Thought your weekend was crappy? I bet I win!

[rx7vert]

Yeah, pretty sure I had the shi##iest weekend. We own a small sewer utility in a new subdivision near our house. only about a dozen of the planned 130 homes are complete, but more are going up weekly or faster. In the process of developing, the other utility companies have been installing their lines. MS power cut my sewer line in one place, but fixed it themselves, and called me to let me know. AT&T wasn't so nice. Apparently they decided that they wanted their line exactly where my pipe already was. I fixed one small break last week. They had chopped up about 2 feet of pipe with their trencher. This time wasn't so easy. They chopped up about 7 feet of pipe in a section where the pipe makes a turn. The part of the pipe that still gets flow is easy to find, there is a big black spot on the ground with nasty water running up like a spring and little chunks of toilet paper all over the ground. Beautiful stuff. So I dug down to that part.

It was sunday, about 1:30, everybody is home from church and is flushing their hearts out. The 2" pipe was gushing a nice milky brown flow of water into the hole at a rate fast enough to fill a 4 foot deep hole in about 10 minutes. The hard part was finding the other end of the break. The pipe made a 45 somewhere in the broken part, but I had no clue what direction the 45 turned to. So I would dig for a while, then climb down into the hole with a shovel to check for the line, and also to make sure I wasn't about to dig someone elses lines up with the machine. shin deep in someone elses sh!t. Just where I wanted to be.

I finally found the other end of the break about 6 or 7 feet away, as well as the phone company's wire running right through the gap where my pipe was missing. The great part was that they obviously knew they hit it. All of the broken up pieces where laid together in the bottom of their trench and buried.

The one bright side of the whole day was that the ol girl made me proud. I towed one of the heavier loads that I've pulled and the Tundra handled it well. Whoever says a first gen isn't for towing doesn't want to make a wager against me.

Anyway, here's some pics for your viewing pleasure

[mxsjw]

Craptastic!
How many showers you take after?

[rx7vert]

Only had time for one. Finished at 2:30 and had a superbowl party to get to at 4:30. Still had to pick up beer and food.

[Highwaylizard]

You are a better man than me. I would have been tempted to take the wire from the phone company, wrap it around my hitch, and take a nice leisurely Sunday afternoon drive.

Isn't the phone company liable for damaging your sewer line? Up here if I cut a phone line while on a job site I can be sued to hell and back.

[jan kohlmann]

Sorry to hear about your problems. I would hold the phone company liable for their error.

I had them cut through my areator line for my septic system. I didn't know till a month later when it rained and I saw the ground bubbling air.

I called a septic company who fixed it and the phone company payed. They told me they fired the subcontactor who trenched and buried the phone line.

[GGWOODY]

That is crappy...Brendon still ended up with a worse weekend...just not as sh!tty.

[d-lo]

dang, man. i think that takes the cake. good thing you got it wrapped up before the superbowl. in most areas superbowl sunday has the highest instantaneous wastewater peak flow for the whole year! i happen to know that because i'm a civil engineer who plans and designs municipal wastewater systems, among other things.

[rx7vert]

The phone company is still trying to snake their way out of paying for the first break that I fixed a week and a half ago. They are trying to put it all on their sub contractor, who no longer is contracted with them. I've tried to get in touch with the sub multiple times to no avail. In the end, its their system, and they are responsible. They will pay for it in the long run, they will just make it as difficult as possible and hope I give up.

Not gonna happen.

And yeah, Brendon's weekend was definitely worse, but mine was the crappiest.