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Since Terry made the safety post a few days ago I thought you all might get a kick out of this one.
Driving home today on a one way down town street through an old residential/buisness section of Louisville I saw one of the dumbest stunts ever by a couple of roofers. Picture this: three story residents on the corner of a city block, no front or side yard(just an 8′ sidewalk), a 40′ alum. extension ladder setting in what could be consiered a parking lane with a bundle of shingles behind it to keep it from kicking out. Two street sign on a utility pole say respectively (1) No parking here to corner, (2) No Stopping 6:00AM to 9:00AM and 3:00PM to 6:00PM. One man on the roof with a nailler applying shingles. A second man on the ladder hand nailing the first two or three courses that he can reach between packing bundles up for the other guy.
I pulled my company van over next to the curb about 20′ before I reached the ladder and turned on my emergency flashers. As I got out, the gohper came down the ladder and ask “can I help you?” I told him no, I had just stopped to tell him that his ladder was now sitting in an outgoing traffic lane, and they might want to consider moving it to a safer location. It is now 3:15PM. The young fellows says “I know, the boss told me to move the truck, so we won’t get a ticket.” Now the “boss” comes down the ladder and we start the whole conversation over. I tell him I travel this route everyday and in about 30 minuets it is going to look like the start of a NASCAR event on this street. He might not want his helper or ladder setting in the pole position lane. He says “I only got 30 more minuetes work at this spot and then I’ll move it.” He then says “you’re costing me money, why don’t you get the f… out of here.” Your life, I say and go back to my truck. I set two traffic cones behind my van and left.
Maybe I won’t read about them in the morning paper tomorrow, but I think that is one guy I’ll evene
eventually read about.
What else can you do?
Replies
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I know how aggravating it can be. Stupid is as stupid does.
*Hey Dave,I'm not trying to come down on you personally, but, you could spend your whole life looking out for idiots. I thought that was the government's job.Maybe God was trying to get rid of another stupid person and you were in the way.I bet you're are a barrel of fun in a roomful of fat smokers.Seriously, you got out of your van to basically suggest that the guy is a moron, which he is. What, did you expect him to thank you, shake your hand and move his ladder out of the street? Based strictly on this incident, I would bet that you vote a straight democrat ticket every election. Please tell me I'm wrong.
*You can allow people more choices (give money to poor people) and sometimes you can help people make better choices by giving them more information as you did. But you can't (and usually shouldn't) make people make a particular choice.Sounds like, since they are exposing only themselves to most of the risk (the vehicle driver is unlikely to suffer injury), you did exactly the right amount of trying to help. As for them, "Hey, you! Out of the gene pool!" -David
*Hey Dave,Next time.....call the police.
*Dave, I can't believe you gave those nuts (2) traffic cones. A road flare would be cheaper,and would better alert the cops to their stupidities.I'm sorry for your loss(2 cones).I've learned over the years to stay passive about what I see other guys doing.I fell 30' off a roof and am here to tell you about it, so why not save yourself $50,000 bucks and tie yourself off."Too restictive old man." Bob
*Evolution in action?
*Dave,I'm with Bob. I can't believe that you gave them two perfectly good cones. My hat's off to ya.b : )
*It's been said that experience is a good teacher.Maybe you should let them experience the wonderful, enlightening sensation that occurs when a ladder gets knocked out from under you by a car.BTW, did you get to retrieve your cones?
*Dave, Good for you. We are all our brothers keepers.If these guys were democrats they would have spent their govt. rebate money on a couple of ropes and harnesses. Seems like there are more horses asses than there are horses sometimes. Just remember two things about advice...wisemen don't need it and fools won't heed it. cc
*Dave, I wouldn't have left the cones. You've exposed yourself to a liability issue by leaving them. I'd have called the police, not to get the young fools in trouble, but to save some motorist a month of nightmares and legal scrutiny. You also might be saving someone's life or limb if you prevent a chain reaction (motorist swerves to avoid hitting the ladder).I might have stopped or I might just call...it depends on my mood.blue
*Dave,Some people just have to learn the hard way
*Now just wait a cottonpickin' minute! How in tarrrrnation did he open hisself to li ab ill titty by leaven a couple o cones? Don't tell me it's come to that already.OTOH, what Dave did do is leave himself open for the punchline. He can go back tomorrow and holler, "I TOLD YA' SO!".
