annoyedLisa heard a big racket somewhat like when the "Big BNSF" through trains are doing switching on the tracks across the street from our house in Fernley. She saw a big rig across the street, and from the signs, she thought he'd rubbed up against one of the electric poles. The truck spent the night and was gone the next day, whereupon Lisa discovered what the truck had actually done.
The trucker had run over the fire hydrant across the street from our house and knocked it off its mooring.
As you might be able to tell from this picture, this was quite a trick. The hydrant was protected by bollards, now mostly buried with their tops visible in the dirt, surrounding the hole where the hydrant used to be.
He must have driven completely over the bollard-protected hydrant and dragged it some distance.
Update, 20:10: I found a photo that shows what the hydrant looked like before the truck took it out:
This is from November 27 and you can see the hydrant with its protective ring of bollards in front of the power pole at the center of the photo.
Lisa went to the fire department yesterday and reported the knocked-over hydrant; they say that they will come out and fix it.
Note that, unlike in the movies, knocking over the hydrant head did not produce a spectacular geyser. Fire hydrants don't actually work like that. The real valve is deep underground to protect it, so knocking off the hydrant doesn't open it up. What it does do is make it harder to fight a fire in the area, so I hope we don't have any need of the fire department before they have a chance to replace the busted hydrant.
Lisa kicks herself for not taking down the trucking company name and trailer number so that the North Lyon County Fire Protection District could bill the company for the fixture replacement. Voters in out district voted down a small levy that would have increased funding to the fire department (much to my dismay), so this is yet one more unfunded expense for the district.