Showtalk said:

Quality gear is all going to be expensive.

Yep. I just upgraded my climbing / working at heights harness accessories and have a work position belt on its way to add to the fall arrest, which is far easier to use on a structure than a rock climbing rig.

You work on rigs?

I have a radio tower and a fairly tall shop building.

Which of course you have to climb. If I had either I wouldn’t climb them.

Showtalk said:

If I had either I wouldn’t climb them.

Only the handful of folks who have incredibly deep pockets can afford to have professionals climb them. That is so expensive that a lot of infrastructure is not being maintained the way it should be - which will eventually result in a lot of spectacular failures and more screeching that infrastructure is being neglected, but almost no one is aware of just what kind of regulatory compliance expenses come with a commercial operation involving such stuff.

Fortunately, amateurs don't have to hire professionals to do a lot of those things - but it does involve learning a lot of other skillsets beyond pencil pushing.

I was thinking about would someone be able to maintain anything if I pre-decease her, or become disabled, and how long before everything falls apart in my absence.

She still has not mastered how to properly set the thermostat so the heat and a/c don't just endlessly cycle at a fraction of a degree around the setpoint when outside temperatures are right at normal comfort ranges. So I woke up at 5 AM wondering why the heater and a/c were both cycling. And shut them both off to just let the indoor temperature free-wheel.

And of course being sure the animals are fed - I now understand exactly why people put their cats in their will - to guarantee that they will be taken care of until they expire of old age when otherwise, she would just lie around and not feed and water them because that's too hard to fit into her busy schedule of bed to toilet to fridge to bed again.

$1,661.87 in cats (ROCKETMAN_S) said...

Only the handful of folks who have incredibly deep pockets can afford to have professionals climb them. That is so expensive that a lot of infrastructure is not being maintained the way it should be - which will eventually result in a lot of spectacular failures and more screeching that

Those towers have four legs anchored to the ground.

Try climbing up a 40' mast anchored to the top of a guided missile cruiser to repair circuits or paint it while the cruiser is bobbing up, down and all around in the ocean! (* CHUCKLE *)

I did that for 3 years in the US Navy.

You already know the answer. Someone who can’t set the thermostat or differentiate between heat and AC won’t be able to maintain the infrastructure to support it.

That takes bravery or you didn’t fully appreciate the risks.

Double harnesses, strapping one rung at a time, not to mention all the tools in our tool belt were tied with rope to the belt so that they wouldn't fall to the ground should we drop one.

At sea level, a ship swaying sideways doesn't move much... but at 40' up... that mast can swing 6' in both directions. It's called work... and I had to do it!

The most dangerous job was on the radar antenna. You had to notify the Chief you were going up and both you and the Chief went and turned the power of the antenna off. Then a sign was placed over the power switch that said "Men Working". The Chief constantly confirmed that sign was not disturbed until we got back down.

Should anybody have turned that power on, by the time you realized what had happened, you would have already been fried from inside out like a microwave does. It only takes 15 seconds from the time it's powered up!

FWIW

Yeah, but you didn't have to worry about OSHA, or trial lawyers, as the Navy can tell both of those to go pound sand.

And if you did wipe out, you'd get the VA to take care of it.