Originally Posted by twahl
Sounds to me like you were making a joke indicating that he should leave the people without electricity, and he took it as a joke about not clotheslining you, so he played along. I doubt his intention was to hurt you, but in is ignorance he almost did. I think he was expecting you to expect it. Doesn't excuse it, but I think there was some serious humor miscommunication here.
They weren't repairing a broken line. They were reeling a temporary hook up from a power box on one side of the road to a construction site on the other. When I was getting close the cable was about a foot off the ground, he let it fall to the ground as I got closer to it. It was then I said "leave it down" and he knodded in agreement.
When I was about a foot away from the cable he pulled it taught...
..he knew exactly what he was doing.