Standing Into Danger

Friday, September 20, 2019

Down a Rabbit Hole!

Late Saturday morning I fell down a rabbit hole.
I was answering emails at my usual spot at the kitchen counter,
when the sound of a hovering helicopter caught my attention.

I ran out on our deck to find it,
but it took a minute or two because the helicopter wasn't moving.
I finally spotted it among the rooftops at the top of one of the monopoles
in the new power transmission line running through our area.

At the Top of a Monopole

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

I watched for a bit, but the helicopter was too far away
and I couldn't see what was happening.
I was surprised because I thought all the power line work was finished,
but also because I didn't know helicopters could hover motionless for so long.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.
I scribbled a note to Terry who was off playing pickleball and stuck it on the tv.
Then I made a mad dash for my car, forgetting to turn off the tv and lights,
let alone shut the front door completely on my way out.
I was afraid the helicopter would leave before I could reach it.

Six or seven minutes later when I spotted it at the end of an unfamiliar street,
it was still hovering in the same spot,
looking for all the world like a fish feeding on a strand of giant kelp.

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

I zoomed in with my little point-and-shoot Canon

and was amazed to see a lineman standing on the landing skid

of the helicopter and working on the power line.

Perhaps even more amazing was to see the pilot monitoring everything
and holding the helicopter in a position with little room for error
for, what seemed to me, a very long time.

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

One or two monopoles farther south, more linemen were working

under much tamer conditions, or so it seemed to me.

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

As I was snapping pictures, out of the corner of my eye,

I saw a man in a hard hat headed across the field straight for me.

Oh !@#$%^! I thought. I'm in trouble now!

I couldn't have been more wrong! He was the Xcel Energy
(Public Service Company of Colorado) representative on the site,

and we had a long and fascinating conversation

(well, him educating me)

about electrical power transmission in Colorado.

We covered a lot of territory:
from our electrical grid and how it works,
to rapid population growth and meeting future power needs,
to developing renewable energy sources such as wind power,
to the public and economic issues surrounding major power projects.
It was just the coolest thing ever!

Thus the rabbit hole.

I have spent many, many hours this week researching electrical power transmission

and learning as much as I could to help me understand it all.

I still can't wrap my mind around the concept of a volt,

but as Curt, the Xcel representative reassured me,

I didn't need to grasp that to understand power transmission in Colorado.

Meanwhile the helicopter had hopscotched over the linemen in the bucket
and moved to another monopole farther south.
Curt gave me his business card and offered to answer any future questions I might have,
and I was off in my car to catch up with the helicopter.

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 14, 2019

I arrived home for lunch very late.

Thankfully my husband wasn't upset about coming home from pickleball

and finding the front door partially open and the tv and lights on.

He gets me.

I may very well text Curt.
I have so many questions.
If I learn something cool, I'll let you know!

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Waiting for the Ferry to Tiverton

Grand Passage, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada

July, 2016

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Aurora, Colorado, USA

Wikimedia

Area Where I Took the Photographs

(by the asterisk in the lower middle)

Google

Adapted from a Sign in the Park

Red-Tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

Friday, September 13, 2019

Something Unexpected

I am fortunate to live in the flight paths of Denver International Airport
and Buckley Air Force Base, home of the 460th Space Wing.
That means I get to hear and see all kinds of interesting aircraft.
Often the sound of helicopters and fighter jets
has me running to our deck to search the skies.
I can't help it. I was a Royal Canadian Air Force brat.

I hear helicopters almost every day, and they are often military helicopters
flying from Buckley to Fort Carson, Peterson Air Force Base, or other destinations.
Some people resent any aircraft flying over our community, but not me.
I never tire of them.

Helicopter Last Weekend

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 8, 2019

Sometimes, when I'm really focused on a task,
I ignore the helicopters and other aircraft I hear.

Such was the case last weekend

when I was working on our budget for September.

I heard and ignored the siren call of whirling rotors.

I thought, Maybe a Black Hawk on its way to Fort Carson.

But the sound of rotating blades did not increase and decrease.

They went on and on and on, circling near Piney Creek.

So as I was trying to make columns of figures balance,

I was thinking: News helicopter? Police helicopter? Flight for Life helicopter?

Finally my curiosity overcame my focus,

and I had to go out on my deck and see what was going on.

Helicopter

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 8, 2019

The helicopter had flashing red and blue lights
and hovered near an electrical transmission tower.

Police helicopter was looking like a good guess
until I noticed that a wire stretched out tautly behind the helicopter.

Helicopter

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 6, 2019

As I watched I realized that the helicopter was stringing wires
from one electrical tower to another.
I thought it was an amazing bit of flying.

