturday morning I headed for the casita to take a pic of the "professional" CFE tree hookup thing and found it had changed? - about that time Pedro my gardener arrived and asked if I could let him in, seems Friday Luis showed up (without calling of course, silly me) to do the electrico and because I was in Guad, Pedro gave him his key to the front gate door - which was not properly locked, this wasn't looking good. Next I could see a channel had been chiseled out of the brick/stucco above the meter to the roof where a new piece of pipe protruded. The cement patchwork was apparently done my a gringo, I've never seen a Mexican do that bad a job with cement! - there was no attempt to blend or match the surface stucco, it was just slobbered into the gouged out area and left to dry - visualize mucho more head shaking.
Back on the roof the pipe is exactly where the old one was which is why the cable is tied to the tree which is in the direct line between the pole and in incoming service pipe. Now I will say he did a better job of hooking to the tree, he selected a larger more substantial branch to wrap around????? - the new pipe, the gouged out brick/stucco were all for nothing, the cable is still tied to the tree and when the wind blows it will likely pull on the wire which will pull the pipe which will crack the slobbered on cement which is probably a good thing.
I went ahead and remounted the street light I bought and hooked to the CFE side of the meter so they can pay the bill. I then wrote an Email to the Rental Officina with my displeasure and headed for the TV to watch NASCAR. By now it was 11:30 and while we were up to 90 volts, I figured the frig was beginning to warm having been without power for 17 hours, so I was stringing more extensions when the 4th hampster at the CFE station reported for work and the voltage soared to 127 volts (yes, that's what normal voltage is down here). So, all I had to do was unstring and unplug the extensions, reset all the timers and head for the TV.
Later the phone rang, I didn't answer, the Officina left a message wanting me to show Luis, on Monday, what needs to be done? - "el camino va para siempre y el partido nunca termina".
Some of the dust from the big tree adventure has settled since our last visit, so here's how it went, and is going. I finally got the Rental Office's attention and they sent someone out to do a bit of logging here at Casa Abuelo. They came with ladder and chainsaw as I had suggested and began clearing away some of the branches to see how big the real problem was. Next it became obvious the cement electric pole was broken and laying against the tree and would have to be moved first. El supervisor from the CFE arrived and after a discussion left apparently leaving the impression a truck would return in an hour or two, maybe even manana - Gonzalo and his helper continued logging. While they waited I had them cut a sizable limb off the Cherry Moia tree out by the pool which was a major improvement, we can now actually open the pump house door rather than shinnying thru it.
Later I went out to check on progress and found the CFE had not returned, big surprise, so as near as I could determine they would start again manana at ocho (8am). Now I was interested in this because I've never seen a Mexican working at 8am and thought this would be cool to document. Of course 8 came and went, 9, 10 and it was about then I realized my stupid mistake, I had rashly assumed they meant 8am Central Mexico time, ultimately it was about 8am Hawaiian time which was more like 1pm Central when they arrived. They were clearly not pleased with the CFE no shows which made me smile to actually see a Mexican irritated by what generally irritates us - I smiled quietly, one of those priceless moments to savor.
In the middle of all this excitement I went to a 60th Bday party for my Spanish teacher and so had been concerned the gate would be blocked by all the activity and moved the car outside the compound just to be sure I could make my escape. Sure enough that part of the plan was a good idea, the rest of the mayhem was unscripted to say the least.
Pretty soon two more guys arrived with a really big chainsaw and this fellow was the "upstairs" guy who climbed and cut the tall stuff - and he's very good. Still no CFE, but pretty soon plan B arrived, the ubiquitous backhoe, they're the main source for clearing lots and most any other sizable job here in MX. He pushed the concrete pole over breaking it in two pieces and pushed it off to the side. Next he used the front bucket to lift the tree off the arch a bit and the chainsaw guy climbed up in the bucket and started cutting. Eventually all came down and the dissection began, it really was a big tree.
