The lowly penny. Not worth much by itself, at least in terms of face value. But the metal itself… there’s a different story. Although until recently profit was made on pennies, the soaring price of copper is making the penny less cost effective. Some even want to get rid of the penny, and some are fighting back. Others are attemping to find the older pennies and melting them down for the copper, although that’s now against the law.
Copper thefts are rising. In Los Angeles alone, 700 streetlights are dark because of copper thefts. These thiefs have made off with 370,000 feet of valuable copper wiring over the last four months. It is costing over a million dollars just to repair those lights.
So my story today is about a missing streetlight, although not one out due to copper theft. No. Evidently, around 6pm last night, someone toppled a power pole near Vanowen Vanalden and Plummer, taking out electricity for a good 20 block region in the area, including our house. Of course, this was a royal pain for me as I only have so many nights to get Bat Mitzvah stuff done before I fly out to Miami Beach for the conference next week. I had handouts to get done, and music to edit for the DJ (for the song session). It didn’t get done last night — the power didn’t come back until around 11pm.
So, as I was going to be driving in anyway today, I just opted to stay home and use some time to work on this stuff. Some time is truly work at home (I always have documents to review), and I have a dentist appt. in the afternoon.
Still, a grrrrr. for the driver that hit the power pole (although it probably wasn’t good for them either).