I've been watching for weeks as a second set of electrical towers
has marched across nearby hills parallel to the old power line.
Given the thousands and thousands of houses that have been built
in this area in the past twenty or so years,
it was not surprising to see a new power line under construction.

Sunday's Helicopter

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 8, 2019

I watched in awe for a while,
and then went back to the dreary task of budget numbers.

Monday I noticed the helicopter was back at it, and it droned all morning.
Finally I couldn't stand it any longer.
I had to go down to Piney Creek and see the action closer up.

It had been at least two months since I walked along this portion of the open space,
and I was surprised to see a new road and tons of equipment littering the landscape.

Giant Cable Spools

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

Transmission Lines, Road, and Equipment

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

Nobody was around ~ They must have been on a lunch break ~

So I stepped onto the site, snapped a couple of shots, and left quickly.

Transmission Lines, Road, and Equipment

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

I kept hoping the helicopter would show up.

After all it had been flitting about like a dragonfly most of the morning.

Now that I had shown up, it was nowhere to be seen.

I hung out in a nearby field pretending to be very interested in nature photography.

Waiting with Weeds

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

Waiting with Weeds

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

After waiting for almost an hour, I finally gave up and headed for home.

Then suddenly I heard the rotors in the distance and ran north toward the sound.

Boy, was my patience rewarded!

And, boys oh boy, was I surprised!

Surprise

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

This time the helicopter wasn't stringing wires.

It was carrying a lineman from tower to tower.

Not the Job for Me!

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

Monday's Helicopter

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

The Transmission Line on the Right Is Live!

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

It's hard to grasp how big these towers and their components are

until you see a man dangling beside them.

Lineman at Work

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

September 9, 2019

I chased the helicopter with its dangling lineman from tower to tower

snapping photos as I ran. These guys work fast!

The helicopter pilot would lower the lineman by three giant pulleys on one side of a tower,

and then he would hoist him up by three giant pulleys on the other side of the tower.

I don't know exactly what the lineman was doing, but he appeared to be making sure

that cables were feeding through the pulleys properly.

But I do know this: both he and the pilot were doing very dangerous work.

Moving from One Tower to the Next

I later read that helicopters are used when linemen work on

high voltage, high-tension power lines that span huge distances.

The helicopters move them from one massive primary transmission tower to another

These towers can be 500 feet high and carry hundreds of kilovolts of power.

electricianschooledu.org

Moving Faster Than I Can Run

I also later learned that Xcel Energy is building 125 miles of new power lines
in its Pawnee-Daniels Park Project.
The 20-mile segment being constructed in our area runs
from the Harvest Mile Substation in Aurora

to the Daniels Park Substation in Castle Pines.
When finished the new power lines will carry 345 kilovolts (kV) of electricity.

(I find it difficult to understand what a volt is, but a kilovolt is a thousand of them ~
So it's a 345,000 volt power line.)

Article Map

Moving Above the Trees

(middle left)

It wasn't long before the helicopter and the lineman outpaced me.

Fortunately, the helicopter lowered him to the ground,

for a well-deserved break I'm sure!

I'm so glad that curiosity got the better of me!

I had no idea that helicopters and dangling linesmen constructed power lines.

Actually I didn't know anything about constructing power lines.

I wouldn't have missed seeing this for anything.

Back to Reality

Upper Pond, Piney Creek

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

Waiting for the Ferry to Tiverton

Grand Passage, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada

July, 2016

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Location of Aurora, Colorado, USA

Wikimedia

Area Where I Took the Photographs

(by the asterisk in the lower middle)

Google

Southern Aurora and Northern Parker

Google

Adapted from a Sign in the Park

Red-Tailed Hawk Park

Aurora, Colorado, U.S.A.

Books Read in 2026

"18 Days in Heaven" by Gale Poirot
"A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Hope, Love, and Overcoming" by Kerrie Rawson
"Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life" by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD.
"Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics Deepest Truths" by Eugenia Cheng
"Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir
"Tell Me Everything" by Elizabeth Strout
"The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese
"The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" by David Graeber and David Wengrow
"The Life Impossible" by Matthew Haig
"The Lord go the Rings" by JRR Tolkien
"The Match" by Harlan Corben
"The Night the Path Disappeared" by Terri Bergen
"The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper" by Roland Allen
"Theo of Golden" by Allen Levi
"Think Twice" by Harlan Corben
"Why Christianity Must Change Or Die" by John Shelby Spong

Standing Into Danger

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Friday, September 20, 2019

Down a Rabbit Hole!

Friday, September 13, 2019

Something Unexpected

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