I had been eyeing another limb hanging out over the main house power lines out back and decided I might as well use the resources at hand. This time the guy climbed to the very top of the 24' extension ladder and then onto, and further up, the offending limb. He began cutting off sections ahead of himself while the ground crew dragged them onto a large pile next door, ah yes, the good old vacant lot next door (when they build on it we're going to have a problem). When finished he was so high the ladder would not reach so they threw up a rope and lowered him down, so at least I won't have to worry about that limb cutting off power to the main house and I'm beginning to learn you don't loose power for a few hours, you loose power until the CFE plugs you back in, which in the case of the casita was over a week. So Tuesday came and went with progress, at least now we could see the damage to the wall which had been cracked by the weight of the tree, so a call to the insurance company was in order. My tree trimmers said they'd be back in the morning to clean up - right, I remember how this works.
Wednesday morning I heard some activity out front a bit before 9am and sure enough they were back to MX time and sweeping and even using a leaf blower to clean up out front. I hiked up on the roof and did the same up there as we waited for the CFE crew to arrive and reconnect us. Finally the CFE truck arrived and this is where the real entertainment began.
One truck started hooking up a new wire to the pole across the street while a big one with a hoist set about picking up the broken pole. The guy running the controls had obviously just fallen off the tamale truck as he studied the row of levers controlling the hydraulic arm, pushing and pulling until he finally figured out which one made it go up, which one made it go out and which ones rotated it right and left - which also rotated it directly into the limbs of a tree above, breaking several limbs, I expressed my astonishment and displeasure with facial grimaces and shoulder shrugs ending in a down facing rotation of the head side to side - none of which impressed him in the slightest. By now the missing supervisor arrived and took over control of the infernal arm of botanic destruction and managed to pick up and load the remains of the pole on the truck.
At this point things were beginning to swirl out of control, I didn't see a new pole and the guy on the roof of the casita was starting to stretch the hookup wire from the pole with intent to hook it somewhere other than a non-existent new pole? I questioned where the new pole was and the answer was basically "nada" pole. Now all this was going on in two distinctly different languages. So, he called his officina and put on a lady who spoke Inglish and I talked with her for a while until the phone went dead at a suspiciously convenient time? - so, I motioned for el supervisor to come into the casita and I called Rentals where my lady spoke Inglish to me and Espanol to him, this whole thing was like a Keystone Cops scenario - you really have to imagine the comedic component of all this as it was a hoot.
The incoming power wire is a cable which basically supports the hot wire wound around it and also acts as the second wire, so it has to be anchored to something solid as it's coming nearly 100' from the pole, through the notch of a tree (trim the tree? - why Senior?) across the street and to the casita where he wraps the cable around a small stub of broken off limb on one of my trees! - I swear I'm not making this up, he wrapped the supporting cable to a tree, then looped it to my incoming electrical service pipe on top of the casita (which is tied with a small loop of baling wire to the chimney - it really is, I don't have to make up stuff like this, "CFE Tree Pole")
I was beyond incredulous, I said "you can't do that, not even in MX" - still gesturing wildly while sprinkling my gestations liberally with down hung shaking head to display my disbelief not to mention my doubt and displeasure. As you might already have guessed it was rewarded with shrugged shoulders by el supervisor. This is a compressed version of events because I was up and down the ladder several times in disbelief and I kept repeating "you can't do that - not even in MX" - all in vain. Their position was that it was up to us to provide a secure pipe they could connect their cable and in lieu of that, the tree was "it".
