Humility is a good thing. And Lord knows in my life, I've been entitled to my share of it.
Two years ago now I was thinking it was time to start hanging the Christmas lights atop the house. I never had been up there before and while the kids were at school, Kari was out of town, and Ashleigh, then 3 was at home with me but napping, I decided I could get a lot done.
So I took a ladder out, got up on the patio cover Kari and I had built, and then set the ladder up to go up to the top. I took several strings of lights with me and was ready to get a lot done.
Well, as it almost always is here in the Dallas area, it was windy that day. Gusty actually. And here was my self on top of the house thinking I'm going to go over to the edge, run a string of lights and hook them to the edge of the roof. Uh, no.
I got up there and quickly realized I'd had some pretty bad ideas in my day and this was fast going to the top of the list. So, I decided I was going to go back down the ladder. Uh, the ladder. Yeah, well, it didn't seem as sturdy as it did going up. And then there was the whole issue of turning and stepping down and remember, it was windy. So, there I was. High up. No one home but Ashleigh, who was sleeping. And here I am, up on the roof top click, click click and there weren't any reindeer to get me off quick, quick, quick.
So, I called me friend, the chief of the Balch Springs Police Department, on my cell phone and asked him to quietly send an engine from the fire department to quietly get me off the roof. Well, they sent two trucks. The engine and the ladder truck.
Right in front of our house, with dozens of school kids, teachers and secretaries across at the school all looking out the window, the Balch Springs Fire Department set up their ladder truck, blocking the entire street, and up came the Captain to get me across the ladder, suspended right over our front yard and onto the house. The picture here is of the ladder on its way to the house.
Like I said, that was two years ago. I saw the Captain a few weeks ago and he jokingly asked me if I was getting ready to put my lights up yet. And the Chief tells people that my house is the one that looks like fingernails slid down the front of it.
But what good is life when you can't laugh at yourself every once in a while? Never mind.
UPDATE: Please see other posts here on the blog to see about how to support the Balch Springs Police Department's 23rd Annual Santa Cop program.
