On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 19:47:25 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 9/18/2017 3:14 PM, John H wrote:
On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 14:29:22 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:


John H Wrote in message:




To get on the house roof I don't need a ladder. Can climb out a
bedroom window and then have access to entire roof with a step stool.


I don't do house roofs either. If I get four feet from the edge, severe
vertigo sets in. :-)


I'll bet it's not vertigo. Most likely it's illyngophobia. I'll let you look it up. I realized I
sufferred from same when I took a motorcycle ride in the French Alps when I was about 63. It also
kicks in in places like the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, anywhere there is a drop...including the high
part of my roof. I'm OK if I get on my butt and inch my way to the edge.



Sounds like what I experience. One of the Florida houses had a two
story high main living room with an overhead fan mounted from the
ceiling. The blades where dirty and I borrowed my neighbor's super high
step ladder figuring I'd climb up an clean them. When I got to where I
could reach the fan blades an overwhelming feeling of dizziness and
nauseousness overcame me and I had to clutch the ladder and close my
eyes otherwise I felt I would pass out and fall. It has happened on
ladders of lesser height as well, even last year when cleaning the
gutters and I was only 3/4 of the way up on a 12 foot stepladder.

It's weird because I've flown small airplanes and even a helicopter with
a big, 360 degree view bubble for a windshield. Never bothers me, even
practicing stalls and having the airplane start to fall out of the sky.
But a 12 foot ladder? No freakin' way.


I don't seem to have the problem. I can just forget I am 15 feet in
the air and do my job. I am pretty careful setting up my ladder and I
usually have a bail out plan (something I can grab, a soft place to
land or something) The trick ends up turning a fall into a jump if you
know you are going down and hope for the best.