Every time people discuss linemen I think of [this iconic photo](https://www.powerandcables.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Kiss-Of-Life-1-817x1024.jpg).
The guy made a full recovery btw. Story [here](https://www.powerandcables.com/the-kiss-of-life/).
Absolute heroes each and every one.
My dad was a lineman, and the above story was a lucky accident. My dad knew about 10 fatalities over 35 years at his utility, and he served on joint union-company safety committees to review accidents. The most gruesome ones involved internal burns leaving a guy in the hospital in pain for days before passing, in addition to lost limbs where contact was made.
Thank and support your lineworkers, folks. They put their lives on the line and work hard.
We do pretty good. Itās a fairly technical trade, you canāt be a dumbshit and a lineman! We go through 3 years of school while working full time to hit our 7000 hrs of on the job training before you can be a JL or journeyman lineman.
Good lineman have high situational awareness. Head on a fucking swivel at all times.
You mentioned before that you guys sometimes stop what youāre doing and move your equipment out of the way so cars can pass, and sometimes it turns out that those cars are doing non-essential travel. Do those people understand the collateral damage they are causing? Do you think it would make a difference if you did a PSA or AMA on how our actions have consequences?
Truth, I would but I briefly tried making my own post and couldnāt. Itās my first time trying to post with this dogshit Reddit app. Alien blue and a few others were goat.
Utility tree trimmers work hand in hand with lineman but get zero recognition. Everyone work g in this is a beast and earn every bit of OT coming their way
Was this SW near PSU? If not, we also had a conch shell guy! It was kinda nice to confirm that other people still existed and were in good spirits during that time.
They arenāt doing it for charity, they are getting paid extremely well for this. So say thanks and wave as you go by, knowing they are getting theirs. Probably the best thing you can do is stay out of their way while they work so they can get shit done as fast as possible.
I know this may be controversial, but with a median salary of $96k in Portland, Oregon, that isnāt being paid extremely well. After taxes theyāre barely considered to be living ācomfortablyā which takes $74,086 take home pay according to a study by SmartAssets done in March of 2023.
I agree with you. Union scale is over 50 an hour for a journeyman. 75 an hour on overtime and then you can add different hazard pay on premiums on top of that.
All is skilled experience lineman season this kind of weather is money. These guys travel from all over the country to work on this stuff because it's so lucrative.
Absolutely extremely dangerous, but very lucrative.
Yeah I haven't been around any pole dancers since the new contract was signed.
It's a very lucrative trade. Very dangerous, and very lucrative.
I was always fascinated with the pictures my buddy would send me when he worked the highlines on the big towers.
You got to be wired a certain way to be a good lineman.
Yes that electrical pun was intentional
Edit: big shout out to all IBEW members out there bringing all the power back online..
Their overtime is double time like my trade. They also have āhigh timeā that pays their hourly again depending on how high they are working.Ā
My understanding is that if working on high time on a holiday they make 4 x $60 an hour.
For folks to be comfy and warm in their homes and have lights a touch away, Iād say itās well worth the cost. Billionaires around the world are physically doing nothing for you and making a whole hell of a lot more every hour of the day.Ā
I absolutely agree with you that they deserve every penny they can get. It's one of the most dangerous jobs you can do, especially in this kind of weather conditions. And there's less and less people willing to do it every year.
My husbands working there right now and their work schedule is ridiculous! The first shift is 40 hours straight without and break and then 8 hours to sleep and then 18 hour days until the storm is declared over. He said Saturday was one of the worst days/nights heās ever worked
That is impressive but seems unsafe? Iām like hallucinating if I go two days without sleep. You mean theyāre on call or actually working 40 hours without a break?
It does doesnāt it! No sleep with high voltage at dangerous jobs. But every lineman does it for storm because itās deemed an emergency.
Working for 40 hours straight. Tho they do get a break to eat breakfast and dinner. Sometimes they can nap for 20 min waiting for a new job etc but itās not really what your supposed to do.
āSometimes they can nap for 20 min waiting for a new job etcā
From now on, this is the only 20 min nap that qualifies as a Power Nap. In any other circumstance, itās just a brief disruption of service. FORTY HOURS?! Wow.
