THIS IS A major traffic artery in my hardscrabble barrio. Doesn’t look like it, but it is. It goes over a railroad track you can make out down thataway. It is one of only two routes to drive from one side of the barrio to the other.
And the other way is a long way off.
The pole began to lean about a month ago. It leans more every day. It’s a telephone pole, not electricity. The butcher down on the corner told me. This is personally a good thing because we have no land line, but we do have electricity.
We live just a block from here.
The butcher also told me it’s been reported to TelMex a number of times, but there it stands, leaning more by the day, a tendency not helped by daily rains and the rumble of passing trains. The good news is that it will not fall on the track, derailing a train.
That could get nasty and bloody.
I walked down there to see where it will fall. It doesn’t look like it will hit anything of note when it goes. As long as one of the minivans that make up our public transportation system is not in the right place at the wrong time. Could get ugly.
It will block the street, cutting access to the other side of the barrio by 50 percent. I guess TelMex will then get off its duff and do something.
Meanwhile, it’s a daily visual entertainment.
Maybe it is time for a call to Carlos Slim, if you can get thru to him. Phil
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Phxxer: That’s a great idea. I’m gonna pass it along to the butcher down on the corner.
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In my comment, I was going to add “while you still have a phone.” But then I remembered you don’t have a land line.
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Phxxer: That is true. Just a cell. Does anyone in the United States still have land lines? Cannot imagine why they would. A former coworker who now lives in Colorado told me recently he doesn’t have a smartphone. Those things are like electronic Swiss Army knives. Very useful.
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What’s the rush? Reset your watch to Mexican time and stop conjecturing. It’ll get straightened out, probably after it falls on somebody’s head.
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Señor Lanier: My watch and most of my personality remain, and always will remain, on Gringo time. I am hardwired.
Yes, it will fall, and then the problem will be fixed. And some folks will lose their phones in the meantime. But not me!
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Isn’t your internet connected over the phone line?
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Gerard: Aha! You are right. I had not thought of that. But no problem. We have two internet services, and the other has nothing to do with TelMex.
But we are on the town side of that pole, so maybe when it goes it will only affect customers on the far side. Who knows? But we still have backup. Having two WiFi options is always wise in this country, I think.
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