Last night I received a text message from our electricity supply company, apologising for frequent short outages over the last few months, and especially during 27th-30th Sept (?). This remarkable note explains that these are due to environmental situations such as trees touching overhead lines and cattle rubbing against electricity poles - yes - you did read that last bit correctly. They go on to state that they are going to build some fences and do some tree-trimming to address these problems.
Of course we have to be grateful, and one is keen not to say the wrong thing, but it seems there may be evidence of bulls making a bit of a mess as well. I would be more convinced if the lady on the supply company's helpdesk in Birkenhead hadn't told me a month ago that the problem seemed to be the supply being (automatically?) switched between areas at times of peak load. [We the customers have already done some investigation to check whether the outages coincided with time-switches turning on the big grain dryers on the local farms, which was interesting, though inconclusive.]
It also surprises me that cattle should rub against the poles at exactly 6:30am or 7pm each day - creatures of habit, obviously. I consider it unlikely that there are any livestock (apart from horses, which are fenced away from poles, and pigs, which are kept indoors) within 30 miles of here. Generally, I'd be more convinced if the note didn't read as if it were written by AI, or maybe Ms McOswald's class at the primary school.
I can't imagine what you're driving at; the photo you posted clearly shows that cows and cable-poles do not mix well. ;o)
ReplyDeleteMoo.
DeletePerhaps the instructions to the AI was to give " some bulls**t reason for the outages"......☺
ReplyDeleteNeil
Neil - I wouldn't be surprised!
DeleteHugh Walter sent a comment - Hugh, I don't disagree with what you say, but, if I publish it, I'm going to cause a lot of upset, and I'll be in line for death threats again. Thanks anyway...
ReplyDeleteI thought I was being quite reserved . . . for me! But totally understand!
DeleteH
Up there with leaves on the line and the wrong sort of snow. I'd be surprised if this stuff was written by AI though, just some hard pressed comms team trying pass on bad news with what little information they've been given.
ReplyDeleteTheir marketing and comms people have a lot of work to do to regain any credibility in these parts. During the great Storm Arwen (2021?) when everyone was blacked out for many miles around, the power company switched their phone system so that no-one could contact them - not even to report an emergency - all you could get were recorded messages about what a heroic job they were doing. This memory will run and run.
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