Troubleshooting

Have to solve the phone problem. I need to know the problem is not from the box to the house, because then I know it's my problem. My actual phone could be dead, so I can't rely on it to test the system, so it's off to town, where I get a cheap Princess land-line for ten bucks. If the problem isn't my phone, at least I now have a backup and they're getting hard to find. After lunch with TR and a stop at the store, I finally got back home, giving it 50-50 it's me or them; hoping that it's me, because I have a new phone and enough phone-line to run a new service. But alas, even the new phone, plugged into the test slot, gets no dial tone. It's them. Which means I have to go back out tomorrow (but only as far as the Qwick Stop, where there's a phone) to call them. They'll probably send part of that hot-shot crew that was out here just a couple of months ago, replacing my feeder line and feeling great about the overtime. I looked at the line, going out and coming back in, and couldn't see the problem. But now, and that was the point, I knew it's not my problem. Another hard freeze tonight, then warming right back up. A cycle designed to drive you crazy. Terry wasn't around, so we couldn't talk about me cooking for his cronies; and I didn't want to be in town, so I just bought some groceries and went home. Had to stop at the lake because it was gone. They'd drained the entire thing (this has been going on for weeks) so they could work on the dam. There's always been an emergency overflow system in place, essentially a sluice-gate and a ditch, and what they seem to be doing is building the emergency overflow right into the dam, which involves drilling seven three foot in diameter holes, at two different levels, completely through many feet of cured concrete. This involves a very large crew and a great deal of equipage. Must be costing millions, seriously. They have a crane, of course, because the cores, after they've been drilled out, with the largest diamond bits I've ever seen, and the largest drills, using the largest generators, must weight thousands of pounds. Concrete, specific gravity 2.37, weighs 148 pounds a cubic foot. The pieces are three feet by four feet and three feet by five feet. It's four in the morning right now, and I can't do the math, but I suspect they're very heavy. I watch for a while, admiring the logistics. The lake bed, much shallower than any of us (the watchers) had suspected, is a revelation. A wrack field. As soon as it firms up there are people out there with metal detectors, and clipboards. I hate those motherfuckers with clipboards, but someone has to keep track. I've spilled in enough rapids to know what to do, keep your legs in front of you and stay flexible. Where the water wants through, there's always a channel. A fitful night, bad dreams I don't remember, so O got up just at dawn, made a coffee and fixed a huge breakfast. A small remaindered strip steak, the last of the first morels fried in butter, eggs over easy, toast. Nice way to start a day. Ranching in Colorado, I had a small steaks of many sorts, we traded beef and pork for elk, lamb for antelope, and I had them for breakfast routinely. I've always loved breakfast. Probably haven't eaten a thousand omelets, but I bet I'm getting close. I clean up, a little personal hygiene, and after reading for a couple of hours (I was in the middle of rereading The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, where Higgins creates a world in dialogue, it's quite astounding) got dressed and headed out to find a place from which to call the phone company. Going out Mackletree the first two miles is wilderness, and I always drive it slowly; hated making this trip, didn't want to leave the ridge, figured I'd go to the pub and use the phone there, and just as I broke out of the forest saw Emily, on horseback, talking to the man of the house in the first place on the left. I knew him, to wave to, but we'd never spoken. I stopped, to say a few words with Emily, I explained why I was going out, and the guy said I could use his phone to call the phone company, though it was a cell phone and I have trouble with them. My phone problem, I'm assured, will be fixed by next Tuesday. I'd now done, I thought at the time, everything I could do, so I just turned around and went back home. Redbuds and those few fruit trees that might survive, they don't need my help.