Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Washing Windows.

Washing windows isn't too tough of a job. I worked in housekeeping in hospitals and nursing homes for 16 years and in that time I cleaned more than a few windows. On Dirty Jobs last night Mike Rowe washed a few. You could not pay me enough to clean where he was. Below is a picture of the building.
45 stories. They were 408 feet in the air. The building is in Honolulu, Hawaii. They don't have platforms to stand on. They swing down using block and tackle. I don't like heights to start with. There is no way I would have done it. One of the cameramen on the crew refused to go down. Mike told him he didn't blame him. On average, 12 men die each year on this type of job. One of the cameramen had a problem coming down. His hair got caught in the winch he was using to lower himself down. He was 200 feet in the air. He was told to remain as still as possible or he would lose a piece of his scalp. One of the window washing crew scaled down, gave the cameraman a quick haircut, and they made it safely down. This is my favorite Dirty Jobs episode so far. While looking for a picture of the building I came across a photo of Mike as he was starting the job.


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