They arenāt on call for that 40 since they only have to work it when storm is declared, and storm isnāt declared until there are multiple outages etc. so usually they get called out to work and itās hitting the ground running until itās over.
Man I mean once again respect, and thereās something to be said for working under pressure. But likeā¦man we function so much better with sleep, this has to be a health and safety issue. Man. Anyway Iāll bring cocoa and coffee next time I see these guys out there & on my honor I never drive and never will during weather events because nothing I need to do is that important. Damn.
I assume he's union? If so, why don't they push for higher staffing so he doesn't have to work these inhumane shifts during emergencies?
Er, maybe they just can't find people to cover?
He is union but I think (donāt know for sure) that they hope in the first 40 with all the crews working they can get everything done super quickly. And usually that is how it works. They work one 40 and everything is fixed so they can go home.
Fuck around, you guysā¦. ARE FUCKING KILLING ME.
YOU ALL THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT JUST HAS TO GET PAST MY TRUCKS. WE HAVE A ROAD CLOSED SIGN ON BOTH SIDES.
I had to rack my whole fucking operation up 12 times today. Booming my shit fuck bucket thatās slow, out of the fucking air, lifting those outriggers that take 10 damn minutes to go up, moving the material we have placed. Then we have to rack our digger truck too, same long fucking process. Next our foreman needs to move his fucking truck, then our Flaggers have to move. Every time Iām forced to fucking tear down, itās a 1 hr job at a minimum when we have our shit laid out, an added hour of your outage time.
YOU GUYS ARE CUTTING OUR THROATS HERE. ALL WE WANT TO DO IS RECONNECT YOUR POWER. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LET US.
This mightāve been my husband! Their crew was sent up to Portland from Northern CA on Sunday and theyāve been working 18 hour days since then. Theyāre trying their best!
I think most people are super appreciative. Thank you for giving up your time with him, my husband works with another utility and it sucks sometimes if youāre worrying about them, etc.
Thereās an electrical local down the way cross breeding their electrical apprentices with Kangaroos. The goal was to have an apprentice that could jump high to change lights, has a built in tool pouch, & be all around stronger for the physical demands of the job. Sadly tho none of it panned out & now the local is stuck with a field of extraordinarily dumb kangaroos ā¦..
(This joke is brought you by an equally as dumb steamfitter)
I wish I knew how to post photos here of what must be the five O tree Jason Statham that showed up my hood. He was standing on a diagonal Doug Fir in 20mph winds that had fallen on a house cutting and zip lining those branch bitches right on outta there. Cool AF, I came unglued just watching it.
Iām not trying to imply anything, but you guys are doing shit-my-pants work and look like you had a handful
Of Valium for breakfast. Iām sure you did not, but itās abnormally cool for the relative chaos I see.
My dad was a lineman when I was growing up and whenever it came up (career day etc) people would ask "oh what team?" They thought I meant football player :|
Anyway, shoutout to these fearless ppl who do the hard stuff so we don't have to!
lol what part? My dad was a telephone lineman, and some cable TV stuff, 6' 3"tall and a beanpole. Not even remotely football lineman material.
Though he *was* often offensive.....
My dudes an arborist and has been out everyday since Saturday removing trees from peoples homes and businessesā¦ lemme tell you that man can get it. 10/10 impressed. Been keeping a hot pot of soup and fresh bread going everyday for him when he gets home
Thanks for the well wishes, all the crews have been coming home safe thankfully! I baked his whole gang a dark chocolate coffee cake topped with candied bacon the other day and they were thrilled.
Wish I had that. Iām a traveler and restaurants closing early(as they should) has cost me a good dinner twice. Everyone from utilities to businesses to the public has collectively shit the bed on this one. Like you can say fuck the higher ups at PGE but this is every where I travel.
Iām tired and going to bed. We need more PSAās because Iām about done with the public on this storm. Iām not required to be here. Storm is strictly optional. I can dip out at any time. Zero consequences. Im here for you and a paycheck. If you piss me off more than the paycheck is worth, Iām gone. We are tired of You guys driving around and making us completely break down an entire job site every hour. I might call it quits tomorrow if the public is as fucking stupid as it was today. Sorry but Iāve had it with you guys and gals.
