Lessons from ladders

Thanks to a torrential storm, my living room has a new water feature. (A roof repair is needed.)

A neighbor happens to be replacing some shingles on his own roof. He generously offered one of his extension ladders.

With much effort, we leaned the ladder against my house. Six feet too short. Perhaps I could try to make it work? No. Too risky.

Luckily, my neighbor has a taller ladder. After returning the first ladder, we brought the second ladder and put it in place. This ladder would allow me to reach a lower roof and then climb to the upper roof.

Testing my shoes on the lower roof, I realized my traction was inadequate; I would need better soles to navigate the higher, steeper roof. I descended the ladder to change.

A few minutes later, I found myself on the upper roof ready to work. However, the area I needed to fix was eight feet away … where the drop-off wasn’t onto a lower roof, but straight to the ground. I tested my footing. Not too bad. But not great either.

My neighbor — from the base of the ladder — offered suggestions. He used words like “shimmy” and “crawl” and phrases like, “shoot over,” and “maybe scoot across.”

I weighed the risks. (I was so close!) Then, two things came to mind. First, statistics about the high number of homeowner injuries due to ladder accidents. Second, the scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where Harrison Ford is desperately reaching for the Holy Grail, precariously close to a bottomless crevasse.

I chose wisely.

Down the ladder I climbed. Safe. Unharmed.

(I'll call a professional roofer to handle the repair.)

A few takeaways:

• When considering risk-reward, don’t let sunk costs skew your understanding of risk.

• The person at the bottom of the ladder doesn’t risk falling. Weigh their advice knowing this.

• Some jobs — particularly when health and safety are involved — are best left to the professionals.

• When you play with the appropriate level of risk, you often get to keep playing.

• Sometimes a win just means that you get to walk away without having hurt yourself.