Near Death Experience

I’d been cleaning windows. I’d done all the ground floor and then decided to tackle the upper floors.

I got out my trusty old ladders, but they wouldn’t get me anywhere near the upper windows.  So I got out the long ladders I bought a year or so ago.

I’ve always felt they were a little flimsy and so, with the feet firmly braced against the shed base plinth, I gingerly mad an ascent.  The higher I got, the safer they felt, so back down I came to collect my cloth & sponge.

Up I went – I felt as safe as houses at the top as I washed Sophie’s windows. Then back down to get the squeegee cloth, back up and finish the job. Rock solid at the top, I did contemplate the embarrassment of being another statistic, should I fall from the ladder. But job done, all was good and I began my descent.

A few rungs from the bottom, I felt something give and the top of the ladder slide down the wall.

I hoped off from the safe height of a foot or two and did what I could to arrest the falling ladder – didn’t want it going through the French doors (it didn’t.)

On examination, the ladder had just buckled at one rung.  I could have been another statistic, but fortunately I wasn’t.

I think I’ll buy an extension pole to clean the rest of the windows.