What is it with people in my neck of the woods?

[Gogi]

Last night it happened again, all the power went out and I knew that someone had crashed into a telephone pole again. Bad weather, transformer fires, etc. are the usual causes of power outages in the rest of the country but not around here! Several months ago a man came flying off the Missouri river bridge at Washington and literally snapped a telephone pole off five feet above ground. (He was unhurt, I'll have some of what he's been drinking!) Sent the entire area into darkness for hours. It's almost like drivers around here are having a contest.

[Philostopher]

1. I live in the 'burbs now, where speed limits are lower.

But I used to live in a semi-rural area, and that seemed to be the primary cause of most power outages there. It occasionally happens here, too, but not as often -- with a 25 mph speed limit, and most people not going faster than 35, it's rare.

We were out for four hours once at my job because somebody had run a red light and been smacked into a pole at the junction of the main power line. It was so annoying to the company I worked for -- a small business that relied fairly heavily on being in contact with its field employees -- that the owner, who'd been making noises about moving, actually moved the company.

[xJlM]

2. The last outage we had locally...

This past summer we had an electrical storm that not only knocked the power out for about six hours, but it hit the cable lines somehow and zapped my cable modem, router, and my DVD player. Don't ask me how it got the DVD player, since it's not hooked up to the cable. Wrecks don't usually much affect the power here, although one might cause a surge.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Our last power outage was caused by &@^$%^ Ohio

(or was it MI? can't remember now, that was some months ago)

[Cleita]

4. I live in the rural part of the county where there are no

street lights. On dark moonless nights people were regularly wrapping themselves around poles, demolishing fences, driving into ditches and other mayhem. I noticed in the last few months the county has been sticking reflectors on everything including down the middle of the road. It seems it has cut the accidents out a lot.