We’re all pretty much guilty of not thinking about them, taking them for granted, even ignoring them as we drive around town. But when the power goes out there is nothing more compelling than seeing that power truck pull up in front of your home. Then the guy in the hardhat, yellow slicker, insulated gauntlets and shoulder sleeves hops into the bucket and powers up to the shorted transformer. With rain streaming off his hard hat or hail bouncing off it like bird shot, he becomes our instant hero.

In a few moments, ignoring his own comfort and safety for the sake of ours, he and his groundman have the lights, TV, hot water, air conditioning, refrigerator, stove and all of our other creature comforts humming. Life is once again safe and comfortable for us, but when the big truck heads down the road, even to another outage, it fades from our consciousness as quickly as the rain or snow obscures the taillights.

The eleven-man crew assigned to Powhatan County from Dominion Virginia Power’s Midlothian office has done more than its share of local emergency line repair but it has also been to Louisiana and Texas in the wake of both hurricanes Katrina and Charles. Typically, they made several trips to Northern Virginia in this past month to repair storm damage.

“We are normally ahead of the storms, “ said Manager of Construction Mike Powers. “We hear bad weather is on the way and we pack up and roll to wherever we can reach.” The trucks are “rolling offices” according to Powers. They are computer and GPS equipped to pinpoint even the smallest and most remote outage.

“I’m very proud of what we do,” Powers said. “Hurricanes, ice storms, wind storms, tornados — we are there.”

And in heat waves too. On a 95-degree July day, Richard May, Kevin Henderson, Hugh Fennell and Powhatan’s Kendall Hockaday donned their stifling safety gear and simultaneously ran the buckets of four separate trucks, up into the crossarms and high voltage lines of a power pole on Old Buckingham Road.

On the ground below the pole, Mike Marusienski, Robert “Trip” Sheppard, Evan Togger, Michael “Tadpole” Walker, Mark Carmichael and Willie Smith, the groundmen, stirred up puffs of red dust as they prepared a new crossbar and insulators.

The groundmen unboxed dozens of orange safety line insulators, preparing to fasten them over the 35,000 volt lines. Three of the linemen use insulated hoists on their bucket trucks to lift the power lines, clearing a safety zone so that May could safely remove the old crossbar and install the new one.

“Safety is our prime consideration ,“ said Powers, a 22-year Dominion Power veteran and a former lineman himself.

“And these guys are the best in the business. They are the doctors of the electrical world.”

Project Supervisor Michael “Moose” Powers — no relation to Manager of Construction Mike “Rambo” Powers — stood to the side of the crowd, his eyes fastened on the four men in the buckets.

“He won’t take his eyes off them for a second until the job is finished and they are all back on the ground,” said Mike Powers. Replacing this particular ageing crossbar involved just one pole in the six-month project to increase the reliability of electrical service in the county. These four crews are tasked with the reconditioning of Powhatan Circuit 323, just over 37 miles of powerlines and poles.

“Keeping the lights on is always our goal and these guys take great pride in doing that job and completing this task on time,” Mike Powers offered. Despite the inherent danger, and being sent to restore service in other trouble spots during the renovation, the project is projected to be completed on time. As it nears its completion, the dangerous work has “gone on every day for nearly six months without a (crew member suffering a) scratch,” Mike Powers said.

The 43-year-old Hockaday has been with Dominion Virginia Power for 22 years and has held his lineman’s job for 20. In a recurring theme amongst both the linemen and the ground men, what he enjoys most about the job is being outside. “The weather can be a bit of a hassle but I really like being outside. I, enjoy the work and helping other people,” he said,

Becoming a lineman is easily somewhere between difficult and nearly impossible. “Only the top dog on the ground gets a shot at becoming a lineman,” Mike Powers said. Opportunities don’t come open very often and when they do, competition for the slots is ferocious. “We have one slot coming up and three guys on these four crews are fighting for it.”

The chosen one then has months of intensive work and study in Dominion Virginia Power’s Lineman Development Program at the state of the art training center in Chester to look forward to, before he can become certified.

Mark Carmichael is the rookie on this project. The 28-year-old Richmond resident will register one year of service as a groundman on July 10.

He left a career as a carpenter to join Dominion Power.

He enjoys the work, and had to search hard to find even the smallest negative.

Crews normally work a 6: 30 a.m. to 5 p.m., in four day a week shifts, but their commitment to finish the renovation work on time has required some five-day work weeks.

“I also really enjoy the variety on the job,” Carmichael said. “And Tadpole always keeps us laughing.”

“They really are a great crew and their work ethic is phenomenal,” Mike Powers said.

“They are legitimate unsung heroes.”