*Rich, if Dave left some cones in the road, and a car swerved because he didn't want to run over the cones, who is liable? Don't kid yourself. Anytime you do anything, you open yourself up. HOw about if the laborer was going to move the ladder, but decided that the cones provided enough safe warning and that no one would drive past the cones? Then, a little old lady runs the ladder down and says "cones....what cones?". Did the cones meet the county road specifications regarding setbacks, size, color, etc? Did the cone placer have permission to block the roadway? There are many issues. blue
*Tommy, What the F--K do Dave's actions have to do with him [sic] voting a straight Democratic ticket? And what if he does? Are you so perspicacious that you're able to deduce, simply from Dave's post, that he votes Democratic? You're one sharp cookie, no doubt about it. Leave the politics out of it; we hear enough of that sh-t over in the Tavern. Sam
*Dave, now you know why you should carry a camera at all time. Your journalism career could have started today! Or a winning entry on one of those funniest videos shows.And as others have noted, there is no shortage of morons, a couple less won't be noticed. Joe H
*Voting a straight ticket? That can be dangerous! Any body that will do that would chase little chickens off into the water. Now I have the serious stuff out of the way lets talk safety! I tend to agree that just keep on rolln down the street would be the best thing to do. A half wit like that will usually come down the ladder and say his f--k you's and if he caught me in the right mood I would have been tempted to punch his lights out.
*I vote the canidate not the ticket. The cones were old ones nearly dead from abuse. The young gopher was maybe 21, and the boss maybe 29-30. I expected to be told off when the boss came down the ladder, so I wasn't going to let it get confrontational. They were three blocks from a police sub-station and apparently knew enough to move thier truck, so they would not get a ticket.I'll admit I did not think of the liability issue. I did think of some parent setting in the emergency room or funeral directors office grieving for a lost son.I'll ask some one in our overhead department to go sleeve the power lines they will be working around today. That is if they are still in the gene pool.
*Dave,Don't let anyone make you stop caring for your fellow human being.
*Well the way I see it if Dave's a democrat, that makes the guy on the roof a republican(right wing).Vince
*Tommy:"Based strictly on this incident, I would bet that you vote a straight democrat ticket every election. Please tell me I'm wrong."I'm not trying to come down on you personally, but that is one of the stupidest comments I've read.I'll bet you think Reagan was a great president, too.
*I'm with Mark - let the police deal with it. Stopping in a traffic lane can get you a ticket. Take it from another good samaritan who tried that once. Any of you old timers remember this: Ron Strohbeck "How was your day part 2" 10/20/99 8:20pm
*Ron,Boy I remember that one!James DuHamel
*OK Dave, Maybe these idiots'll eventually make the Darwin Awards, but the cones might've given a heads up to some unsuspecting family like mine. Keep the faith!
*Hey dave you blew it. Like Joe said you should of taken a picture of these idiots. You could of waited just as the stampede of cars came a nano second beforeimpact. Sold the picture to the insurance company of who ever would pay the most and even sell it to FHB for there parting shots. well anyway hindsight is always 20/20. :)
*I got my cones back at 5:00 AM this morning. They were sitting on the curb. Knowone working there today when I came home. Roof jacks were still up, and maybe 1/3 of the job was done. No acident paint marks on the sreet, so they either got caught by the police or whatever happened was non-fatal.The house was a converted three story. Aprtments on each floor with landing at each floor. Adout 8'to the roof from the upper deck terrace.I don't know about you guys, but walking up three flights of stairs and then a 10' ladder would have been easier than climbing 35' staight up a shakey alum. ladder. Of course working the first few courses off a ladder is less frieghtening than from above them on the roof. Yep, the camera would have been a money maker yesterday!I did have our overhead guys go by this mornig and sleeve the service entry lines on the house. The surviving morone of a crew like that would swear it was the utility companys' fault his buddy got toasted.
