The words uttered before I hit the deck were not rated-G, more like ‘R’. Last night I was caulking the gap between the beam and the drywall along the vaulted ceiling in our bedroom. Every thing was moving along well and I was just about finished smoothing the caulk with the right index finger. For some reason the right index finger makes the perfect caulk seam. Anyways, As I reached to swipe the last section of caulk; the ladder disappeared from under my feet and I hit the floor with a THUD. The impact with the floor knocked the wind out of me but luckily I was conscious and able to get up after a few minutes of lying there wondering WTF just happened.
With the adrenaline flowing like water over a fall, I felt OK; nothing on me appeared to be broken. However, 20 minutes later I became disoriented, the back of my head throbbed, I felt nauseous, and began to shake uncontrollably.
When I was working on the ladder I had a headlamp on to assist with lighting the work area. And this light had a battery pack positioned on the back of my head. So, when I hit the floor the back of my head absorbed the impact of the battery pack smacking the floor. Fearing I’d go to sleep and not wake up I hopped in the car and drove down to the ER for a quick once over. After a cat scan of my head and neck the Doc said everything looked normal and that I suffered a mild concussion, since I did not black out.
I was relieved to know that the cat scan looked normal, thus proving that I have a brain, now I just need to learn how to use it better.
This morning I went out and inspected the ladder and took a few measurements.

Apparently the right leg of the ladder failed and caused the ladder to fall. I was standing on the second rung from the top of the ladder – that’s 6ft off the ground. When I landed the upper back and shoulders hit the floor first and the back of the left knee smacked the lower left leg of the ladder. So while I was only six feet off the floor, the shoulders were 58 inches higher, thus putting the fall at around 11ft – OUCH!
Needless to say I’ll be off the bike for a few daze, but luckily I’ll be able to ride again.














