Dont Do It Like Dick #1. A cautionary tale... Ladders. I hate ladders. I own half dozen ladders. I am Mr. Ladder Safety Nazi - always 3 points of contact, keep your hips inside the rails, never stand on the top 2 steps, etc. Im building a greenhouse that is a conversion from an old barn remnant from when we used to have horses. Its all going well and I get to the roof panels. The panels are 34 x 72 tempered glass (55 pounds each.) I have been doing this myself as my sons have moved away and are busy with their own lives so it leaves me to build jigs and various supports to get these things done solo. Not a problem - just much slower. I get 7 of these panels up without incident and am working on number 8. I set up my 10 ladder with my shorter 8 step ladder next to it. Again, being as safe as possible I prop the glass on the lower rung of the shorter ladder, climb up a couple steps on the big ladder, lift the glass up a couple steps on the short ladder, climb up another couple steps - always as safely as possible and being cautious all the way to the top. My feet are about 8 off the ground and all is secure so I lift this glass panel (55 pounds) up over my head to slide it onto the supports I had built. I get the glass up over my head and I suddenly have this sense that Im in quicksand as the left side of my ladder starts to ever so slowly ooze away from me. I look down and have just a couple seconds to see that metal fatigue had set into my aluminum ladder and that the metal was slowly tearing while I watched with a giant sheet of glass over my head. SHIT!!!!! (I said that 3 times on the way down...!!!!!!) Realizing Im going down, I attempt to separate myself from the glass so I shove it away and manage to get it pushed away and basically do a belly flop on the ground - huge whiplash that smashes my nose into the ground while Im leaving a large piece of Dick (so to speak) on the 3rd rung of the ladder. My nose erupts into this massive gusher and then I notice a number of curious things. 1, the glass amazingly did not break. 2, instead of having to search around for the expected year old oily rag under the seat of my truck to put on my bloody parts, I had set about 2 feet away a fresh, brand new stack of shop towels I purchased at Costco. 3, though my nose is bleeding more profusely than I ever imagined possible, no broken teeth, didnt blow open my lips, nothing. Im standing there trying to stop this gusher in my face and notice my shoe seems to be filling up with liquid. I look down and see that this gash in my shin is definitely not good. I sit down, take inventory and think about how terribly lucky I was to be doing just that after having taken a dive from about 8 feet with a large sheet of glass. Next problem - how to not freak out Deanette. I stave off the bleeding and wrap my nasty parts up and sneak into the house where I go looking for her. Fortunately , shes busy in her office so as I sneak up the stairs I can tiptoe across the hall without her noticing and get in the tub to clean up the mess. She eventually comes in and does the expected - OMG!!! Are you OK??? Let me see????? EWWWW!!!!!!! Did you bleed on the carpet???? So, 10 stitches in the shin and let me tell you, falling off a ladder from that height does nothing to help an already sore back feel any better - but - the greenhouse is almost done which Ill post a time lapse when it is finally finished. So to all of my compadres, be careful. Falling off a ladder is the leading cause of injury and death in the household. I dont care how careful you are - it can happen.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 14:46:16 +0000
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