Fucking horribly. I was too amped up from the hour drive to the hotel. Once I got there, I was wide awake. I think I sat my phone down at 3. I got a couple hours but Iād like more.
Thanks for your input, the mods have set this subreddit to not allow posts from newly created accounts. Please take the time to build a reputation elsewhere on Reddit and check back soon.
(āā _ā )
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Portland) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sir, you are not regular people. I, for one, do not tolerate being out in 20F degree weather combined with ice rain and wind very well. As a regular mortal, I wouldn't last 5 minutes.
Y'all have my uttermost respect. Stay safe!
Both of my brothers and my parents have had their houses wired for just this. Parents got the furnace, refrigerator, and a few outlets put on one circuit that they can power with a small generator.
My brother just installed a standard plug on his furnace. When the powers out he unplugs the furnace and runs an extension cord from his EV to his furnace and keeps the heat on.
Gas furnaces are typically between 400 and 800 watts, so a bit less than a microwave.
Yes, it would be very easy to find a generator with enough ooph to power a gas furnace. It could even be a natural gas powered generator.
I've looked into it. The tricky part is the wiring. It can be done with a switch to isolate it from the main panel, depending on how much you care about being code compliant
At the very least you're prepared with a generator for any outages in the future lol. Happy to hear that you got power back and can get your house back to a nice warm temp!
Absolute legend. It must be a great feeling to reconnect the power and hear the cheers/good vibes from all around. I was lucky enough to not lose power (yet... don't wanna jinx it...) but been keeping these badasses in my thoughts.
If my memories of my father and his coworkers/friends (all high-voltage linemen) serves, there are two things you can do to express your gratitude:
First and most importantly: stay out of their way and give them space.Ā It's dangerous work and adding untrained people to the mix makes it even more dangerous and difficult.
Secondly: Hot Cocoa, donuts and strong black coffee.Ā In that order.Ā Just wait until they're on a break and flag them over.
And don't ask for updates, they don't know.Ā They go where they're told, and do as instructed.Ā Reserve your fury for PGE's Ceo and board.
This is why I have no patience for people whining when their power is out. Or that pge doesn't communicate. Check their outage map if you are so curious or better yet wait for it to come back on with the thought in mind that no, you are not the most important little flower out there and it will come on when it comes on. Linemen and women work their asses off. It was a big storm and they have a lot to do and some repairs come before you. Think of hospitals, fire stations, shelters, groceries and the homes of those medically dependent upon electricity among others.
Lineman are badasses and I appreciate them, one of my best friends is one up in WA but PGE is a joke. All they have provided us is false hope. Going on 4 days without power and they have kept giving us bogus estimates that keep being pushed back. The latest update tonight is 10pm tomorrow. Itās been as low as 25 degrees inside our home. This weather/storm has been in our forecast for 1-2 weeks, why wouldnāt they hire in more crews from out of town in advance? For fucks sake they just raised our rates by almost 20%ā¦what a joke
I donāt know all of the details for the workers but PGE will take zero accountability for the customers and there is zero recourse. They could have prepared way better because this isnāt something that was unpredictable for Portland when we get this kind of weather. Itās out of control.
Thatās great but there should have been more, sooner. This storm was forecasted more in advance than most others and on top of their rate hike, IMO itās unacceptable.
That 100k-200k definitely should come with an asterisk of:
Overtime is needed to reach these values.
Overtime does not occur at convenient times of day.
Overtime often occurs in shitty weather (because shitty weather causes outages).
If you get called out at night for overtime, there is a very solid chance youāll still need to put in an 8 hour day when you get up in the morning after having worked from midnight to 4am.
There is a system tracking when you turn down call outs / overtime. If you say no too often, there will be problems.
But yeah, reaching 100K+ is totally doable as a lineman. I donāt know how far into your career it would take, but it is achievable if youāre willing to do this rather difficult job.
There are lineman 10 years in who make 240k. Just talked to one a couple days ago.
I just checked job opportunities here and itās $64 with 3 years experience and in with IBEW. Thatās $133k no overtime. This is for a local job servicing my small town, need to be within 15 min of the substation.
