I Used to Like to Play with Dominoes

I used to like to play with dominoes. Don’t misunderstand me. I didn’t say I liked playing dominoes. That game was no fun at all. I liked lining the dominoes up and then tipping the one on the end so I could watch the whole rest of the line topple over. I even got pretty good at making fairly intricate patterns for an elementary aged kid. All of the time it took to space them out and arrange them was worth the couple of seconds I got when I was finished. I liked the sight and I liked the sound.

I don’t like dominoes anymore.

Sunday afternoon, between 4:30 and 7:00 p.m., the weather was kind of hot but pretty. No storms, no wind. On a quiet, still day, a large piece of an oak tree too high up to notice being dead decided to let go and come crashing to the ground. It contacted the power service running from the pole at the street to the house and pulled everything off of the house. As bad as that was, I had no idea that it was only the first domino to fall. The noise had only begun.

The call to the power company was responded to almost immediately but the new he had was not so good. There was not a thing that they could do until a contractor had come to rebuild the service on the house. Fortunately, I know some electrical contractors who were on site first thing Monday morning and completed their work before noon. I thought we were well on our way to having power back on by supper time.

But wait. The city building inspector has to approve the contractor’s work before the power company can do their part. Inspection was completed with time to still hope for power Monday afternoon. But apparently the inspector waits to fax his confirmations at the end of the day. So…another night without power…a night without air conditioning.

First thing this morning, 7:00 a.m. sharp, the power company was here to execute their work to restore power to the house. An hour later, lights appear, clocks blink and refrigerator motors whine to life. Thanks Mr. Power Company Man!

But wait.

Why isn’t the air conditioner starting up? Something in the surge has messed it up. A call to the repairmen first thing returns a promise to be out before the end of the day.

Oh yeah.

Tied up with the bundle of lines coming from the street was the coax for the cable. A call to the cable company at lunch time has a man here a couple of hours later.

As fate would have it, everyone arrives at the same time. Nobody’s job appears to be that simple. They are under the house, on the house, in the house, too.

Did I ever tell you I used to like to play with dominoes?