Life is what you make it: I'm surrounded by TV towers!

Well, another week down the drain. It's hard to believe how quickly time passes by. One thing I can say is, you never know what's going to happen when you get up in the morning. Not to be a fatalist, but you never know if this day will be your last. Only God knows, and he's not telling!

The reason I bring this up is because there was a tragedy that happened very close to home this week. The whole thing gives me the creeps. I got up for work as usual, and when I was going to the bus stop, I noticed a "basket" hanging from the tower, and it was coming down, it was attached to the wires. It's kind of a novelty to see people on the tower, though I'm sure it's regular maintenance. Anyway, I grabbed my camera and snapped three or four pictures. It wasn't bright out, so even with the zoom in, you couldn't see the worker's faces, just silhouettes. You can probably see where I'm going with this story.

Later, we found out that one of the workers had fallen off the tower at least 500 feet. The stories varied between his being electrocuted first, and falling over 1000 ft. Regardless of the details, the poor guy was dead. It really disturbed me. It made me want to immediately delete those pictures I had taken earlier in the day. There's no way to tell if the people I photographed included the man that fell, because there were a few people up there.

The TV trucks were in the parking lot across the street all day and through the night. It was weird seeing my neighborhood on TV. We found out that the man was a contractor from Iowa, but that was about all. OSHA is investigating and all work on the tower suspended until further notice.

I'm very familiar with death. I work in a nursing home, so hardly a week goes by that I'm not saying farewell to somebody. But sudden, violent death is foreign to me, and I guess I don't know how to deal with it. It just reminds me that you have to be prepared to die, spiritually, as well as having things in order for your family. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, I'd not have anything in place. No funeral home, no will to explain who to leave all my prized possessions to, etc. I like to think I have the spiritual things in place, but I'm not taking anything for granted. The Lord is my savior, but that's no guarantee I get to heaven, is it?

This news story is also an excuse for me to write an essay about the TV towers. I've lived here all my life, and you can't escape them. From my house, there is a tower to see from just about every window. Thank God for summer, when the trees leaves obscure them from view. Even though I hate them, I have a morbid curiosity about them, especially the one closest to us, the one the man fell from. They call it the old WHDH, or Channel 5 tower. A little further away is what they call the UHF Candelabra. I always called it "The Fork Tower" because it has three prongs. Or I should say, it used to. Sometime while I was at work, or in the middle of the night, they took down the other prongs. Boy, does it look ugly. And there is only one light at the top now. At first, I thought the changes were only temporary, but when I looked online, I read all about the changes that were made.

That's one good thing about the Internet, you can research just about anything and get answers fast. I found a website that told all about all the towers in the area. Learning more about them took away some of the mystique, some of the creepiness.

But still, I can't end this story without mentioning my nightmares about them. I've had countless dreams where the towers were right up against my windows, and scared the heck out of me. Others where planes fly into them, and others where I can see up close and there's offices and people up on the platforms.

Then there's the real life, awake nightmares- I used to be mortally afraid to look at them through binoculars. The sight still shocked me. But still, it was fascinating. Another time I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I looked out the window, and was really surprised to see a bright light shining on and off up on the tower. I imagine they were doing some kind of maintenance. But at the time I was terrified!

I guess I've come to a peace with the towers. If it was up to me, they wouldn't be here. I'm sick of the sight of them. I love it when it gets really cloudy, and my Dad jokes that they had to take them down! I always wanted to see what the view was like from up there-anybody ever think to take pictures or video? I did once see a view from Bing maps- I almost jumped out of my skin, because I wasn't expecting to see the tower, then it was right in my face, bigger than life (this was the fork tower, before they messed it up).

I hope they find out what happened with the worker, and I hope nobody else ever gets hurt up there again. My Dad told me stories of when the fork tower was being built-he and a co-worker saw someone falling off, but thankfully not landing. That would give me nightmares forever.

If you live around here and are familiar with the towers, tell me what you think. Can you relate to anything I've said? I've added a few pictures for you to check out. Sorry most of them are sideways, but you'll get the idea. YouTube has a video of a person climbing a tower similar to ours, and it's a view from his helmet-cam. Pretty scary stuff.