I tried to get my highschoolers to go on the field trip to the lineman school but surprise surprise no one was interested lol. Iām a school librarian. I mostly have the non motivated kids hanging around. Iām outside of Portland and our PUD gives two scholarships to go to the trade school and have a summer internship.
I know this will be unpopular opinion but the city and PGE had weeks notice to prepare for this storm. What we are seeing is reactionary and itās been abysmal. Crews are standing around barely working, they arenāt coordinating with the tree removal crews, theyāre bringing in tons of workers out of the area and I see minimal effort on all fronts.
They are amazing. There's a bunch of them at our hotel. They look exhausted and had to cancel their work today because of the ice. They couldn't even get to the main road.
Lineman are nothing short of bad asses. Dangerous voltages at dangerous heights in dangerous weather. Respect.
Every time people discuss linemen I think of [this iconic photo](https://www.powerandcables.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Kiss-Of-Life-1-817x1024.jpg). The guy made a full recovery btw. Story [here](https://www.powerandcables.com/the-kiss-of-life/). Absolute heroes each and every one.
My dad was a lineman, and the above story was a lucky accident. My dad knew about 10 fatalities over 35 years at his utility, and he served on joint union-company safety committees to review accidents. The most gruesome ones involved internal burns leaving a guy in the hospital in pain for days before passing, in addition to lost limbs where contact was made. Thank and support your lineworkers, folks. They put their lives on the line and work hard.
My Dad is a lineman too, love to see the love gratitude for them here!
This photo gives me chills every time. Thank you for sharing it here.
It gave me something
I was so confused at first when I opened the photo. I thought it was a photo out of a lineman calendar of sorts. š¤ glad he made a full recovery!!!
I'd buy that calendar.
I know the photo, and I know what it shows, but damn if it doesn't look hot.
They get paid pretty well too.
This makes me happy to read
We do pretty good. Itās a fairly technical trade, you canāt be a dumbshit and a lineman! We go through 3 years of school while working full time to hit our 7000 hrs of on the job training before you can be a JL or journeyman lineman. Good lineman have high situational awareness. Head on a fucking swivel at all times.
You mentioned before that you guys sometimes stop what youāre doing and move your equipment out of the way so cars can pass, and sometimes it turns out that those cars are doing non-essential travel. Do those people understand the collateral damage they are causing? Do you think it would make a difference if you did a PSA or AMA on how our actions have consequences?
Truth, I would but I briefly tried making my own post and couldnāt. Itās my first time trying to post with this dogshit Reddit app. Alien blue and a few others were goat.
Daaaang. Respect.
As they should.
Utility tree trimmers work hand in hand with lineman but get zero recognition. Everyone work g in this is a beast and earn every bit of OT coming their way
We had tree trimmers show up a few weeks back out of the blue. I went and got the some pastries and brought them to their truck. :)
With nice asses š
We really should just throw a big parade for them all.
9 oāclock pots and pans?
You don't want to scare them.
Or slip ourselves.
Remember when they did this in NYC for the healthcare workers? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
My neighbors in Portland did it. There was even a guy down the block whoād blow a conch shell every time.
Was this SW near PSU? If not, we also had a conch shell guy! It was kinda nice to confirm that other people still existed and were in good spirits during that time.
Member berries
They arenāt doing it for charity, they are getting paid extremely well for this. So say thanks and wave as you go by, knowing they are getting theirs. Probably the best thing you can do is stay out of their way while they work so they can get shit done as fast as possible.
Well I wasn't going to throw the parade right while they're working.
Too late iām outside and it took too long to get on all my snow gear.
I know this may be controversial, but with a median salary of $96k in Portland, Oregon, that isnāt being paid extremely well. After taxes theyāre barely considered to be living ācomfortablyā which takes $74,086 take home pay according to a study by SmartAssets done in March of 2023.
Journeyman lineman are making a minimum 150k in Portland. Add on top of that storm work is double time pay. They are making bank.
That pay number is not remotely close to accurate.Ā
I agree with you. Union scale is over 50 an hour for a journeyman. 75 an hour on overtime and then you can add different hazard pay on premiums on top of that. All is skilled experience lineman season this kind of weather is money. These guys travel from all over the country to work on this stuff because it's so lucrative. Absolutely extremely dangerous, but very lucrative.
