Summers were too hot to climb on to the roof during the day time.
 So, naturally, since I didn't need the   light anyway, I would
wait till the roof was cool enough to climb    on.  This was
normally about midnight to 1 o'clock in the morning.     During
summers, I spent most nights on the air until 4 and 5   o'clock
each morning anyhow.  I had an 8 foot tripod with a TH3   junior
tri band beam on the roof and my 80 and 40 meter dipoles   tied to
the sides of the tripod as they crossed over the roof to a    tree
right on the curb of the street in the front yard.  You use   what
you got.  Yes, it was high enough not to clothes line some poor
passerby.  Anyhow, I can't recall what was wrong but something
was wrong with the coax to one antenna.  So, without my mother's
awares, I pulled out the 6 foot step latter, stood it on top of
the steps to the side door, and climbed the latter on to the roof.
   You had to literally stand on the very top of the ladder, not
on   the top rung mind you, but on the very top of the ladder just
to   get to the hot roof.  I'm not very tall so it was more than a
 stretch.  Dad blamed right down dangerous now that I think of it
 but I was just a kid so what they hay.  It was still warm but not
   hot.  Disconnecting the coax, I was sitting next to my tripod
and    fiddling with the end of the RG8 coax.  Suddenly, it
slipped out   of my hands and like a long slithering snake, slid
off the roof   and on to the ground.  I had a few choice words I
whispered, and   then I prayed that mom wouldn't hear what had
happened.  Her   bedroom window was on the side of the house,
wouldn't you know,   where the coax slid off.  You can't imagine
how much noise RG8   coax makes sliding off a roof and landing in
a big pile right   under somebody's window.  I was more worried
about the neighbors   hearing it and complaining until I heard my
mom's voice.  Mom   never went to bed before midnight and always
watch Johnny Carson   before turning in.  She was watching her
little TV in the bedroom    when the snake jumped off the roof.  I
sat quietly, the heat of   the roof under my bottom, almost
burning the hide right off my butt, and praying   nobody heard
what I did, and then I heard mom's window slide    open, we had
central air so that's why I figured she wouldn't have    heard me
on the roof, and out the window, my mother yells,   "Philip?  Are
you on that roof?"  "Yes, mother.  I'm on the   roof," I replied,
but somewhat quieter than she was speaking.    "What are you doing
up there this time of night?" she insisted.    "You get down from
there right now.  Are you crazy?"  I said,   "Mother.  I. Am.
Fixing My. Antennas."  I accented each word as if    this was
really important and she shouldn't be asking me such   stupid
questions in the middle of the night.  That's when she   said,
"You get off that roof right now.  Are you crazy."  I sat up
there and laughed to myself and later she thought it was funny,
too, but my neighbors never thought it was funny when they saw me
  climbing around on the roof of our house.  They always were
calling mom and saying, Noreen?  Did you know your blind son is
climbing around on the roof, or in the trees, again?"  That's
another reason why I climbed at night instead of the day time.  By
the way, from then on, when I went on the roof at night, I wrapped
the coax around my leg, or waist, a couple of time in case I
dropped the end I was working on.

Phil.   K0NX