The Old Pole Finally Goes

7/21/16 brush pen, ink, Zig marker, colored pencil

For the past couple years I’ve been telling the story about the utility pole in front of our house that needed to be replaced. It started two years ago, when workers came to install the new pole but left the old one in place. Six months later, workers returned to do some repair work. Finally in January this year, I thought I’d seen the last of them when they came to chainsaw the old pole down, though they left about half of it still standing.

It turns out that the saga wasn’t over. A day or two before we left for the UK last month, workers returned yet again, this time to fully extract the remains of the old pole from the ground. I saw how fast they worked when they removed the pole standing in front of the house a few doors down, so I knew I wouldn’t have much time. I was still sketching the crane operator when the pole came out – yanked right up out of the ground like a rotten tooth! A second worker filled the hole that the pole had left behind. By the time I got to sketch “our” old pole, it was already lying in the truck’s bed right next to the one they pulled from down the street.

Maybe this time the story finally concludes!