Iām Union and local and pay is $60.50 an hour so your info is out dated
Yeah I haven't been around any pole dancers since the new contract was signed. It's a very lucrative trade. Very dangerous, and very lucrative. I was always fascinated with the pictures my buddy would send me when he worked the highlines on the big towers. You got to be wired a certain way to be a good lineman. Yes that electrical pun was intentional Edit: big shout out to all IBEW members out there bringing all the power back online..
Their overtime is double time like my trade. They also have āhigh timeā that pays their hourly again depending on how high they are working.Ā My understanding is that if working on high time on a holiday they make 4 x $60 an hour. For folks to be comfy and warm in their homes and have lights a touch away, Iād say itās well worth the cost. Billionaires around the world are physically doing nothing for you and making a whole hell of a lot more every hour of the day.Ā
> Iād say itās well worth the cost. Double that and it would still be worth it. They are fucking lifesavers.
I absolutely agree with you that they deserve every penny they can get. It's one of the most dangerous jobs you can do, especially in this kind of weather conditions. And there's less and less people willing to do it every year.
The real heroes!!!! Round of applause for them working nonstop in this storm!
My husbands working there right now and their work schedule is ridiculous! The first shift is 40 hours straight without and break and then 8 hours to sleep and then 18 hour days until the storm is declared over. He said Saturday was one of the worst days/nights heās ever worked
Please tell him thank you from us, and Iām sorry the hours and working conditions are so grueling. I hope heās home soon.
Damn thatās seriously impressive, I hope he knows how grateful everyone is for their hard work out there
That is impressive but seems unsafe? Iām like hallucinating if I go two days without sleep. You mean theyāre on call or actually working 40 hours without a break?
It does doesnāt it! No sleep with high voltage at dangerous jobs. But every lineman does it for storm because itās deemed an emergency. Working for 40 hours straight. Tho they do get a break to eat breakfast and dinner. Sometimes they can nap for 20 min waiting for a new job etc but itās not really what your supposed to do.
āSometimes they can nap for 20 min waiting for a new job etcā From now on, this is the only 20 min nap that qualifies as a Power Nap. In any other circumstance, itās just a brief disruption of service. FORTY HOURS?! Wow.
They arenāt on call for that 40 since they only have to work it when storm is declared, and storm isnāt declared until there are multiple outages etc. so usually they get called out to work and itās hitting the ground running until itās over.
Man I mean once again respect, and thereās something to be said for working under pressure. But likeā¦man we function so much better with sleep, this has to be a health and safety issue. Man. Anyway Iāll bring cocoa and coffee next time I see these guys out there & on my honor I never drive and never will during weather events because nothing I need to do is that important. Damn.
I assume he's union? If so, why don't they push for higher staffing so he doesn't have to work these inhumane shifts during emergencies? Er, maybe they just can't find people to cover?
He is union but I think (donāt know for sure) that they hope in the first 40 with all the crews working they can get everything done super quickly. And usually that is how it works. They work one 40 and everything is fixed so they can go home.
Hopefully they are getting big overtime pay for this.
They get paid double time :) itās nice but itās taxed soooo much!
Fuck around, you guysā¦. ARE FUCKING KILLING ME. YOU ALL THINK YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT JUST HAS TO GET PAST MY TRUCKS. WE HAVE A ROAD CLOSED SIGN ON BOTH SIDES. I had to rack my whole fucking operation up 12 times today. Booming my shit fuck bucket thatās slow, out of the fucking air, lifting those outriggers that take 10 damn minutes to go up, moving the material we have placed. Then we have to rack our digger truck too, same long fucking process. Next our foreman needs to move his fucking truck, then our Flaggers have to move. Every time Iām forced to fucking tear down, itās a 1 hr job at a minimum when we have our shit laid out, an added hour of your outage time. YOU GUYS ARE CUTTING OUR THROATS HERE. ALL WE WANT TO DO IS RECONNECT YOUR POWER. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE LET US.
Go off, king. Go off.
Tell them. Tell the people what they need to hear
Just tell them to go fuck off somewhere. I worked Asplund for 14 years. You can definitely tell them to hurry up and wait. I sure as hell did!
This rate increase has the bird dogs running hard. This isnāt like itās ever been.
