as a power lineman for 35 years who climb poles with my hooks and steel towers too , my first 20 some years we had limited use of a bucket that was used only for hot work " work lines energized " all line work can be dangerous and very hard on your body too. i just had my 4th back surgery with plates and screws ,12 inch cut in stomach, 6 inch cut in back for this surgery it took 9 hours 15 minutes , have had both shoulders rebuilt, steel disc in neck ,knee surgery and need a new knee too. so don`t mess with what any linemen have done its a honest tuff trade we work in all weather conditions and many many hours with no breaks in storms ! here is true example of what linemen may have to do: this happened after my 1st back about year later after that surgery ,about 5 p.m. before we are going have the evening meal with my wife,little son and daughter on Christmas Eve and they are ready to open their kiddy gifts but know they have to eat 1st. i am on call at the power company and its a nasty snowstorm and its below zero -5 maybe that night , we have a 3 phase line out , we find a burned top of pole ,broken /burned pole pin and insulator and its snowin hard so its my turn or whatever line is dead or shorted out because of this pin and insulator,top of pole burned off then the two of us go back to truck again and hand pull a small sliding sled with what we need,chain saw and my climbing gear too, snow is about a foot or more deep and still coming down hard , this all takes time to do to finish. then i climb down at around 12 a.m. still snowing hard, then we go home at around 1:30 a.m. lights are off at my house kids are sleeping i then eat and go to bed . most people have no ideal how hard all line work can be. over many years i got to work with many Viet Nam vets too and the ones that fought in Nam were dang tuff too great guys to work with and that night i had a tuff Viet Nam vet with me who had lost his wife to cancer and was raising his 2 boys by himself . it was are jobs hell or high water and never much help or sleep.
