Terrific news today -- the new transformer is installed and working beautifully. This is huge news because it let us remove the generator we'd been using in the interim. 
That transformer upgrade was about a year in the making. We tried to push it along because we didn't like the generator noise, and our neighbors didn't like the generator noise, and we didn't have any other choice. We want to thank our neighbors for being as patient as they possible could. Watching the transformer go up made clear why so many agencies were involved, and why avoiding rain (or even a robust mist) was such an important factor.
Several times before, crews were planned or assembled only to be thwarted by the rain. A different winter and the transformer would have been up months ago, but rain is far better than drought. Besides, it's up now!
Along the way we met the guy who had installed the original transformer, which was eons ago in technology time, but not that long ago, really. At one point, the new transformer was going to get installed overnight. Instead, it happened during the day. We appreciate our neighboring businesses' endurance of a daytime outage. The installation involved taking over one lane of El Camino Real to stage two cherry pickers working in coordination with each other -- a high-voltage dance truly amazing to behold.
We want to thank all of the people from PG&E, CalTrans and the County who made this happen, with safety a first consideration and everything else falling in line behind. They have a thankless job of confronting impatient types like us, and coordinating numerous regulations and considerations, interrupted by emergencies and really no glory. We appreciate their hard work and look forward to using this new transformer for decades to come.