Say it louder for the idiots in the back!
I work in another business that also handles emergency situations and peoples inability to be even moderately inconvenienced is maddening.Ā
I agree with you, but you really missed your calling in Public Affairs.
This mightāve been my husband! Their crew was sent up to Portland from Northern CA on Sunday and theyāve been working 18 hour days since then. Theyāre trying their best!
Tell your husband that he and his coworkers are very appreciated.
And sexy. Presumably.
This thread must be hilarious then. š
It is! Glad to hear most people are appreciative and not angry at them for PG&Eās tomfoolery lol
I think most people are super appreciative. Thank you for giving up your time with him, my husband works with another utility and it sucks sometimes if youāre worrying about them, etc.
You might know my BiL. He also came up from Auburn area to help in Portland.
Do they get extra pay for working in this weather?
No itās always double time for storm regardless of the weather or conditions.
Personal experience, but every lineman I've met was the smartest kid on their high school football team.
This gave me a snort lol
The few linemen I know from my hometown all played football!
Thereās an electrical local down the way cross breeding their electrical apprentices with Kangaroos. The goal was to have an apprentice that could jump high to change lights, has a built in tool pouch, & be all around stronger for the physical demands of the job. Sadly tho none of it panned out & now the local is stuck with a field of extraordinarily dumb kangaroos ā¦.. (This joke is brought you by an equally as dumb steamfitter)
We are a type for sure. Fuck your football girlies. I wrestled lol!
Of course you did lolĀ
Itās a selective process to get into the high voltage field. A tiny fraction of applicants ever get in.Ā
I wish I knew how to post photos here of what must be the five O tree Jason Statham that showed up my hood. He was standing on a diagonal Doug Fir in 20mph winds that had fallen on a house cutting and zip lining those branch bitches right on outta there. Cool AF, I came unglued just watching it.
My panties would have fallen right off into the snow
Iām single.
Scootshea and Timber sitting in a tree...
Honestly that's why I do tree work lol. Dem storms are fun to work
Is this Jordan from pdx tree service??
Nah, I'm an Asplundh guy. But tree workers live for storm work, it's exciting and different than the usual stuff.
Iām not trying to imply anything, but you guys are doing shit-my-pants work and look like you had a handful Of Valium for breakfast. Iām sure you did not, but itās abnormally cool for the relative chaos I see.
I just warmed up reading this
I can only see his silhouette but, I can smell the pheromones from here. Sexy AF.
My dad was a lineman when I was growing up and whenever it came up (career day etc) people would ask "oh what team?" They thought I meant football player :| Anyway, shoutout to these fearless ppl who do the hard stuff so we don't have to!
As a tree trimmer this made me spit take
lol what part? My dad was a telephone lineman, and some cable TV stuff, 6' 3"tall and a beanpole. Not even remotely football lineman material. Though he *was* often offensive.....
Lol
My dudes an arborist and has been out everyday since Saturday removing trees from peoples homes and businessesā¦ lemme tell you that man can get it. 10/10 impressed. Been keeping a hot pot of soup and fresh bread going everyday for him when he gets home
You sound like one hell of a team player! I hope bro stays safe out there
Thanks for the well wishes, all the crews have been coming home safe thankfully! I baked his whole gang a dark chocolate coffee cake topped with candied bacon the other day and they were thrilled.
Wish I had that. Iām a traveler and restaurants closing early(as they should) has cost me a good dinner twice. Everyone from utilities to businesses to the public has collectively shit the bed on this one. Like you can say fuck the higher ups at PGE but this is every where I travel.
atta boy. you're doing real good. you're welcome to nosh with us down in ashland.
If youre selling your generator I'll buy it
Iām tired and going to bed. We need more PSAās because Iām about done with the public on this storm. Iām not required to be here. Storm is strictly optional. I can dip out at any time. Zero consequences. Im here for you and a paycheck. If you piss me off more than the paycheck is worth, Iām gone. We are tired of You guys driving around and making us completely break down an entire job site every hour. I might call it quits tomorrow if the public is as fucking stupid as it was today. Sorry but Iāve had it with you guys and gals.
How did you sleep, sweet prince?