*Dave:You done good. Don't let the lemon pusses change you one bit. Not only did you clear your concience you planted a seed in the young guy. Maybe you even did some good with the mouthy one, but he wasn't going to admit it to your face.Liability, schmiability! I doubt even SHG could make a case against you, and HE is one sharp hammer.
*I am not gonna comment on the wisdom of setting up ladders in the street. What I will say is how often clueless people will comment on other peoples ladder placement.Like the homeowner who wants to know why I am setting up a ladder a few feet away from my truck in her driveway at the front of the house.It never occurrs to them that moving a ladder 10 feet across a driveway and the climbing over the top of the roof might be easier for me than carrying a ladder 140 ft around back through a alley past a snarling dog and around some pricker bushes.Chances are humping shingles up an extension laddder Is easier and faster than humping them up 3 flights of stairs and then up a 8 ft. laddder.
*Speaking of good samaritans I had some fun yesterday. My son's football season ended Sunday and after the game we had a nice party at the coach's house. I noticed he had quite a few shingles blown off his 6 year old house( we had a big wind storm here last week) This is the second time since the house was built that he has lost shingles.I knew he was gonna try to replace the blow-offs again himself. I had some time yesterday so I stopped by with an extra bundle in the middle of the morning when I was sure everyone would be gone to school or work. I was about halfway done when the coach unexpectedly arrives home( forgot to take something out of the freezer for dinner).He was totally and entirely flabbergasted.I had been hoping to get in and out without witnesses and instead I was caught redhanded.So then I was stuck explaining how it was a real privelege to have an opportunity to pay him back in a small way for everything he had done for ourr kids. I don't know who was more embarrassed.He kept saying" I would never have asked or expected you to do this" and I kept telling him that if he had asked I would have said NO,but since he had not asked I wanted to do it for him.My advice----don't get caught in the act...leave 'em wondering.
*Dave, Not to make light of your situation but someone said, "the road is paved with good intentions", not to mention roofers with misplaced ladders. You are damned if you do and damned if you don't I find and altho' I'm not going to quit looking out for my fellow man/woman, I too am discouraged when I come across what you have described. My own short story goes like so: trying to do a friend/client a favor with some cabinetry to be installed in the cellar. Given carte blanche to do what ever, how ever, when ever with no price limit. Well, what I ended up paying for what I got wasn't the right thing according to my client, so now I have to travel to do some make up work to cover my end, and take care of the no longer wanted/needed cabinetry. Try to do someone a favor and sometimes you get stung. Learned my lesson, told her to find what she wanted locally and call me when she's ready and I'll see what I can do. Any further details to this story?, I have to plead the fifth. Good luck and hang in there.
*Steven,I can see that you are a man who knows how to enjoy life to the fullest! Toasting the man at the top!Drinks on me.
*Steve and Bill,I guess we're from the same mold. It seems that over the years I always have an eye out for how I can do someone else a favor. Sometimes those favors are sizable - very sizable.One involved building a 150 ft long retaing wall out of boulders (average size 2 -3000 lbs, 3 to five feet high. I furnished the backhoe, tools and hundreds of hours of labor. I'm quite fussy about such things and make sure the joints are as tight as possible. Well when I finished the project and stood back to admire it with a beer, out comes the woman of the house with a for sale sign and doesn't even say thanks.Another was a concrete block wall along the property line between me and the neighbor. Put in nice deep footings, rerod and filled all the cores as per code. Since the neighbor wanted a couple of perpendicular wingwalls on his side to form a utility area, I said, "why not? Just form where you want the footing, while keeping room for the block laying and plastering later." So while he's in his house having dinner (2 1/2 hours long), I'm laying his block. After it's in place, I send my plasterer over to stucco the final product. In order for the plasterer to put on his scratch coat, he had to trim a small branch off of one of the neighbor's bushes. The guy freaked! You would have thought the plasterer raped his wife the way he ranted and screamed for hours. My plasterer was so pissed that he wouldn't come back to my job for 3 weeks after. And the guy never did reimburse me for the $500 worth of materials I put in his walls. A small branch cost a friendship.Another time I built two fieldstone retaining walls to provide a guy a walkout access from his basement. Furnished the materials, tools, labor, and even burnt up the clutch in my Jeep getting to the location with a trailerload of 60/40. Afterward he told me I owed it to him because the stock I recommended didn't go up during the 6 weeks it took to do the project.I've come to recognize that there are givers and there are takers. When doing favors for others, be sure they are also givers. And most importantly, NEVER expect ANYTHING when doing someone else a favor. You won't be disappointed that way.
