Yesterday, I decided to take some initiative and clean out the leaves that were in the gutters. We have a leaf blower and extension cord, and after having to borrow a ladder from a neighbor (the only one I had was an old step ladder and I needed to get onto the roof), I was ready to go. I had to slant the ladder a little bit as it was a huge ladder (being very tall). I made the mistake of placing the ladder on the driveway, but at the time, I didn't think much of it. I go up and start blowing the leaves out of the gutters. I spend about 20 to 30 minutes up there, and it is time to go down. One of my neighbors was outside and I should have yelled at him to come over and help keep the ladder steady for me. However, like an idiot, I decided to go down it myself. I had no problem getting my right leg on the top rung, but I was hesitant to place my left leg on the top rung. I was trying to be very careful, but I finally placed the other leg on the rung. As I started my descent down, I felt the base of the ladder sliding away from the house! The first thought that ran through my mind was "Lord, please don't let me land on my head or face!" Instinctively, I reached out with both hands at the gutter and nearly ripped it off the house! But I could not hold on and I fell to the ground, straddling the ladder! Incredibly, though, I wound up like a cat and landed on my feet and my left hand hit the pavement but not hard as it braced the fall. The ladder then hit the pavement and made a loud noise, and there I was sitting on my ass, wondering how in the world I didn't break anything! My neighbor came running over to check on me after he heard the ladder hit and he was amazed that I was not hurt. He then told me something, that I found to be obvious now, and that was to never have a ladder rest on a driveway...have it rest on the ground instead. It also would have been better for me to have him there to hold the ladder steady. I know that the Lord was with me on that and I am grateful to Him that he watched over me. I also feel that working out on a consistent basis like I have been doing for close to 2 years really saved me. If it wasn't for working out, I probably would have landed wrong and broken an arm or a leg (if I was lucky). At any rate, I am thankful to not be hurt and learned not to do that again. Anyone else have some close calls?
Yeah, I did a bunch of drugs once and almost died... Then there was this time that I was working at Aztec Rental and we were delivering this big ass scissor lift thingamabobber. It was on a trailer that we were pulling and me and a coworker had to pull it down the little trailer ramp. I took the bottom side and he took the top. About halfway down the ramp, homeboy decided it was too heavy for him and dropped it. This thing weighed at least half a ton and it came rushing down the ramp on top of me. It knocked me over onto the pavement and bent my leg in ways they weren't meant to go - en route to falling on top of me. I had a big ass thing forcing me to do some crazy gymnastics position whilst lying on top of me and keeping me from breathing. Nobody was around to help my buddy get it off of me, but somehow he ran right over there and threw it off of me. Threw it. This was the same guy that couldn't even keep half of this thing from rolling back on me, and now he was picking it up and moving it from a difficult position. Cheers to adrenaline. But I'm glad you're okay Manny. Don't worry about fixing that near-broke gutter so close to your traumatic experience. Get your sister or somebody to do it for you
I did too. My friends didn't want to take me to the hospital since they might get busted. Nice... I used to drag race a lot on the street and I've got many near death experiences, but the last one was the one that made me sell the car. I was going to pick up my date when I got into another drag race. I was doing about 110 coming off the freeway when I hit the brakes. No resistance and nothing but a brake light. I started downshifting to slow down. Unfortunately, the entrance ramp was offset from the exit ramp and I was heading for a 4 lane road. I got it into 1st gear about the time I was going through a red light (around 6pm). I tried to turn on the road but spun out and the car died. My knees didn't stop shaking for over an hour. I cancelled the date.
One football season, The other coaches and I were moving some logs that we used to work on agilities. These logs were actually 5 foot sections of telephone poles. It took two fully grown men to lift one end of the pole on to the back of a truck and 3-4 to slide it up. As we were unloading them, two coaches would simply shove the logs off the back of the truck and then the truck would pull forward to drop the log. Well, after the frist few logs were unloaded, I got down and started to roll the logs into position. I had my foot planted at the end of a log as the coaches slid another log off. The log they slid off planted itself less than a foot from the other log, and my ankle was right there between them. After it landed, I looked down to make sure I was ok, and the other two coaches were looking at me with their eyes opened HUGE!!! Nothing happened to me, but to this day, I still have a mental picture of what my ankle would have looked and felt like if I had been pinned between the two logs...
