Give me an A

I have come to realize that whenever I see workers dangling from ropes or in buckets high overhead, I feel compelled to stop and take a picture. I have at least mild acrophobia, or fear of heights, so I admire and envy the people who can work high above the ground and feel comfortable.

On Tuesday I posted some pictures of workers painting the city water tower south of town. On Wednesday I stopped by to see how work was progressing and thought the scene below was a bit different from what I had previously shown. Instead of being in the bucket coming from the ground, this worker was suspended in a cage being dropped from the top.

Someone has to do the boring job of painting the low spots.

On Thursday morning the workers were repainting the letters of the words Rensselaer, one on the north east and one on the south west. They began on the north east. As I was watching them finish up the final E, a worker emerged from the little trap door just below the tank and scooted along the rails. He got to the other side and then in some way he got to the top. I did not see what he did when he got to the back.

The outlines of the letters were still visible from the old paint job, though they may have put down a preliminary layer for some of the letters. Below a worker is beginning to outline the letter A. Notice how he is not on the bottom of the cage. I could not see if he was on the rail or had some other way to get as high as he was. When he got the outline partially finished, he would fill it in with a bigger brush or roller. Two workers were in the cage for this job.

It did not take long and half of the letter was painted on.

In early afternoon I stopped by again. The workers had begun the south west letters. I do not know how they chose which letters to do first. Here they began with the EL.

A few hours later they had finished the EL, and also the RE, an S, and part of the N and were ready to start on the AE.

One worker did as much of the E as he could reach while the other focused on the A.

I doubt if I will still be doing this blog the next time they paint this water tower.