Humility Over Stupidity
If you respect the constructed way to get to places high above and still have two hands free, guess what? It respects you back! But the same thing goes for ladders, nothing is more lateral [if you will] than a ladder, any kind of ladder. We will rarely see a ladder fail as long as it is set properly down. What fails more is the operator and where the ladder legs were sat or on. Have you ever fallen off a ladder? I have, and I fell with a chain saw in my hands, it wasn’t that fun of an experience, could have turned out to be disastrous in fact. What was most interesting about the experience was I decided right then that makeshift surfaces of setting up a ladder matter. Once the ladder proved to me it was going to wobble before I even climbed on it is not a way to move forward and get something accomplished. I was trimming a tree in the front yard and took a 6 ft. A-frame ladder out with me. I was not like a lot of others who sit at desk jobs during the week, I was toned, a runner of long distances and in great shape physically which no doubt helped once I fell. I wish I would have had someone out there with a camera because what I’m about to tell you would not happen again in 100 years probably. I had just cut a branch or two and was heading higher to access a hard to get to area when that ladder began to wobble, the wobble got so big the ladder went out from under on me and I came down not knowing for a second there where the heck I would land. Suddenly I landed at the base of that tree turned on my side with my torso jammed snugly in-between the fork of its two major trunks. I looked around to see if anyone witnessed this and no one was outside. My hands were still clutching that chainsaw and I was literally stuck, wedged in-between two trunks probably 18″ off the ground. I immediately began laughing uncontrollably, mostly from the relief of not getting seriously injured and how silly I must have looked to get into this landing spot… obviously I did find my way out of that wedge and luckily won’t have to experience that again.

It’s A Young Man’s Game
I’m too old for this kind of thing, but I did it anyway, I went forward with the crazy project, trim out and repaint a window. So I hired an outfit to erect some scaffolding in my entryway so I could access a window the builder installed that virtually no one can get to. How convenient – Not! It was twice as expensive as renting scaffolding, hauling it home and putting it together myself, but it was worth it! I found some guys that do this for a living so I figured I had a better chance of survival? [Even though they made me sign paperwork releasing them from any liability].

Sunlight I do need inside my townhouse but it seems like there was a better way to get it than install a small window so high up? The scaffolding guys built a way for me to stand on a 12 ft. high platform and work on finishing trimming out that small window. Not only that but they came back the following week, disassembled it into pieces and hauled it away [without tearing up my walls, my wood floor, or anything else]. So all good over here now. You see their job was different than my job – my job during that week was to stay alive until they came back to pick it all back up, and mostly not to fall off the platform or the thin steel rods I had to climb up and down for access. This was my second experience with scaffolding, and hopefully will be my last. One thing I had forgotten about scaffolding – unlike a traditional ladder, you can only reach the top by climbing straight up, no friendly 45-50 degree angles are allowed on scaffolding like climbing up and down stairways. Nope, you’re climbing straight up and straight down and that can make a world of difference on someone’s psyche, especially when they’re way past their 50s.

No Atheist Ever Found
Inside foxholes or working on top of scaffolding. These are two places where men need to rely on a “higher power”. Nothing like climbing onto scaffolding for those of you who have never experienced it, because whenever you move it moves. Let me repeat that, when on top [or even climbing onto] scaffolding when you move it moves and that fact takes some getting used to. Problem is you probably will never get used to it, but no worries because you’re not alone. What if the ground moved when we walked over it, that would not go over well, right? Again, just another reason why there are no atheists on top of scaffolding [or sitting in a foxhole]… until next time! 😉