I will add pictures later, but we got it done on Sunday the 14th. Cool. The only problem was that as I was doing the painting touch-up I fell off the ladder and broke my back... not seriously but bad enough for a three month back brace. Below is the email I sent Tuesday after getting home for the hospital.

Some of you have heard the full story, some of you have rumors and for some you will be being informed for the first time with this note. The short version is I fell off a ladder and broke my back, but as broken backs go I did it in a way that there should not be a long term effect. This is the blackberry version. Now for the more complete story... As some of you know I have been re-roofing my house. Sunday I had finished the roof (about 10:30 in the morning) and had started painting the trim, flashing and a few worn spots that just needed new paint. I was painting the section just below where I was standing in this picture when the ladder moved, I think, and I came down from about gutter level--18-20 feet and landed on the concrete below.

After an ambulance ride I remember little of, I was diagnosed with a compressed L1 (about 30%) and a chipped L2. I also had three cracked ribs and a partially collapsed lung. There should be no neurological effects and I am home after about 30 hours in the hospital. The doctors were all very impressed with how I weathered this and feel a lot of this had to do with my overall physical condition. I will need to wear a back brace for about three months and will get progressively released from restrictions as I get better. Currently I am using a walker since I am a little unsteady.

For those of you I was going to visit in my bicycle ride to LA/Phoenix... well it's not starting on Sunday as planned. I'll get back with you on that. It is still going to happen, though, heart attacks, strokes, mortality and broken backs be damned. (My brain was saved by a thick skull... I doubt I need to tell any of you about that.)

Drugs are good and I am tired and must rest.

Oh, for those of you that did not believe what I told you as I left the hospital, I did what I said--I came home and took a nap, got up from it to go to bed and got up this morning just in time to take a nap. That will be how the next few days will be laid out.

So now I will hire out the painting. The gutters were always going to be that hired out, so that is not a big deal. The roof got done is the big issue.

Todd Roof Walker.

Coming soon....