Author - Kyle G

On a cloudy morning on my way into work, I was listening to the radio and I heard that in the afternoon there was going to be a very bad thunder storm, with winds as high as 80/ Klm an hour.Once I arrived to work I met up with my foreman and some other lineman that were working with us that day.We prepared some material, and loaded up five, 40 Ft poles onto the pole trailer, and headed out to the job site.When we arrived to the site we had our tailboard meeting, and then began framing each pole before setting them. By the time we were on the second last pole we knew that the storm was arriving fast , the sky was getting darker, and the winds were starting to pick-up, we knew that the storm was going to hit us very soon. We decided to strap the last two poles down and head back to the shop.While in route back to the shop we recieved a call from dispatch, OH! NO! ''I said''. My foreman and I had to go to Mississauga to remove a 60 Ft steel pole that was rusted at the base and  the customer was afraid that the storm would bring it down, and that it would fall onto some cars that were in the parking lot.Once again in route attending to the emergency call, keeping in mind that the two other lineman that were with us earlier are probably ''laughing!'' at us right now!. When we arrived to the job we met up with the customer to find out what pole it was, once we knew ,we began working quickly setting up both trucks. By now the sky is at it's darkest and it has started to rain and there was lightning starting to develop all around us.''It's not a good time for us to be doing this right now!'' ''I said'', to my foreman as I run and grab a sling and quickly put on my harness and climb into the bucket and make my way up near the top. By this time my foreman has the boom of the RBD, ''The Stinger'' against the pole I choke the sling around the pole connect the shackle to the winch line and sling keeping in mind that I am about 50 Ft in the air and that there is lightning all around me. I make sure everything is secure and I make my descend down as fast as I can. I then climb out of the bucket and grab the cut off saw and begin to cut around the base of the pole, with my foreman operating the ''RBD'' the bottom of the pole gives away . I then position the but of the pole onto the grass area as my foreman continues to lower the top half down to the ground.With both of us being cold and soaking wet we secured the pole, said goodbye to the customer and we were on our way. ''With a little chuckle'', we turned off the radios , stopped for coffee, and headed for home.