Storytime:
Today was a great day, but ended with a twist. I had Lunch with an old friend, then met up with a Facebook garage-saler at the Goodwill store to sell him an item I had listed on FB, then while waiting for him, I spent some time at the Goodwill and scored a high end stainless european pressure cooker for pocket change!
OK, This is gonna be a long story, so buckle up
When I get home from all that fun, I decide to change oil on the car, it is hot out (about 90º and humid and chance of storms), but I'm feelin' good, so what the heck, I'm up for crawling on the ground My car is in the driveway ...sidenote: there is a utility pole about 1 foot off my driveway, I park my woodsplitter next to the pole, and chain/lock it up.
Anyway, changing oil on the toyota went well. For 30+ years, I've always changed my own oil. But, one time, many years ago, while changing oil on my 68 chev van, the oil filter didn't get put on correctly, when I started the van and drove it down the block...oil squirted everywhere, what a mess.
So, because of that, I always double check the oil filter and drain plug by starting the car, running it for 10 seconds or so, then shut it off and check under the car for leaking...again, that only happened to me one time, many years, but that mess made an impression, so I always check.
Now the oil has been changed, so I start my car, then shut it off, check for leaks, check the oil level, document the oil change in my log book, It's all good. Then I start the car again and proceed to go to the gas station to top off the gas tank. As I back out of the driveway, I see oil sprayed all over the street and on the utility pole and all over my woodsplitter! That startled the heck out of me!
I quickly pull the car back into the driveway and shut it off. I look under the car...no oil on the driveway? I feel some oily mist in the air? I look up, and a transformer on the utility pole was leaking oil and at stupid crazy rate, the breeze turning the leaking oil into a mist as it fell to the street and on my woodsplitter.
I move my car, so it doesn't get sprayed with oil. I move my woodsplitter, and I go in to call the municipal electric company. They come out, and say, yup it's the transformer. They leave and come back with a replacement transformer. They cut the power and started to replace it, just as a big storm rolled in...thunder and lightening...they said this won't take long.
Then wind picked up and then a downpour rain, they had to quit, they weren't finished, they left and said they'd be back after the storm passed. The power was cut to my house and the neighbors business. No big deal for me, but I suspect my neighbor wasn't happy. An hour and a half later they came back, which was about 45 minutes after the storm ended. They said we had some 60 MPH winds and one tree fell in town and took out a powerline...They told me they had to fix that first, that's why it took them so long to come back to my neighborhood.
Anyway, that was a heck of a twist, eh?