Rung Out
I don’t have a real fear of heights. I have been uncomfortable while visiting some heights but quickly become acclimated once I relax and start my mission. Even after working on roof top for an hour or so I feel comfortable walking the ridge or even steep angles without thinking about it.
Maybe it’s a sign of aging, but lately I seem to only take a limited amount of work that involves ladders. I spent a couple hours on Saturday on a ladder replacing some fascia boards that had gutters pulled from them during the storm. I put up new boards, primed and painted them. After only a few hours I was exhausted. It seems the most exhausting work is when your heels leave the ground, be it on a ladder or on ones knees.
It’s also funny how when one is on a ladder people seem to feel obligated to blow their horns and wave at you as they drive by. Yes, I’m on a ladder holding a twenty-foot 2 by 6 with one hand and hammering a nail through it with the other hand; sorry I couldn’t wave back.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 5:29 AM
7 Comments:
I don't have a fear of heights but I do have a fear of ladders - of myself being on one or seeing anyone else on one.
Perhaps those honkers and wavers are saluting your courage!
I'm sure what Beth said is true. Especially if your ladder looks anything like the one in the picture. Yikes! I hope you primed and painted the boards before nailing them aloft.
I bet the honkers are the vandals who tried to take down your mailbox and ended up in a bit of pain. Good thing you didn't wave...they would have won....rat bastards.
The funny thing was that the wavers called me a couple days later and said they were sorry for honking. They realized after the fact that they could have startled me. Their call and concern was funny enough to warrant this article.
From the earliest of my teen years I started to notice that whenever I took an odd job for extra cash that involved heights, a bunch of folks from the Indian Lands would be there too. My uncle finally told me it was because most of us don't have a fear of heights. This has proved to be the case through my life. Any job requiring high-steel or similar work had an abundance of my kinda people on it as a rule. By my kinda people, I don't mean Native Americans, I mean those REALLY like me, nut cases.
Mike, I thought we agreed that we would no longer use the term Native American because you didn't like it. ; )
I don't mind heights for my own work, but I won't do heights for others.
Guy, you're right. But, I mentioned being Indian in answer to a question on a forum recently and got a longish inquery wanting to know if I were Sikh, Hindi, etc.... Decided to occasionally bite the 'politically correct terminology bullet' in the interests of clarity. I do usually use the notation (N.A.) after Indian now.
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