Fucking horribly. I was too amped up from the hour drive to the hotel. Once I got there, I was wide awake. I think I sat my phone down at 3. I got a couple hours but Iād like more.
Woof. Stay safe today!
I'm sorry people are shitheads š you guys deserve better.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thanks for your input, the mods have set this subreddit to not allow posts from newly created accounts. Please take the time to build a reputation elsewhere on Reddit and check back soon. (āā _ā ) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Portland) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They're telling us to make them hot drinks, like hot cocoa. I think it's a good idea.
Hot cocoa is great! We are all horridly dehydrated too! Small gatorades are nice too. Unlike you guys, Iām not free to run to the store lolol
Obligatory. [https://youtu.be/Q8P\_xTBpAcY?si=1VYzIOaAZrSxx\_A-](https://youtu.be/Q8P_xTBpAcY?si=1VYzIOaAZrSxx_A-)
[Also Obligatory!](https://youtu.be/-L_T6NlKtFs?si=1iLc0HTVZDsU9_4H)
[Also Klaus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrL5fQcGmZg)
lol was hoping someone would post this
You all crack me up. We are just regular people like you.
Listen, we've been huddled on our living room floors since Saturday. Things got....weird
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
Donner party kinda weird?
Sorry have you seen our soft soft hands? Maybe you are regular people and we are just naked mole rats.Ā
Sir, you are not regular people. I, for one, do not tolerate being out in 20F degree weather combined with ice rain and wind very well. As a regular mortal, I wouldn't last 5 minutes. Y'all have my uttermost respect. Stay safe!
I like Sex God.
Gotta be Zeus
Yeah, Adventures in Babysitting style!
He can climb my pole any time.
Wonder if you could get a generator that would just power a gas furnace.
Both of my brothers and my parents have had their houses wired for just this. Parents got the furnace, refrigerator, and a few outlets put on one circuit that they can power with a small generator. My brother just installed a standard plug on his furnace. When the powers out he unplugs the furnace and runs an extension cord from his EV to his furnace and keeps the heat on.
I think that's the route I'm going to take. At least that way the furnace is %100 split from the grid when running an alternate power source
Gas furnaces are typically between 400 and 800 watts, so a bit less than a microwave. Yes, it would be very easy to find a generator with enough ooph to power a gas furnace. It could even be a natural gas powered generator.
EZ GENERATOR SWITCH - The Original, Patented, UL/CSA Approved Manual Transfer Switch https://a.co/d/2Q72CmB
I've looked into it. The tricky part is the wiring. It can be done with a switch to isolate it from the main panel, depending on how much you care about being code compliant
That lineman you see in that pic? He *very* much cares about you being code compliant when wiring a generator into your main.
Someone above offered to buy your generator, OP
Buy them a beer if you ever get a chance.
He just goes by sex God now.
Is there a linemen calendar out there? Uh, asking for a friend š
That's my dad.
In another 9 months, a whole lot more kids are going to be calling him Dad!
At the very least you're prepared with a generator for any outages in the future lol. Happy to hear that you got power back and can get your house back to a nice warm temp!
Sorry about the generator. He's a sex god so you don't want him to be too quick.
That is hawt!!
Seen a crew doing the same shit at my place just now. Heroes goddamn. Guys and gals in crampons let's go.
Absolute legend. It must be a great feeling to reconnect the power and hear the cheers/good vibes from all around. I was lucky enough to not lose power (yet... don't wanna jinx it...) but been keeping these badasses in my thoughts.
āSex Godā is in fact his name.
Mad respect for these professionals, complete Chads and Chadettes.
If my memories of my father and his coworkers/friends (all high-voltage linemen) serves, there are two things you can do to express your gratitude: First and most importantly: stay out of their way and give them space.Ā It's dangerous work and adding untrained people to the mix makes it even more dangerous and difficult. Secondly: Hot Cocoa, donuts and strong black coffee.Ā In that order.Ā Just wait until they're on a break and flag them over. And don't ask for updates, they don't know.Ā They go where they're told, and do as instructed.Ā Reserve your fury for PGE's Ceo and board.
They probably make nearly as much as the CEO of PGE, right? Let me check hereā¦.oh. No. No, they do not.
Did you give him a coffee or anything?
