Winter Weather Work

If you’re from the Hi-Line area of North Dakota, Montana, Northern Idaho, and Northeastern Washington, you know that you can get some pretty extreme winter weather.  Extreme weather is pretty common in North Dakota and Montana, but Northeastern Washington can, and has, set some weather records.

I remember one winter in North Dakota we had a lot of snow and hard winds.  It blocked the railroad track.  We had no mail for a week.  Even with big rotary plows it took a week to clear the railroad tracks for about 100 miles.  In my eighty some years, it was the worst storm I have ever seen.

In Montana we lived and worked along the Hi-line.  The Hi-line is an area along Highway two that runs parallel to the Canadian border.  One job we did in the winter there involved wiring a new motel.  The weather turned cold – about 20 below zero.  No windows or doors had been installed and, of course, there was no heat.  It didn’t stop us.  You learn to adapt to the weather.

Contrary to expectations, many people along the Hi-line would go to Canada for vacations.  One winter I was working for a small shop with three electricians, including me.  One weekend the other two decided they were going to Canada for the weekend.  They didn’t return on Monday.

They called the boss and said they couldn’t get out because of the snow.  I was running crazy trying to keep up with the work by myself.  Every day the boss would get a call from them saying they were still snowed in.  Finally they showed up on Friday.  Everyone worked hard for a week to catch up.

Finally I had the opportunity to talk to one of the guys, and I inquired if there had been a hard storm up there.  I asked; “Did they have to get out the big plows?”

“No” he replied.  “Not that bad.  But across the front of the bar door there was a drift about 18 inches deep and we just couldn’t seem to get through it.”

One Foot Low

The most important thing to remember when crawling around in an attic is “Don’t Step Between the Ceiling Joists.”  A great deal of time is spent in attics and upper floors, some unfinished, when you’re an electrician.  Whether crawling, squatting, treading the roof trusses in a bent over position, or laying across the insulation, it is imperative to always keep in mind that your foot or anything else can drive a hole in the ceiling below.

Even so, there have been many times that an attic or upper floor misstep has knocked out a piece of ceiling, causing a portion of the finished ceiling and insulation to drop to the floor below.  This entails a cleanup and repair job which sometimes can be more money than the electrician would make on the job.

One time my brother Marke and I were doing a job at a lumber yard on the weekend.  The place was closed for the weekend making it easier to do our work.  Most of the building was unfinished except for the office which had been nicely finished.  Marke was in the attic.  I went out to the pick up to get something and when I returned I noticed a ceiling tile hanging down and a pile of insulation underneath, on the floor.

We worked pretty hard to get the insulation cleaned up and the ceiling tile back in place so that it would look nice once again.  When we got done, if you looked close you could see that the ceiling had been repaired, but no one ever said anything.

That occasion reminds me of a tale another electrician told.  This electrician (a journeyman) was working with an apprentice on an old hotel in a small town.  The second floor had a hallway the length of the building with doors opening to the rooms and a window over the front door looking into the street.

The access to the attic was a small scuttle hole in the ceiling at one end of the hallway.  The apprentice was in the attic and the journeyman was in the hallway.  They were communicating via the “shout” method and had managed to work themselves a good distance down the hotel hallway from the scuttle hole.

They both heard the sirens at the same time.  The apprentice in the attic called out; “Is that a fire truck?”

The journeyman decided to give him a good scare (seeing that he was so far from the scuttle hole).

So he replied; “Just a fire truck going by.”

Then he added; “Oh, they’re stopping….at the front door.”

And followed that up with: “Now a bunch of men with axes are running in the front door.”

The journeyman turned around and the apprentice was standing right next to him, amongst a pile of ceiling material and insulation.

The apprentice said; “I wasn’t about to crawl half a block back to where the scuttle hole is.”

Woops!

Pulling A Dagwood

One time, coming home from a vacation, our family was traveling late.  So late in fact that we got home early…..in the morning….just before sunrise….on a work day.  The shop I was working for at the time was busy and I was expected back to work that morning.

I took a short nap, ate my breakfast, and went to work.  We were wiring a soft drink bottling plant.  I was all alone in the building, trying to keep busy so I wouldn’t get too sleepy.  I was doing pretty well at it too.

The office for the bottling plant was a totally enclosed space within the plant with its ceiling several feet below the roof of the plant.  I was sitting on the top of the office ceiling planning my conduit runs when I heard the front door close.  It woke me up.

The door had been closed by the bottling plant owner that was paying for the electrical work.  I didn’t know how long I had been asleep, whether he had noticed me sitting still on the office ceiling, or if he had deduced that I was not awake.

I acted like everything was normal, but it worried me.  For some reason it was the last time I worked on a job for that particular business owner.  To be safe, I dropped some of my time off of my time report for that day.

I thought about it for many days and it still bothered me.  One day I mentioned it to my Father-in-law, an honest man.  He said that he knew the fellow.  He had been employed at the same job, and had worked under my Father-in-law at the Fort Peck Dam, while it was under construction.  My Father-in-law said that he was the most useless, lazy man that he had ever had work under his authority.  So I let the whole thing go.  I quit worrying.

If any of the individuals involved, or their relatives, are still alive nearly 50 years later, and happen to read this blog, it is my explanation for what happened.

Or maybe I had only dozed for less than 30 seconds.

Everything else is coincidental.