Somewhere in this whole process the Rental Officina sent out Luis, a little guy who was their "electrico" goto guy who did speak a reasonable amount of Inglish so I began the whole explanation again of how you just can't hook a power wire to a tree - it just ain't done! - but then again, this IS MX. Luis said he'd have to put a new pipe from the meter up to the roof and bolt it to the side of the house so the cable could be connected. I wasn't excited about the solution, but could see any further attempts to redirect Mexican culture was a fool's errand and said "ok". But seriously, I mean really? - the old service pipe had worked for 40 years, why should we have to replace it now because the CFE wasn't putting in a new pole - well senior, you have to do it because the CFE isn't putting in a new pole - oh, now I see? - this IS MX. (just as a side note, for the exorbitant per KWH fees we pay the CFE should put in custom designer poles)
Meanwhile the 3 man CFE crew was working on removing the remaining stub of a pole. You have to envision a 12" round concrete stub sticking about 6" out of the ground with probably 8 pieces of steel rebar sticking up. The unseen part of the pole is probably 5' in the ground, so they got out a grabber and tried to pull the pole with the infernal arm of botanic destruction - no joy, they got a bigger grabber and tried again, still no joy, so they got out a sledge hammer, bent over the rebar and piled a mound of dirt on the remains giving it a decent burial, I looked at it, shook my head and said to el supervisor "esta muerto, hay una cruz" (it's dead, we need a cross) - he either wasn't impressed with my attempt at Spanish, or maybe my attempt at humor - he just shrugged his shoulders (the more I think about it, that may be a primary requirement to be el supervisor). Actually I was still in pretty good humor through all this and still howling with laughter about tieing an electric wire to a tree, but we did have electrico in the casita and no tree laying on the gate, we parted company. So ended Wednesday.
Now, you might assume this ended the adventure in connecting trees to power lines (or visa versa) but no way, adventures in Mexico never really end "el camino va para siempre y el partido nunca termina" (the road goes on forever and the party never ends).
Thursday was pay-the-rent-day and I told them to call before sending Luis out to work on the electrico so I could let him in. Friday saw the arrival of the insurance adjuster which all went rather well, so I decided I'd go to Guad to get the car insurance thing settled which was a whole other adventure in finding an address in Guad. The guard at the gate said "Billy" would take care of me, he spoke muy bueno Inglish, unfortunately that was about the time "Billy" decided to disappear, so another young guy who wasn't as adept at Inglish as Billy helped me - we got through the whole thing, they gave me a check and I headed home.
About 6:30 Friday evening a moderate ill wind kicked up and sure enough, the main power to the casa grande went out, actually it dropped to about 60 volts, I strung the extension cords to the pump house to power the PC's and TV and retired for the evening secure in the knowledge that el supervisor and his merry band of pole climbers were not going to fix the electrico until manana.
Saturday morning I headed for the casita to take a pic of the "professional" CFE tree hookup thing and found it had changed? - about that time Pedro my gardener arrived and asked if I could let him in, seems Friday Luis showed up (without calling of course, silly me) to do the electrico and because I was in Guad, Pedro gave him his key to the front gate door - which was not properly locked, this wasn't looking good. Next I could see a channel had been chiseled out of the brick/stucco above the meter to the roof where a new piece of pipe protruded. The cement patchwork was apparently done my a gringo, I've never seen a Mexican do that bad a job with cement! - there was no attempt to blend or match the surface stucco, it was just slobbered into the gouged out area and left to dry - visualize mucho more head shaking.
Back on the roof the pipe is exactly where the old one was which is why the cable is tied to the tree which is in the direct line between the pole and in incoming service pipe. Now I will say he did a better job of hooking to the tree, he selected a larger more substantial branch to wrap around????? - the new pipe, the gouged out brick/stucco were all for nothing, the cable is still tied to the tree and when the wind blows it will likely pull on the wire which will pull the pipe which will crack the slobbered on cement which is probably a good thing.
I went ahead and remounted the street light I bought and hooked to the CFE side of the meter so they can pay the bill. I then wrote an Email to the Rental Officina with my displeasure and headed for the TV to watch NASCAR. By now it was 11:30 and while we were up to 90 volts, I figured the frig was beginning to warm having been without power for 17 hours, so I was stringing more extensions when the 4th hampster at the CFE station reported for work and the voltage soared to 127 volts (yes, that's what normal voltage is down here). So, all I had to do was unstring and unplug the extensions, reset all the timers and head for the TV.
Later the phone rang, I didn't answer, the Officina left a message wanting me to show Luis, on Monday, what needs to be done? - "el camino va para siempre y el partido nunca termina".
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