Discussion: we need

a picture of this dark blue bike

Coming soon, but used up my daily quota of pixels on the goings on this morning down on the street --

Maybe 7:30 am? Eating breakfast. Heard a loud squeal of brakes from down below -- and it was maybe 75 yards away, and woods between us and the road, and no open windows, and even with that it was loud -- and then a pause just long enough to think that was not good. And a loud boom, fortunately not of something exploding, but of something large hitting something else pretty hard.

Walked over to the phone, called 911, told them I was pretty sure something bad had happened.

By the time I got properly dressed and down the driveway the sirens were already flashing, and more kept coming over the next few minutes. I looked up the street, the first phone pole was no longer intact, there was a large tree segment draped over the wires, the next phone pole was also askew, and just past it was a dump truck on its side.

And what appeared to be the driver, quite upright, quite animated, and for all that I could see quite uninjured. Remarkable, as I'd guess he had been going 45 or so.

Not clear exactly what happened. The big branch had come done a little bit earlier (a thunderstorm had just passed through) and there were wires hanging low. I think the truck, which may have had the body still somewhat raised, either clipped the wires, or more likely, the guy saw the wires, swerved to try to miss them, and over he went.

Hung out for a bit, then back up to the house to tell Gail what had happened. No power now, so back down to the road. Figured I had a right to be there as the front half of the truck was lying on our property. The road was totally closed (and would be until early afternoon).

Let's see, had interactions with:

-- the town police chief, new in town but very impressive (and I told him so).

-- one of his full-time officers, she's so-so and a sourpuss, didn't tell her so but she would be so much better if she learned how to relate to people.

-- a young officer, seemed like a good chap.

-- the highway boss, he also could use some people skills.

-- TV reporter from Springfield, must be a good guy as he asked to interview me for comments from someone on the scene. :-)

-- print reporter for the local paper, very young, earnest, but cool, will be good.

-- a lady from some outfit that gets called in when there are hazardous spills (in this case at the least a small amount of diesel, but who knows what else the testing will find).

-- A guy that was covering the crash site in plastic to preserve things until the test results come in and they know if more dirt needs to be removed.

-- A former client of mine, was a state cop, now works for a paving company, the truck that tipped (owned/operated by another company) was carrying materials for a job they were doing. Nice fellow, the fact that the truck was empty simplified his day (and maybe removed any liability).

-- EMT first responder. The deal is, if there is an accident they just show up right away. Better to be there and not be needed than not be there when needed.

Plus the town fire truck, some state cops, a small armada of repair trucks from Eversource, Comcast, and Verizon. Quite the scene.

Eventually the truck got put right-side up and towed away, poles got replaced, wires restrung. The road was opened mid-afternoon, back to normal. A little excitement. And not the first time poles have been crunched out front and I fear not the last.