I am constantly amazed at how often my breath is taken away on this project. There seems to be no end to the lengths (and heights) these guys will go to get the job done. And in this case, the job entails stripping and staining all of the wood ceiling beams, window casings and stair railings in the sanctuary area of the church. I use the term "guys" because that is the only gender we have on this crew. The only females involved are yours truly and the Daughter. And since she is the designer on this project, she is involved pretty much full-time with buying stuff and pointing at mistakes. That's right, I said pointing AT. And trust me when I tell you that there is alot of pointing going on right about now. Just sayin.
So as the whole ladder thing goes, this isn't TOO bad. They are barely reaching two stories high, the angle of the ladders is pretty good, and there is that whole brick wall providing a sense of stability. Not sayin I like it, but okay. It's not like it's the roof, after all. I'm calm.
And this is even better. He's only on a seven footer...what could be the problem here? Well, on closer inspection, one might notice that the slightest false move, or even an innocent sneeze, and he could go right over the edge of that balcony! Kind of makes me feel guilty that he gets nervous having his picture taken. (Too bad he already saw me.)
BUT THIS!! People, this is just not right. This is the kind of thing that puts ME right over the edge, even though I'm standing smack on the ground. These ladders are reaching 35 feet in the air, almost straight up, and barely leaning against a beam. Nope. No sir. Please. Stop. Doing. This.
Even though no one is on these ladders at the moment, trust me when I tell you that they do work up there. Even though I have repeatedly asked them not to. So now, whevener they see me coming, they scurry down at breakneck speed and pretend to be doing something else. See the heat gun hanging from the ladder on the left? It's still swinging. And when they go up and down, the sway on those ladders is truly disturbing. If this whole construction thing doesn't work out for them, they could probably have a bright future in the circus.
Remember when I told you about the lovely shade of baby blue everything was painted? The lighting in these two photos is really showcasing that heavenly hue.
Ahh, a close-up. Looks like someone built himself a cute little platform to stand on. Sorry. Still a no.
Look, I'm not entirely ladder-phobic. In the younger days, when I was spunkier and more agile, I was the one working at the Laura Ashely store who would stand on the very top of the ladder and change the bulbs in the recessed lights. Yeah, the SIX FOOT ladder. The civilized ladder. I don't think I even realized that ladders could stretch out to such dizzying heights unless they were attached to a fire truck. And then they came with firefighters, and so of course courage was a given. And besides, they work with nets, right??
If we could please turn our attention to the other side of the room, you can see that we do in fact have scaffolding on site. Brand new, heavy duty scaffolding capable of reaching the very top of the ceiling. Much, much better. Although, I'm still not sure that I could be happy working up there. Of course, that would be if I could even GET up there. Sigh.
One thing that can never seem to make it anywhere is Felix's shirt. No matter the weather, homeboy will end up at his workstation naked from the waist up. Seriously, what is up with that??
Here he seems to be demonstrating his superior range-of-motion while "sin la camisa".
Either that, or he is accusing Riccardo of tossing his shirt off the edge of the platform again. See it hanging there? Guys, please try to come to a peaceful resolution. NO MORE DRAMA!
