Best of Blog: The Story of Big Jim

The power went out. Again!

I looked out my second story office window and knew exactly why. I could hear the sounds throughout the morning. There was a crew of four men and three bucket trucks stringing power lines along the new poles they had been planting in the front and back yards of my neighborhood the past few weeks.

Often, during this time, I would work on my laptop on the front porch and watch this professional teamwork in total synchronicity, moving from pole to pole in planned sequence. First, it was connecting the phone lines. Then, cable. Today, and finally, from the back alley, the electricity.

What was of extreme interest to me was the foreman of this well-oiled machine. A big, burly middle-aged fellow whose sheer stature and hard look would intimidate most. But, he always uttered his commands, some very loudly as his underlings were often thirty-five feet in the air, with warm authority. Read more