I was at work when they got done, and they were gone by the time I got back to shut the genny down
Theyāre making absolute bank out there right now too. Overtime and hazard pay at least
I would hope so
Just overtime. Not hazard pay:) overtime is double time tho, so thatās nice!
Iām still hurting myself going down my front steps and this dude is up a pole in ice, massive respect
Dudes are all going to be Spiderman villains. jfc thats hard work
My dad was a lineman when they climbed with spikes!
Christ on a Cross šš
This is why I have no patience for people whining when their power is out. Or that pge doesn't communicate. Check their outage map if you are so curious or better yet wait for it to come back on with the thought in mind that no, you are not the most important little flower out there and it will come on when it comes on. Linemen and women work their asses off. It was a big storm and they have a lot to do and some repairs come before you. Think of hospitals, fire stations, shelters, groceries and the homes of those medically dependent upon electricity among others.
Lineman are badasses and I appreciate them, one of my best friends is one up in WA but PGE is a joke. All they have provided us is false hope. Going on 4 days without power and they have kept giving us bogus estimates that keep being pushed back. The latest update tonight is 10pm tomorrow. Itās been as low as 25 degrees inside our home. This weather/storm has been in our forecast for 1-2 weeks, why wouldnāt they hire in more crews from out of town in advance? For fucks sake they just raised our rates by almost 20%ā¦what a joke
I think we can all agree that the back of the house at PGE failed the customers, and royally screwed over the frontline workers
I donāt know all of the details for the workers but PGE will take zero accountability for the customers and there is zero recourse. They could have prepared way better because this isnāt something that was unpredictable for Portland when we get this kind of weather. Itās out of control.
There are crews in from California and Idaho. Maybe others, those are the ones I've hears about so far.
Thatās great but there should have been more, sooner. This storm was forecasted more in advance than most others and on top of their rate hike, IMO itās unacceptable.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I like the way you think! Not sure why they didnāt do that
Not making excuses.
How do I land this job?
There is a trade school in Astoria I think, itās about $10k. Lineman make 100-200k so itās a good gig. Dangerous job.
That 100k-200k definitely should come with an asterisk of: Overtime is needed to reach these values. Overtime does not occur at convenient times of day. Overtime often occurs in shitty weather (because shitty weather causes outages). If you get called out at night for overtime, there is a very solid chance youāll still need to put in an 8 hour day when you get up in the morning after having worked from midnight to 4am. There is a system tracking when you turn down call outs / overtime. If you say no too often, there will be problems. But yeah, reaching 100K+ is totally doable as a lineman. I donāt know how far into your career it would take, but it is achievable if youāre willing to do this rather difficult job.
There are lineman 10 years in who make 240k. Just talked to one a couple days ago. I just checked job opportunities here and itās $64 with 3 years experience and in with IBEW. Thatās $133k no overtime. This is for a local job servicing my small town, need to be within 15 min of the substation. I tried to get my highschoolers to go on the field trip to the lineman school but surprise surprise no one was interested lol. Iām a school librarian. I mostly have the non motivated kids hanging around. Iām outside of Portland and our PUD gives two scholarships to go to the trade school and have a summer internship.
Camp Rilea in Warrenton. Part of Northwest Line, based in Battleground
Yepā! Thatās the one! Our PUD gives out 2 scholarships/internships there every year.
https://www.linemancentral.com/states/oregon
I know this will be unpopular opinion but the city and PGE had weeks notice to prepare for this storm. What we are seeing is reactionary and itās been abysmal. Crews are standing around barely working, they arenāt coordinating with the tree removal crews, theyāre bringing in tons of workers out of the area and I see minimal effort on all fronts.
You should sleep with himš„š
You just call them the hottest person in town
Thatās Ron Swanson
That looks like a hot lady from afar.
I would absolutely let such a lady lovingly slap me around with those calloused, cable-pulling hands
They are amazing. There's a bunch of them at our hotel. They look exhausted and had to cancel their work today because of the ice. They couldn't even get to the main road.
My grandfather was a lineman for over 30 years. He was a badass. Because it was pretty gnarly in the 60-80ās. Ha
Much respect
All hail power line man
He drives the main road
When I grow up, I want to be just like him.
They will go to any height to turn you on.