*Replacing the shingles was admirable, but I think you should be careful about such things. Unless you know the person very well, there is a chance of hurt feelings -- they may think that you assumed they were to inept to do the work (even if they are, they may not know it), couldn't afford to have it done (even if true, some are proud about it), or simply just too lazy to do it/have it done.I guess I fall into the "pride" catagory -- it really irritates me when my mother-in-law (who's in her 60's) decides my grass is too high and takes it upon herself to mow it. What do the neighbors think about a big strong guy letting his M-I-L mow his grass?
*I got off work early today(took a bath from a 4" sewer line). It's funny how they don't want us walking around an office building of 854 "smart people", smelling like a cesspool.Anyway, on the way home I ran into a old friend that works for the city code inforcement. He was on his way to inspect a job near where I work, but just had to stop and tell me about it. You guessed it. The two roofer had apparently drawn a lot more attention to themselves than just from me. The pubic safety department and traffic enfoprcement had both cited them for the ladder trick. Code enforcement was following up because of other work going on at the location, i.e. no permits.When I passed the place the roofers were hard at it, but thier ladder was proprly placed and tied off. My friend was in deep conversation with the home owner or landlord, and another guy that may be the GC.It is good to know that the system does work,at least sometime, and so far knowone has been hurt. It seems some concerned motorist called the police on them.
*Crusty, get yourself a half dozen 3' lengths of #4 rebar. Pound them into the lawn with about 4" exposed. That'll put a hitch in the MIL's giddyup next time she comes over to mow the lawn. Maybe she'll stick to washing your truck after that. :) Joe H
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Since Terry made the safety post a few days ago I thought you all might get a kick out of this one.
Driving home today on a one way down town street through an old residential/buisness section of Louisville I saw one of the dumbest stunts ever by a couple of roofers. Picture this: three story residents on the corner of a city block, no front or side yard(just an 8' sidewalk), a 40' alum. extension ladder setting in what could be consiered a parking lane with a bundle of shingles behind it to keep it from kicking out. Two street sign on a utility pole say respectively (1) No parking here to corner, (2) No Stopping 6:00AM to 9:00AM and 3:00PM to 6:00PM. One man on the roof with a nailler applying shingles. A second man on the ladder hand nailing the first two or three courses that he can reach between packing bundles up for the other guy.
I pulled my company van over next to the curb about 20' before I reached the ladder and turned on my emergency flashers. As I got out, the gohper came down the ladder and ask "can I help you?" I told him no, I had just stopped to tell him that his ladder was now sitting in an outgoing traffic lane, and they might want to consider moving it to a safer location. It is now 3:15PM. The young fellows says "I know, the boss told me to move the truck, so we won't get a ticket." Now the "boss" comes down the ladder and we start the whole conversation over. I tell him I travel this route everyday and in about 30 minuets it is going to look like the start of a NASCAR event on this street. He might not want his helper or ladder setting in the pole position lane. He says "I only got 30 more minuetes work at this spot and then I'll move it." He then says "you're costing me money, why don't you get the f... out of here." Your life, I say and go back to my truck. I set two traffic cones behind my van and left.
Maybe I won't read about them in the morning paper tomorrow, but I think that is one guy I'll evene
eventually read about.
What else can you do?