The next time your electrical power is restored, you can thank Chris DeGarmo, Puget Sound Electric’s resident lineman on Vashon.

While you’re cosily wrapped up in bed during a storm, DeGarmo is more than likely out there in the wind and rain working to deal with a downed tree — or whatever else has just caused that latest power outage.

It’s not a job many of us would relish, but DeGarmo loves the work. “I love being outside in storms, and I enjoy the challenges,” he said. “There’s a lot of problem-solving involved.”

DeGarmo was born in Florida, and has fond memories of the beaches and the Everglades. His father was an acoustical engineer, so there was a lot of science and math in his upbringing. The family moved to Idaho (where DeGarmo was amazed by the first snow he’d ever seen), then to Silverdale when he was six. He remembered the town being very wooded and peaceful back then, but “Now it’s a strip mall,” he said.

DeGarmo attended Western Washington University in Bellingham, studying biology with an emphasis on genetics. He was supposed to be looking into a microscope, but found himself staring outside a lot. He did some engineering, learning the basics of the field; but he never finished the degree. “I got stir-crazy being inside,” he said.

It was at Western that he met his wife Kate, whose family had a summer home on Vashon. He fell in love with the island; the couple moved here in 2010, and were married two years later. Two kids, a son and a daughter, followed.

DeGarmo worked at various jobs, including construction and gardening, while Kate worked at Café Luna. “It took me awhile to find my feet,” he said. A neighbor was a tree-trimmer, and DeGarmo was inspired to buy a climbing harness. The harness came with a how-to book, one he says “I read so many times I’d dream about it, and wake up thinking, ‘so that’s how you tie that knot!’”

He secured a job as a tree-trimmer, then heard about a lineman apprenticeship. There were 2,500 applications for ten slots, but DeGarmo studied intensively to prepare for the three rounds of rigorous theoretical and practical testing. It paid off: he secured one of the apprenticeships, and felt that he’d finally found a career.

I first met Chris through a mutual friend, and have found him to be a remarkably thoughtful, cultured guy with whom I often share book recommendations. He’s also one of those rare individuals — particularly among men — who loves to memorize and recite poetry. Consequently, he was a logical choice for a Bookworm column.

He remembers seeing a Batman cartoon, of all things, where William Blake’s “Tyger, tyger, burning bright” was quoted. “I had to find the poem,” he said. “I love finding new poets.”

Indeed, one of his choices of a book to take to a desert island would be an anthology of poetry. He reeled off some names, including Samuel Coleridge, Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson (whose poem “Success is counted sweetest” he recited during the interview).

Another choice is “Meditations”, by the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius. “If I was alone on an island,” he said, “I’d have to dig into my stoicism.”

Last is Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy. DeGarmo loves science fiction, which he likes to read to his kids; it’s also serves as a way of discussing scientific ideas with them. “We read Arthur C. Clark’s novel ‘Rendezvous with Rama’” he said, “which led to a discussion about the physics of a spinning spaceship.”

DeGarmo talks a lot about philosophy, and is fascinated by the development of thought that’s handed down over the centuries. “It goes from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle, and then to Alexander and Ptolemy, and on,” he said. He notes how one can often relate to the emotions and thoughts of long-dead authors; reading a book from long ago “is like time-traveling,” he said. “It’s like having a conversation with someone from the past.”

He loves the magic of a great book. “There’s a certain quality of well-written stories,” he said. “There’s a thread, a beautiful tapestry, like the tying of a knot. At the end, it all comes together. There’s such a beautiful elegance to writing a story like that.”

DeGarmo and his wife have no plans to ever leave the island; it’s very much home. Which means our literary lineman will probably be fixing all our power outages for years to come.

Phil Clapham is a writer and retired whale biologist who lives on Maury Island. His comic romance novel “Jack” (under his nom-de-plume Phillip Boleyn) is available on Amazon.