Look close at the photo, the two guys in the middle are repairing the brick work 20 stories up the side of a the Graybar building. I took this picture while on a conference call at work. Certainly puts the day to day work hassles in perspective.
What is crazy - at least to me - is that I once worked in a similar environment.
When in the Navy and station on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. America, my shop had responsibility for maintaining (nice way of saying chipping and painting) the top mast which was nearly 200 feet above the water. The logic was that we were computer and electronic technicians, some of our equipment (radar, radios, other not to be defined stuff) was up on the mast, so who better to tend it without breaking it than a bunch of geeks?
When up on the mast, it would be the tallest structure around, you could see the curve of the earth, and the planes below on the flight deck would look like model toys. Hard to imagine I was once skinny enough to fit through all the tight spots and fit enough to climb that high up (no motorized winches for us geeks!).
I have some pretty amazing stories from working on the mast.
The best story, or rather just the best experience, was just eating a box lunch overlooking the harbor in Cannes France - incredible view on a perfect day. The worst was helping to recover a co-worker who'd slipped, was saved by his safety line, but lost his nerve to get down. The funniest was when a colleague, who was told he had to stay up "till all the paint was gone", promptly hurled the ten gallon can over the side from 20 stories up, barley missing the flight deck on the way down! And the weirdest was turning around to see the CO had climbed all the way up to the top of the mast, saying he was there to check on the job we were doing (but more likely there to just check out the view).
I wonder if these guys will be remembering working here in thirty years?
