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iOld roofers don’t die, they find easier jobs.
(the idea for this posting came from another discussion in const techniques where the above was stated)
When I was roofing I was astonded by the great number of people who told me, “I used to do that” with the emphasis on past tense.
When I was roofing I sometimes thought, “Any idiot can do this” and found a lot of customers who thought the same and treated me like guess what? An idiot!
When I started roofing, I looked around and saw fifty year old men who looked seventy and thirty year old who looked almost fifty from working at heavy strenuous work in the hot sun and said, “Three years will be more than enough of this for me.” I didn’t take my own advice because I was making some pretty good money for ruining my body
Unfortunately, I did such good work that when I finally made a definite decision and effort to leave it behind by moving most of the way across the state of Colorado, my reputation followed me. One guy even offered me double money to make a 270 mile trip to roof his house, which I accepted of course.
When I started roofing, I had a fear of falling. The money helped me get over it. I became an adrenaline junkie. Until I fell a big fall once. My wife kept getting woken up during the night after that because I would be dreaming that I was falling and would grab at anything I could get my hands on in my sleep – usually that was her or some part of her. A few doses of Ativan got me over that.
The point of all this is that I’m not sure the human body is equipt for roofing as a long term career. I became a remodeler and that developed (still developing) into design work. Wish I had headed that way earlier.
Just a word to the young guys out there – take care of yourself and look ahead.
Replies
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iOld roofers don't die, they find easier jobs.
(the idea for this posting came from another discussion in const techniques where the above was stated)
When I was roofing I was astonded by the great number of people who told me, "I used to do that" with the emphasis on past tense.
When I was roofing I sometimes thought, "Any idiot can do this" and found a lot of customers who thought the same and treated me like guess what? An idiot!
When I started roofing, I looked around and saw fifty year old men who looked seventy and thirty year old who looked almost fifty from working at heavy strenuous work in the hot sun and said, "Three years will be more than enough of this for me." I didn't take my own advice because I was making some pretty good money for ruining my body
Unfortunately, I did such good work that when I finally made a definite decision and effort to leave it behind by moving most of the way across the state of Colorado, my reputation followed me. One guy even offered me double money to make a 270 mile trip to roof his house, which I accepted of course.
When I started roofing, I had a fear of falling. The money helped me get over it. I became an adrenaline junkie. Until I fell a big fall once. My wife kept getting woken up during the night after that because I would be dreaming that I was falling and would grab at anything I could get my hands on in my sleep - usually that was her or some part of her. A few doses of Ativan got me over that.
The point of all this is that I'm not sure the human body is equipt for roofing as a long term career. I became a remodeler and that developed (still developing) into design work. Wish I had headed that way earlier.
Just a word to the young guys out there - take care of yourself and look ahead.