The SMB SysAdmin The thoughts of a one man IT department.

Today I was working in the new addition to our office building at work. I needed to move some data and voice network drops in some of the offices and have been trying to get it done before people start moving into them. I was the only one in the new section, working alone, standing on the top step of a 6 foot step ladder (not too bright, eh?) pulling some cable in the drop ceiling. I was holding on to a roof truss and reaching out as far as I could trying to free the cabling from one of the hangers so I could route it to the other side of the office I was in when I somehow slipped and turned the ladder over. So there I was hanging out of the drop ceiling with my feet about five and a half feet from the floor and absolutely no one within earshot to help me. So I hung there for a while, then remembered my phone was in my pocket, so I let go with my right hand, reached in my pants pocket, no phone. So I reached up and got another grip with my right hand, let go with my left hand, reached in my left pocket and finally fished my phone out. My right hand was ready to give out so I laid the phone in the ceiling and got another grip with my left hand. It was at that moment that I realized I would not be able to hang by one hand again long enough to dial someone to come help me, both of my forearms and hands were really starting to burn, I wanted to try and swing my legs up, but with the grid and ceiling tiles in the way I couldn't really see that working. I knew I was out of options and the only thing left to do was just let go. I looked down below a couple times to see if there was anything I needed to try and avoid when I let go. Luckily I had done a good job kicking the ladder over and it was well out of the way. So tried to just let go, and couldn't bring myself to. I kept thinking about the herniated disc in my back and how bad I was sure it was gonna hurt when I hit the concrete floor (though it was carpeted). I kept thinking to myself, there's no point in hanging any longer, you're just putting off the inevitable. Still couldn't bring myself to turn loose. My hands were killing me, so I loosened my grip a little, one hand slipped and the other followed, down I went, landed hard on my feet and then fell on my back. My feet were stinging like crazy and just laid there for a bit before I tried to get up. I was lucky, no serious injuries, but I'm certain I will be feeling the affects come morning. I have some nice little blood blisters in the palms of my hands from hanging, but they are already starting to go away. A few minutes after I got up and went back to pulling cables, my wife called me on my cell, I was telling her about what happened and said, "It's hard to let go, even when you can't hold on anymore", I kinda paused for a second and thought to myself, man, that's deep.