Well, I won't try that again!

So the other day I discovered I'd left a bale hook stuck in a beam way up in the top of the mow last year. I figured I'd go get it so I climbed the ladder and went to walk over to the hook on that nice wide 12" beam, just like I'd done a million times before. Took one step and vertigo set in! I barely managed to grab a rope before I started to take a 20 foot nose drive!

This getting old stuff stinks.....

I hear you,I've pretty much marked off ladders and walk behind garden tractors as anything I need to have anymore.

BTDT ,,. And still getting by with it ,,Most the Time ,,.My 750 MF combine has some slik spots on it , Fallling
can Sneak up on a fella thinkin about everything but falling ,,.. anther thing , always have your cellphone . I
will use some left over roofing called MULE HIDE to stik on those slik places on the combine to improve
traction,,.. ,,

Yep, ladders and wife do not mix, I get hollered at every time I attempt to climb one. Have to admit it though, she is right. No longer use the tractor to mow around the pond or on the dam, just use the riding mower. Fast approaching, chainsaw and weed eater. Now, if that 12" beam was a 48"!

Before I retired my wife would not let me use a ladder over 12' tall. But at work, I had a 40' we used some and a few platform and man lifts that went quite a bit higher. She said if I got hurt at work, the company insurance would pay. If I crashed at home, homeowner's insurance might pay the medical bills but not the other expenses. Now that I am retired, she has never complained about my ladder use. I just do all of it before she gets home and put everything away. No evidence.

Wish I could say I do not understand but last summer we where going to cut a big walnut tree out of the roof of the porch and I rented a man lift to do so. I got up about 25 feet or so and could not go higher. But back in the day when I was in the Navy it was common for me to go up to the crows nest on the JFK CVA67 which puts a man up about 250 feet off the ocean and we did that any time we needed to so during flight ops or refuel etc. and many times we where doing 30 plus knots into the wind and we where up there but not any more

Yeah, I understand. I was coming down off a short ladder this spring when I stepped backward over a concrete block and fell to the ground. For some of us maybe it's time to think about getting that necklace with the button you press and tell whoever listens that "Help, I've fallen and can't get up."

Couple of days ago was trying to change wheel on riding garden tractor. Having trouble so I got down on ground. Did not think I was going to be able to get back up. And I did not have my phone with me.

I got the old COOP sickle mower out last week. Haven't used it in a long time so I lowered it to oil everything up and test it out. Then I couldn't raise it back up above my chest. Had to back it into the shed some to get a hoist one it. This OLD thing bites.

Yup, notice similar stuff at 67. I still climb ladders (was near the top of a 28 footer week or so ago). I don't hurry, take one step at a time, making sure I've got good footing and a good grip. I had a paint can and brush in one hand but thought real hard about every move.

Like Joe said, you don't have to fall far to get hurt. A couple of years ago, I was working in a barn, remodeling a stall into a tack room. I was on a 6' ladder with a nail gun. Stepped down (thought I was on the lowest step). I was on the SECOND STEP! My foot kept going and before I knew it, I fell on my butt on a pile of scrap 2x4's with nails still in them and hit the back of my head HARD against the 2x10 stall wall. I heard a BANG, thought the nail gun went off and realized it was my head hitting the wall. I was pretty dazed for a few minutes. I looked to my left and about 2" from my left cheek was a 16d nail sticking through the 2x10 wall from the other side. :shock: I got up, checked for blood and somehow missed all the nails in the pile of boards. To this day, I realize that was the closest I've come to checking out while working with tools. Like Bret says, in our younger days, we'd walk along beams, across trusses, jump ditches, jump off 1 story roofs, etc.

I no longer rush things, I think through each motion when working with tractors, table saws, chain saws, ladders, etc. I still do stuff that my wife cringes about, but I'm VERY careful in everything I do.

Step down out of grain truck to go around behind it. First step on ground caught toe of shoe on a big weed that had been cut off. Started to fell. Couldn't put one foot in front of the other one fast enough to keep from falling. Crashed hard, knee a week later still hurts.

Yeah that darned vertigo. I've had it more times than I can count. I try not to do anything jarring or I will be dizzy for a few days. Well today I was pulling hard on a 1 3/8" wrench and it slipped off. I was standing and I went backwards and stumbled over something on the floor doing the arm flailing thing trying not to go down. I didn't go down but immediately I realized the world wasn't moving right. Vertigo again! Only it's not real bad, just annoying. I'm sure glad I wasn't walking in the rafters like you were.

I had a bout of vertigo a couple years ago...never had it before. My doctor gave me a prescription for a nasal spray
that really helped me (flonaze). I can now sort of feel it coming...in my ears (strange sensation)...so I use the spray
as needed and so far (fingers crossed) it has held it at bay.