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only 100' but it's a free climb w/o a harness and sways a bit in the breeze

we have a 100' Altec bucket in the yard I've been up in full sting several times and highest Genie platform I recall I've been up in was a 150'

I've far outgrown the yearning for those thrills anymore - that or just plain too skerd of it now! :lol:

look ma - no hands!

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/f743ak00mtf...0Copy.jpg?dl=0

friend at work standing on the roof of the truck :)

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/q85kx50hr5o...0Copy.jpg?dl=0

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Just two words. "Hell no!!

You'd never catch me climbing that thing. Nope. No way. You could put beer and poonanny up there and I still aint doing it.

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Only 100' he says... ONLY???? :ack: Not many want to climb that ladder, but most will gladly climb down from a burning building.

I spent many years working off of pump jack poles generally 24' - 36' off the ground. One job requires assembling two 24 footers... 48 feet of wobbly wobbly! I got the heebie jeebies at about 40'. Finished it up with knots in my gut. Couldn't even do that now. Older and wiser, maybe, but surely not so brave. I should sell off my scaffolding. It just sits mostly and when I use them at 30' I can have a panic attack. Never thought that could ever happen. I have climbed Half Dome and many precarious rock faces in my younger years. Using this scaffold was easy peezy. Never gave it a thought. I have fallen a few times. First was 24', second was 16', third was 8'. The 8' was five years ago and I got slammed to the deck from a ladder that did a twirl. Broke a rib and that one really shook me up. I retire!!

I didn't like doing this more recent job. That's 30' of pole. I climbed out a dormar window around the back and walked the built-in gutter at the edge of the roof to set the poles. I tried off the tippy top of the fully extended 32' ladder and came back down. Wasn't enough ladder to reach above the roof. I had to rebuild that whole wall piece by piece, so it was strip the siding and planking, cut plywood to screw back up, remove and reinstall each day. The homeowner was supposed to supply masons scaffold and the cheap SOB never came up with it. Not the right job for pump jacks. I was pumping up and cranking down constantly and reaching high and low while handling the plywood. Never again!

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You are lucky, at least your ladder has hand rails and hydraulic outriggers. :lol: I have been working with sign cranes since the late 80's that have ladders on them. We used to walk the ladder all the time with large plastic faces in hand. This is one of the 2 I currently still have. I just walked the ladder on it for the 1st time in about 10 years and I have to say I do not recall them being that shaky (it could have just been my knees though :lol:) When this thing is stretched out all 85' it bows like a fresh water fishing pole reeling in a white shark. I do think my days of that foolishness are over with.

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Just looking at those things makes my toes curl.

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-
When I first joined the DFD in 1974, part of the training was to climb the 100" aerial ladder, bail over the side and slide down the rope to the ground. We were still using manila rope in those days, none of this fancy new custom rope like they use today. We also scaled up the outside of the training tower using a Pompier Ladder. (5 stories)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJru67RIEIo (Start at 5:45)

The only difference is that our Pompier ladders were made of wood with metal straps on the front and back of the main beam. The cross steps were made of wood. Our training was one guy with one ladder.

LockDoc

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Heights really creep me out. Just looking at pictures of heights creeps me out. There's a reason that my house doesn't even have stairs.

Some people that I knew in the 80's may disagree but I don't like to be high. Ground level is fine with me.

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Got the hood to my panel home today. One ton is leaving on the first then I’ll have room for the rest of the panel.

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Took a trip to the coast last weekend. Nice sunset on Friday.

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Someone's been cuttin' and a buffin'
Very nice indeed

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Man, looking at some of those things almost makes my nose bleed. Heights have never bothered me, from the ground. Falling from heights does. When I was young I could manage ladder work but as I got older it got way harder to get my butt up on one. The last time on a 24'er at work I just couldn't get to the top. Almost but had to get one of the young guys do it for me. Old bodies just aren't as resilient as they once were. ;)

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The fall is no problem, it's the sudden uptake that will get ya :lol:

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Now that I'm not up on the pump jacks every day I have a hard time. I put siding on a house a friend built for his daughter, with him helping. A big wide and tall end wall that took 36' of pole for a 30' walk board in the middle with 30' poles at each end with 12' planks. So about 50' of wall I guess. With this set-up you go up until you don't need the shorter stuff at each end and drop those down.

This wall was so high I had to crank it all down, to remove the shorter planks, then pump back up. Once up I had to reach off the ends to get some of the siding up. And this was LP Smartside, a wood siding and heavier than vinyl, plus there was soffit to run out there. It was a weird feeling because you ran out of walk board at the ends. Plus high enough for the poles to be swaying. And a 30' one man walk board with poles at the very end is a very springy twisty thing.

I got the heebie jeebies up there. I got to where I had to keep one hand on the wall. Impossible to hang siding with one hand. Also the tall cypress trees not far next to the house screwed up my perception, plus window wells below with rebar sticking up didn't help. I told Larry I had to come down before a panic attack froze me and the fire dept would have to rescue me. I had an awful time making my way back to the ladder at one end and a hard time climbing down the fully extended 32 footer. We sat for a good while but I was still all upset, so I said time to call it a day and try again tomorrow.

