12:30 a.m. - Utility Pole Maintenance

 
I was driving home late tonight after dropping my girlfriend off at her house, just the usual route. I reached Minebrook Park and took a left, heading in the direction of the short school zone road which runs alongside the circle into town and which would take me toward the path to my neck of the woods. As I drove this road, I saw in the distance before me the bright steadily flashing lights of two maintenance vehicles. It was dark, and it wasn't until I was close that I could only vaguely make out the shape of two men, one standing atop the vehicle's raised platform and the other pointing his flashlight up at the first man from below on the road.

I slowed to a near-stop, I wasn't sure if I was safe to pass through while they worked as two vehicles stood on each side of the road. I cruised until I was about to pass, opened my side-door window and called to the man on the ground, "Am I okay to go?" he must not have heard me, because he continued looking up and pointing the dull blue of his LED flashlight at his fellow worker. As I passed and continued down the road, I figured there was no direct obstruction on the road and I was fine to pass, maybe a branch had fallen on the line and the power had gone out for some unlucky families in the area and the two were sent out for some night shift maintenance work.

Then I wondered... Despite the flashlight's beams, I could barely see the man above, working on the utility pole, his upper half was concealed in complete darkness, not much more than an inky silhouette as I drove up to the scene, and after I passed I couldn't even see that much through my rear window. Why would they work without light? What if there was something up there that a passerby was meant not to see?

...Nah that's crazy. Otherwise though it was a perfectly normal drive, bar an unsettling but unfortunately not surprising streak of blood leading off from a small raccoon body left as roadkill and run over one too many times. The way the sight slid into view as I drove up the road was an unpleasant sight for sure.