That was his name.

When we left Montana, I left a lot of good friends behind.  One fellow I got well acquainted with was John Sherry.

He had been a cowboy at one time.  When I use the word “cowboy”, I mean a real, honest to goodness, cow workin’ man.  Back in the days when they had trails instead of roads and horses instead of cars.

In those days everyone watched out for their neighbors, and was friendly and helpful.

John told me one day he was riding to town (on his horse, of course) and stopped in to check on a bachelor friend of his that lived in a small cabin.  John asked him if he needed anything in town.

“Yes, would you mail a letter for me to Sears Roebuck?”

John got to town and was ready to mail the letter when he noticed it was unsealed.  He checked inside.  The letter contained a $5.00 bill and a note.  The note read; “Send me one pair of boots.”

No size, no color, no style.  And no return address.

John rode back to the bachelor’s cabin and told him what he needed and got the order straightened out.  Then John went back to town and mailed the letter for him.

I assume he got his pair of boots.

One day John went to help a neighbor do some butchering.  They butchered a cow.

The cow’s owner said; “Save the tail, we’ll have oxtail soup.”

John said; “Yes!  Save the tail.”

The owner said; “Save the liver.  We’ll have liver and onions.”

John said; “Yes!  Save the liver.”

The owner said; “Save the heart.”

John said; “Yes! Save the heart.”

The owner said; “Save the head.  We’ll make head cheese.”

John said; “Yes!  Save the head.”

They went to clean the head for head cheese and the owner said; “Save the eyeballs.”

John said; “Save the eyeballs?!?!”

“Yes, boiled eyeballs are good.”

Not to be outdone, John said; “O.K.  You eat one and I’ll eat the other.”

The guy boiled the eyeballs, set a couple of plates, and brought one eyeball each over to the table.

John told me later; “You know Adrian – that eyeball rolled over and looked at me and I just couldn’t eat it.”

They didn’t waste the head.  There was still the tongue and brains.

In modern day slaughter houses, when they butcher a pig, they say; “Use everything but the squeal.”

At fast food places they say; “Parts is parts.”

As with any trade, electrical work can produce damages.

It happened in a lawyer’s office, where two lawyers shared an office, and each had a pretty good desk.   And lawyers, by the way, have some mighty fine desks, some of which are very expensive,

The lawyers’ office decided to put in a fire protection sprinkler system.  The two lawyers moved out of their office for the day, in order to allow room for the plumbers to work at installing the sprinkler piping.  One of them had to come back into his office to retrieve some paperwork.  Imagine his consternation when he entered and both plumbers, with their heavy work boots, were standing atop his desk.

I believe that was the same office where we were called in to re-hang an 8 foot fluorescent light fixture.  One end of the fixture had fallen free from the ceiling and it was swinging.  It wasn’t swinging free.  However it did have somewhat of a pendulum action going.  The swing was regularly interrupted by the pass over the top of the desk where it was doing a fine job of scratching the desk.

I imagine that some insurance company had to cover the cost of those damages.

Thank goodness for insurance.

One insurance agent told me that electricians rarely have to use their business liability insurance.  Maybe, if they trample someone’s landscaping.

One time I went up to a Dentist’s office.  A patient had been in the middle of a procedure; probably doing a close examination of the ceiling.  The light fixture above her head let loose and dropped about 4 inches and was caught by the electrical wires entering the fixture.

I was told she left in a hurry and never came back.  Uh, oh, a lost client.

In another instance, in a large auditorium, a number of people were sitting in the audience when one end of a light fixture came down and was swinging “like a pendulum do.”  The auditorium had a sloped seating area, and the fixture came loose near the front so that the length of the fixture was still held above head height where it came loose.

Two older ladies had been sitting just below the fixture, but had gotten up and left their seats just before the fixture came down.

We went through the entire auditorium and refastened all the fixtures into roof trusses.  Amazing as it sounds, the inspectors would allow hanging fixtures from sheet rock with toggle bolts at that time.

It makes me question why some people will work without license, permit, or insurance.

I guess they have to be ready to leave town at a moments notice.

In times of economic downturn, the electrical trade sees a lot of “underground” business.  Out of work electricians will do jobs “on the side” to keep some money coming in.  Without a business license, Administrator’s license, or Tax I.D., this work is referred to as underground.

This blog is not about that.

There is a wire product designed for direct burial, i.e. underground, application.

When direct burial wire was first marketed it was UL approved for direct bury, outside use, at 200 amps.  It was UL approved for only 180 amps inside.  Wire that was rated at 200 amps inside was not approved for direct burial.  The Washington State L&I Electrical Inspectors would not allow the use of the direct burial wire inside a manufactured home, even if it was only to go the 3 to 4 feet to the panel.

To use the direct burial product to hook up a 200 amp manufactured home required a great deal of extra work.  I had to land the direct burial wire in a splice box of an approved type and size, and then go from the splice box with the “approved for inside” 200 amp wire to the panel.  Eventually the wire manufacturer came up with a new product (termed “Triple Rated”) that could be used as direct burial wire as well as approved to go in the home.  At that point we were able to dispense with the splice boxes and the extra wire inventory.

I have wondered just how much manufacturing change was made to the wire to make it Triple Rated.  Perhaps all that was changed was the rating.  I don’t know.  But I wonder.

At this point I should point out that the direct burial wire that is NOT rated to go inside a home is still available.  Some “Do-it-Yourself” stores offer this wire at a much lower cost to homeowners wanting to do their own hook-ups.  If it is used to go inside the home to the panel, and the Electrical Inspector sees it, a home owner must go to a lot of extra work to make a correction.

On one occasion I was called to an R.V. park and campground.  They had dug up a waterline near the electrical panel where all the circuits went out to the various sites.  It was near enough that many electrical circuits had been cut.

The owner had hired someone to make underground splices on the severed wiring, but the job done had left much to be desired.  The circuits had been spliced across circuits.  It was not just a matter of re-labeling the panel circuits to represent what breaker now fed which camp site.  The various circuits were of varying voltage and amperage.

When I got to the job, the owner had made identifying remarks about the circuitry.  Comments like; “This circuit belongs to this breaker, turkey!”

I don’t remember how many hours I spent tracing out and identifying the proper circuits, but I’m sure that my bill was passed on to someone else.

I did get a new customer.  I did a lot of work for him through the years.  It was on that site that I and my apprentice cut a plastic pipe we thought was abandoned waterline.  Instead it contained a 100 pair telephone line.  This is a very good reason for adhering to the code for conduit type and use.  You know what to expect inside a conduit by the outside color.  Grey is electrical, white is water, yellow is gas, green is septic, etc.

We had to call the phone company to repair our mistake.

We paid that bill.