American TV: An Apartment that I had to get on Top
When I worked at American Television Service one of my main responsibilities was to repair problems with antennas. One such experience found me in Provo repairing an antenna on the top of an apartment building. As I got there I realized that the building was taller than most that I had been on in the past. I went inside to try and locate an entrance from the interior of the building that would lead to the roof. There was no such thing. So I removed our 24 foot ladder from off the truck and extended it to the full reach and it was still too short. I finally had to back the van next to the building and then put the ladder on the top of the van. I tied the ladder feet to the railing on the ladder and then the ladder reached to about 1 foot below the edge of the roof. I figured that would be sufficient and grabbed my tools and a new antenna and cable and climbed to the top. I took everything I might possibly need, that I could carry, since I wanted to only have to do it once. I climbed onto the roof and repaired the antenna. I can’t remember what I had to repair but I can vividly remember what I thought as I went to get off. Getting on the roof hadn’t been too bad but when I looked over the edge and the ladder was afoot below the edge it wasn’t going to be quite as easy to get back onto it. I put everything within reaching distance, threw down what I could so I wouldn’t have to carry all of it again and then laid down on the roof. I slowly inched off the edge until my legs could swing down and stand on the ladder. I then steadied myself, took a deep breath and gathered everything up and started down the ladder. I always felt blessed when I got to the bottom one wrung at a time rather than in one heap from a lofty leap. I was blessed to never have to do that again.
