Those of you sending or recieving packages at the Tehachapi Branch Post Office may have noticed the bright yellow stand now beside two other stands. That's right, The Loop is now outside the Post Office, and that stand now puts our paper at over 250 locations county wide. Of these over XX are in our prominent yellow news stands available to everyone 24-hours a day. Our 24-hour stands are everywhere in Tehachapi; near Red House BBQ, Tehachapi Hospital, Kohnen's, K-Mart, SaveMart (soon to be near Rite Aide in the same shopping center), Howie's, Chevron Gas, Primo's (in Tehachapi), Tehachapi Greater Chamber of Commerce, in front of our office at 204 S. Green St. and (now) the local Post Office. We want to be where our readers are and the Post Office is a big part of that. If anyone else has a suggested location for any future 24-hour stands be sure to leave us a comment on this blog.
by Christopher Gripkey
The onsite SCE employee getting ready to replace the transformer after calling it in.
What does it take to kill power to most of downtown Tehachapi?
One well-placed crow.
That's right. If you were anywhere near Tehachapi Boulevard, from the La Quinta Inn – near the Highway 58 E. Tehachapi Blvd. exit – to K-Mart, the power outage from 8:45 to 10 a.m. was caused by one very unlucky crow.
Alexander Kunstmann, the owner of A-OK Computers, actually saw the incident and this is what he had to say:
"It was a transformer on a power line, perpendicular to Steuber Road and parallel to Tehachapi Boulevard, just behind La Quinta Inn. At first I thought it was the sun glaring from a house or something, but then it got bigger and brighter – 6 to 10 feet in diameter. It looked like a mini-sun and there was a lot of smoke. When it dimmed I knew it was a blown transformer. Then it did it again...."
When I found out Alex had actually seen which transformer had blown, I and a fellow employee jumped in the trusty Loop car to find it ourselves – and get a few pictures.
As you can see, the unlucky avian was barely visible on top of the transformer (I am sorry if some find this picture offensive).
While we were out on Steuber Road, a Southern California Edison (SCE) truck drove past our car and, after traveling down the street a bit, he did a U-turn and came to a stop near us. The gentleman came out of his truck and we told him which transformer we thought was affected and it turned out to be the right one. Once the technician knew which transformer it was he was kind enough to let me take a few pictures from a safe distance.
Ironically, at 10 a.m., I asked him when the power would be on. "Oh, that...I just had it remotely switched, everyone should have power now," he said, after getting off his cellphone. Isn't technology grand?
There were a few small exceptions though, according to that SCE employee; a few street lights on Tehachapi Boulevard and a weather station will be without power until about 1 p.m. today.
The transformer itself. It got so hot it literally burned off the black paint.
Before he began working on the transformer he asked us to leave for our safety and then thanked us (or more specifically Alex) for giving him an idea where to look.
"You guys saved me some time. Thank you," he said right before we left.
I personally was impressed with how courteous he was and SCE should be proud to have such a personable and professional technician working for them.
Yes, it’s true. I just stopped by Kohnen’s Bakery for a chocolate croissant and holy cow! They’ve knocked down the wall between them and the empty space next door where Hodad’s used to be. This is great news if you love Kohnen’s, as I do, because not only will there be more cookies, treats, and bakery items, but a much needed dining area. Yay! It’s always been tough to find a seat and enjoy a Cubano sandwich – my personal favorite. Now there’s a lot of room. Colleen, the owner, said that besides the added dining area, they will be offering more grocery items as well as expanding the bakery selection.
Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012 is the Tehachapi Wine Walk and Kohnen’s is a Tasting Host. Stop by Kohnen’s on your wine tasting adventure, experience the live music and check out The Lost Box – who will be displaying their jewelry as well.
I just stopped by Heat Source on South Street to deliver some Loops and
noticed that they are expanding! Actually, with the Old Town Postal & Blue
Print Store moving down the road to Brian
Way, the Heat Source has removed the old counter
and office space and is remodeling the area recently vacated by the Old Town
Postal & Blue Print Store.
This will allow The Heat Source to display more
of their quality products. Christy – the owner – let me take a picture of the
work in progress and said they are looking forward to having the work complete
in a couple of weeks. The doors are still open during the upgrade, so stop by
for any of your fireplace needs.
- Adam, "The Loop Guy"
Welcome readers to our new website.
As you can see we've pulled out all the stops and are making our paper more available to anyone with an internet connection. Expect to see a little of everything as we put the final touches on the site and apply what elbow grease is needed.
Readers can now follow us on Facebook/Twitter or post directly to Facebook/Twitter when commenting on our article.
You can see our updated and interactive Tehachapi Pet Network, look at past articles/recipes (still putting those in, there are a lot), catch up on Tina's Forde Files or any other of our local articles.
