A perfect fall

Yesterday was a big snow day. We received around 1 1/2 foot of snow. So, as usual, when there’s new snow, we have to clear it; at home first, then on a commercial property that we have on Main Street. This latter job is rather easier and is generally followed by my climbing up to the flat roof on a ladder to visually check if the roof de-icing system works as expected. With this in mind, I set my 18 foot ladder on the deck and rested it against the wall, then proceeded to climb. When I reached the top, I saw that there was so much snow that the electric indicator light that I normally can see was totally buried in snow and that I would need to go clear it to make sure that all was in order. I climbed down, picked up a snow shovel and was immediately up again. When I reached the roof top for a second time and was ready to step over its snowy flat surface, it seemed to me that for a fraction of a second I felt the ladder budging a tiny bit and then quickly realized that it was indeed in the process of slowly slipping from underneath me. I kept standing up on it and both gracefully and miraculously accompanied the ladder in its full 15 foot fall. Half-way there, I somehow managed to bend all my joints to soften the landing and ended up… unscathed! Once more, I had really been lucky and I promised myself never to set a ladder again on a slippery deck and with no one there to hold it for me!