When the power goes out

It's annoying. I was in the middle of some stuff this morning upstairs
when the power went out around 9 am. So I find the electric bill and
call their reporting number. A few minutes later, a fire engine comes
through and up over the hill, followed some time later by an electric
company cherry picker truck.

I wonder what happened. My first thought on that was some redneck
neighbor up the road (and over the hill) knocked over a power pole. It
could be an accident of some sort. Oh well.

It took about 13 minutes more than the automated voice on the phone said
it would take. Generally the electric service around here has been more
reliable than where my grandparents' home is where it would go out even
on just a rumble of thunder some days, and some times just go out for no
reason at all.