Well, it was more of two thuds and a crack. I was doing some home repairs at the behest of the village (drunks tend to let things fall apart) and this is my message to the guy from the village. FTR, I was already doing a health inventory (concussion? paralysis?) before I could start breathing again. I am quite practiced in nearly killing myself and was pretty sure I’d start breathing eventually.
My daughter and I were watching “Bride of Frankenstein” before it happened and she thought it was fakey when the monster knocked over a stone statue and it bounced. I don’t know about stone statues, but I bounced. I should tell her.
*Bob,
I was working on that corner yesterday and fell off the ladder and can barely walk today. I was all the way up when I fell and hit my skull against the bricks, messed up my back, and couldn’t breathe for nearly a minute. I really want to make my neighbors happy but I fear for my life if I get back on that ladder at full extension. This isn’t the first time I fell off that ladder working on that corner, but it took me fifteen years to get dumb enough to try it again. However, I am back to work after two years unemployed, so I look forward to paying somebody else to do it and replace the north-side gutters when I can afford it. I should be able to repair the south-side gutters myself next weekend as I am a quick healer and it is much lower. The only time I fell off a ladder there (Did I mention that I was hospitalized twice in the past year for balance issues? Gravity is out to kill me.) I was hanging by my elbows and it took me a few seconds to realize that if I let go I would only drop two feet.
My pay is the good will of my neighbors, who may have already moved after lodging the initial complaint. That and not getting a fine of fifty bucks per day once push comes to shove. Thus the grovelling and the graphic description of what actually happened. Minus the bouncing part, which I didn’t remember until after I sent it. Also minus the part where the ladder fell on me, which didn’t happen this time. I hate when that happens.
I had a fall a few months ago where my feet went out from under me on a wet slippery floor and I landed flat on my bottom, just like in a cartoon. I feel for you! I hope you feel better soon.
Wow! Hope you’re feeling better soon, (and from here on in, stay off the ladder!) And since when do people with balance issues need to be told; Stay off ladders! You must have missed the memo!
Your house has degraded to a state where the neighbours are lodging complaints?
Man, I’m trying to imagine, what would have to happen, to my neighbours house, (poor maintenance wise), before I would be inclined to lodge a complaint?
Anyone else having a problem imagining this? What would it take? Peeling paint? Sagging eavestrough? Leaning porch? Broken steps? I don’t know that I’d comment on any of these things. Instead simply assume they were on hard times, I guess. That would deter me from lodging a complaint, I believe.
Same here. At least I don’t have a porch to sag. They also complained that I had an old, unused car in my carport. The request to appear in court and its trip to its next life as cans and girders passed in the mail and the inexorable wheels of justice ground on. I came to court with the receipt and the lady from the village came with photos showing it wasn’t there and, after a lecture from the judge to the courtroom listing the reasons for not having a village sticker he would not accept, I went home a free man.
Please note that when I was a drunk I wasn’t dumb enough to do it. AA can make you stupid.
**dropdad **broke his neck while changing a lightbulb in a ceiling fixture, but survived the experience with no ill effects. We are a clumsy, but sturdy, breed. Daughter got a bit electrocuted while working on that same point (it’s where 220VAC comes into the house) but kept working through it. Um, let’s make that “we are clumsy and stupid, but sturdy.”