I really didn't want to go back up there but I conjured up all I had a went on up, fighting fear the whole time. It was a race against anxiety catching up again. Once the ends of the walk board were above the roofline and too close to the pole brackets to go past I felt better. But now I was higher yet! I had to stand on my tippy toes to reach the peak.

I think I left out one other come back down to settle my nerves session in there somewhere. The thing with doing that work off of pumpjacks is you have to run all the way up before coming down. You stay until the wall is done. Taking lunch or going home for the day is not a good thing. You adjust as you go up. To climb up and start fresh is a very hard thing to adjust to. These days they build them so big that's not possible. So screw that!!

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Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

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speaking of fear of heights...

some years ago out on point loma, we had to place our antenna farm nearest the edge possible for sea level coverage up to the coastline

roughly 400' to the bottom, we wanted to look over the edge to see how high it was

along with the gusty winds, ocean crashing below, and washed out fencing dangling over the side, I was way too scared to walk out any further.... so I crawled :lol:

mangled fencing in lower left corner of this shot

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/kruf9sn4ze6...03741.JPG?dl=0

arrow pointing to the tip of land's end

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/12wxaty8apz..._5146.jpg?dl=0

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Yep. Being high up with flat land all around is one thing. But depth perception gets all screwed up when you have varied points of reference. Plus, ha is ha I don't care who y'ar

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I'm just showing off my interior decorating skills.

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/gallery/...edium/Hall.jpg

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Your job is taking pictures, right? You will be good to go in a freshy fresh home soon

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No. My job is paying these guys and if you notice there is nobody working. I'm sick of excuses. These guys work less than I did and I was in a union. So I hired a second crew. And getting ready to hire a third. Let them duke it out. If you don't do it then these guys will. If you don't show up then I'll get someone who will. I don't want to be a dick but sometimes you have to.

Not all contractors are like you Tim. I've seen your work. You are a professional. I only wish that you were closer. These guys are a bunch of lames. They show up for 2 hours or they don't show up at all. They say a week to do the job and a month later it's half done.

It's wearing me out. I just want to move into my house. But look at it. How the hell am I going to move in. It's a mess.

But. It will be nice when it's done. It better be. :mad:

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That has to be frustrating. It's true, I am a professional. I never give people the impression the job will get done quickly and I always come through as expected :lol:. They know I'll get there when I get there and I always get there. Now that's true commitment! I have a swap meet to set up on Thursday. Got a call late last week to make some modifications on a handicap entry I did last May. The guy isn't recovering so well. It's an ASAP job and that means get it done by Wed. On my way back from a visit to my sister in VA last night I had to call them since they hadn't called me to finalize the agreed plan I had given them two options for. I hadn't heard back all weekend.

The guy, lives alone, broke his leg and I had to build the ramp before he came home from PT. Now he is having trouble stepping up into the house, so I'm building a slope to the doorsill over the concrete from what I built last year. His son, who worked for me years ago, is coordinating all this from Texas

I guess I never got "completed" pictures. I'll get some tomorrow before I start. Can't start today because I want to get a day in on the job already going this week, and let her know what's up with the rest of the week face to face. I hope I have time on Wed. to pack for the swap meet!

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It is...Or was. I unloaded my secret weapon them... My wife. :eek:

She's a lot tougher than I am. She tore the foreman up one side and down the other. She doesn't put up with any nonsense or excuses. I know because I've tried both and it doesn't work.

They put in a long day today and worked until dark. A lot got done. When all else fails call in Mama. Mama don't take no mess. :lol:

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I've gained many customers by just being honest. Do what you say your going to do. The trick is hiring workers that are dependable. Because when they don't show up I am a liar. This is why I don't tolerate people who aren't dependable.

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I know right. My wife calls it "turning on the B i t c h mode". Just like a light switch I tell ya. :lol:

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Easier said than done unfortunately.

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:lol: You don't have to tell me. I've been on the receiving end of that one myself more times than I care to remember. :lol:

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How is she about you calling it that? :D

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Women learn as little girls about the power of their "sexual apparatus", so to speak. Things they can say that would get a guy in a fight, and when she says them to some guy, they cringe off.

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Ha, I don't around her.
I've been married to her for 48 years and I have learned the boundaries.
A man's got to know his limitations. :lol:

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If not, their woman will learn 'em :cool:

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Yep...when she changes from English to Portuguese I've crossed that line and make myself scarce.

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:lol: Oh yeah. When my ex wife would start yelling in Spanish I knew that it was time to look for the nearest door. :exit:

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Mine only spoke English but somehow I always knew when it was time to go out and pull weeds

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Mrs. Bee speaks the universal language - stink eye :mad:

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:haha::haha::haha:

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My wife avoids the stink eye and goes straight for the azz chewing.

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So you know things went south even from across the house :cuss:

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here's one that won't buff out,a hemi drivetrain heading for someone's hot rod project,i'd say?

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.

My souvenirs...

-klb

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Been cleaning out old toys from my sons and grand kids. Most went to new homes. Kept a few for my grandsons “collection” of his dads old stuff. I told myself I don’t need any more more, but … I kept these.