Ode To The Ladder Climbers

Here's to all those who climb ladders for a living - roofers, painters, gutter installers, illegal underpaid handymen, and most of all, firefighters. These brave individuals go to work every day knowing that they will prop a ridiculously tall, ridiculously flimsy (given the altitude) ladder against a building, climb the ladder, and only then proceed to actually do their work. I salute you!

For those of you who don't know, heights and I don't get along well. This is why I haven't been down the seven story slide at the City Museum - I can't climb the seven flights of steps. Ethan doesn't quite get that.

I decided to start fixing our roof leak on Saturday. That involved getting out the ladder and climbing onto a section of first story roof. I actually don't have much a problem with that. However, since I had the (tall) ladder out, I decided it was a good time to inspect the second story gutters that have been overflowing. So, I wrestled the ladder up to the second story gutters (25-30 feet?) and proceeded to climb up to the most-overflowing area. To my surprise, the gutter was clean as could be. I thought "Perfect, the downspout is just clogged." That was the case, but I was not so lucky on the other half of the gutter. So, the back gutter required 3-4 dreadful trips up and down with a bucket full of gutter gunk. No big deal...

Then, the overly responsible homeowner in me took over and decided the front corner of the house should be inspected as well. No problem: Wrestle ladder down, drag to front of house, wrestle ladder back up. Gulp. The ladder had to be raised two more notches to reach these gutters, and it was on the corner of the house (which I really hate). Of course, by the time I got to the top, the breeze decided to pick up. Sure enough, the downspout was so clogged and packed it was difficult to clean. Especially one handed while the other hand (on the end of the arm wrapped lovingly around the ladder) clutched desperately to the ladder rungs. I also did this at eye level to prevent having to climb just one more rung to a point where I could probably work efficiently. I think it only took 15 minutes to clean out the 2 foot stretch. I'm sure this would have been amusing to watch.

Needless to say, I was glad to drag the ladder back to my shop and come inside. Why don't we own a ranch house?