Replies

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 23, 1999 02:58am | #1

   *
   I had a similar experience a few years back. I was painting the tin roof of a pole building, when my ladder blew over. I kept painting for about an hour, hoping that someone would come along. Unfortunately, I was on a remote farm, and had no reason to think someone would miss me for several hours.

   I eventually ended up jumping off the corner to a tree about 5 feet from the building. I slid down to the ground with nothing but a few scrapes and bruises.

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 23, 1999 04:49am | #2

   *I had a similar experience a couple of years ago.It never occurred to me to get off the roof without the laddder.I ended up snagging the ladder with the air hose and pulling it up to where I could grab it and set it upright.good luck,Stephen

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 23, 1999 07:27am | #3

   *Try keeping your self-esteem with this one. Demo a small fence in clients yard. Get half a grip on nail with cats paw, yank, slip, knock yourself out with said paw just above the temple, splayed out (starfish) in a prominant yard in a prominant neighborhood. Wake up and go bang on the clients' door, she's locked all of them, so you can ask for the phone to call the boss to say, "No, not quite a stitcher, (scar sez otherwise) I just wanna go home."

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 23, 1999 08:15am | #4

   *I was lucky. The one time my ladder blew over, there was a T.V. antenna tower right next to the house. It swayed a bit more than the ladder, but it worked.Rich Beckman

1. 
   Guest_ | Oct 23, 1999 08:26am | #5

   *It's important to learn how to sit quietly.JonC

2. 
   Drew_Kirk | Oct 23, 1999 08:28am | #6

   *
   Ryan

   It's a good darn thing you went to college.

1. 
   Ryan_ | Oct 23, 1999 10:03am | #7

   *Funny, as I hung there, I was thinking: "A guy with a college education should know better than to try this"

3. 
   Guest_ | Oct 23, 1999 06:43pm | #8

   *
   Hey a college education dosn't guarantee much. Try splitting a dinner check with a bunch of college grads -- impossible. Regular blue collar just throw out some money until it works.

   Ryan, I'm impressed by your choice of great risk rather than call for help like a cat stuck in a tree. This is just too easy, but I only say it 'cause you didn't bust yourself up:

   "PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL"

   Happy landings. I definitely won't let my wife read this, she'd never let me on the roof. :)

4. 
   Ryan_ | Oct 23, 1999 06:45pm | #9

   *
   I thought you might enjoy a story about how my day went today.

   I was putting a roof on a small addition I had built. I was working alone, shingling and humming to myself when a bundle of shingles got away, slid down the roof and knocked my ladder to the ground.

   So, there I am, 14 feet in the air, no ladder, and no one to holler to. I had my cell phone and I considered calling the local police and asking if they could send a car over to stand up my ladder. I decided against that. It would be too embarrasing to show up in the "local police report" of the local paper. "Extra,Extra, contractor stuck on roof".

   I spent about 20 minutes just hoping in vain that someone would come along and see my trouble. No one came.

   That's okay, I had an idea. This was a 6/12 roof and I was wearing a harness and was tied on. I had done quite a bit of rock climbing in college and decided that I still remembered how and I would simply rappel off the roof.

   I got my rope and harness all set, and started for the edge. Going over the edge of the roof was a sinch, I did remember how to do this!. Then as my harness passed over the edge, my rope got caught. With my legs flailing wildly, too committed to go back. I was stuck.

   I bounced to try to un-stick me. I tried pushing my feet against the underside of the rafter tails. I took my cats claw out of my tool belt and was able to eventually pry myself over the edge. One damaged shingle and one ruined piece of drip edge but I was on my way to the ground.

   Unfortunately, the prying ordeal had caused a bit of a tangle in my rope. As I slowly rappelled down, I was trying to keep my rope from tying itself into a knot. When I was about six feet above the ground, My rope tangled and there I was again, 250lbs of me, hanging helplessly from a rope. I could not get untangled.

   I was considering calling someone again when I realized that I was quickly loosing feeling in my legs and that They would be completely numb in a couple of minutes if I didn't do something.

   I could call for help or just cut myself free and fall to the ground. I was in a sitting position, so getting my feet underneath me before I hit the ground would be a trick.

   Well, vanity prevailed and I was not going to be seen hanging six feet in the air so I got out my utility knife and started cutting. If you've ever wondered how an amimal can gnaw off its own leg to get out of a trap, it's just trying to avoid the embarrasment of having the other animals see it stuck.

   With a audible snap, I was freed. I landed firmly on my legs that were considerably more numb than I had previously realized. I wobbled for a second and then collapsed.

   I laid there glad to be down, glad that the feeling would soon return to my legs and mostly glad that no-one had seen me, when the home owner pulled into the driveway, saw me on the ground, and sprang from her car screaching "oh my god, are you okay".

   My witty reply? "Yeah, I'm okay, my legs are just asleep." She surveyed me lying in a heap still tied to a coil of cut rope with a frayed rope end hanging several feet above me. She finally said that if I was sure I was okay, she was going to go inside now.

   As soon as I was able to stand, I patched the shingle and drip edge, loaded my truck and took the rest of the afternoon off.