San Francisco Window Washing Rig Secured

Eventually a window washer rappelled down and secured the platform, while firefighters helped pull it up.

Window-washing rig secured to San Francisco high-rise: Suspended on the face of a Financial District high rise, a window washer's rig dangled precariously from One Embarcadero high above San Francisco on Friday morning. The dangling window washing rig's dangerous dilemma developed right in the middle of the morning rush hour in downtown San Francisco, shutting down a major street. The rig was reported hanging unsafely at 7:02 a.m. from the 41st floor of a building at 301 Clay Street. Getting things straightened out had a whole new meaning Friday morning in the Financial District. The window washing platform was finally pulled over onto the top of the building at about 10 a.m., ending a strange morning on Friday the 13th.

It just didn't look right, whether you were down below on Clay and Battery streets or 41 stories up at One Embarcadero Center. A 2,000 pound window washing platform was dangling dangerously from above. "I talked to the guy, actually the engineer who was in charge of it and asked him, 'is this thing in danger of falling?'" Battalion Chief Marty Ross said. "And the look on his face, I could just tell, hey we better get up there."

But there were a lot of frazzled nerves on Friday the 13th.

Firefighters believe a latch was not engaged when workers put it over the side of the building. No one was inside the rig. Below, Battery Street between Clay and Sacramento was blocked off to traffic. Muni officials say buses on the 1-California and 41-Union routes are being rerouted around the scene.
Floors 28, 29, and 30 were in the landing zone if this thing dropped. So those workers were kept out of the building. "Just wait, and hopefully it comes to a good end," 29th floor worker Rita Whitten said.

Eventually a window washer rappelled down and secured the platform, while firefighters helped pull it up. No one hurt. But there were a lot of frazzled nerves on Friday the 13th. "That is a little creepy, a little scary," San Francisco resident Marcus Collazo said. "You've got to think about it, you know, let your mind run wild." The roads and One Embarcadero Center have reopened. Firefighters say they're just happy nothing bad happened. Social media reaction here.

Naked man, dangling scaffolding cause stir downtown (caution: nudity) - There was plenty to talk about near the Embarcadero on Friday. After a window-washing rig lost a cable and hung precariously from the 41st floor of the Embarcadero Center, a man in various states of undress climbed a light post, became an apparent safety threat and refused to come down — for nearly four hours. This post features nudity, so scroll down past this scaffolding picture if you’re OK with that. A police officer, who was likely helping reroute traffic after the scaffolding slipped Friday morning, noticed the shirtless fellow perched on a pole at Drumm and Sacramento streets about 10 a.m. The officer called for back-up, police closed off the street and a tactical team arrived to get the man down.

“That’s normal procedure,” said Officer Wilson Ng. “We didn’t want him to fall on anyone.” Despite hours of coaxing by a crisis negotiator, the man remained on the pole, continued to remove his clothes — until he was naked — and drew a crowd of onlookers. Many of the spectators had just watched the fire department lasso the loose window-washing rig on Embarcadero Center One, which was reported just before 7 a.m. and also prompted police to close streets in the area. The excitement ended at about 1:45 p.m. when an officer, according to police reports, grabbed the man on the pole, took him into custody and, presumably, covered his scaffolding.

Despite hours of coaxing by a crisis negotiator, the man remained on the pole, continued to remove his clothes — until he was naked — and drew a crowd of onlookers.

Window Cleaners Headline Grabbers

Welcome to Blobby-land! Window cleaner paints his house pink with yellow spots to cheer up his town. A fed-up window cleaner has painted his terraced house pink with yellow spots to chase away the November gloom. Vince Holden, 47, is hoping his elaborate new paint job will put a smile on the faces of everyone in the small town of Penrith, Cumbria. He plans to give the larger spots smiley faces based on the text message smileys on mobile phones.
He said: 'I didnt want it to look like Mr Blobby, I just wanted to put a smile on people's faces. 'There are 14,700 people that live in Penrith. If they all have a smile on their face and give a pound to charity every time they see my house it would be fantastic. 'I got the idea from a house I saw with a chimney stack painted like a Liquorice Allsort.' Mr Holden says the new paint job is not designed specifically to raise money for charity, but he has now put a poster in his front window asking anyone who enjoys his artwork to give money to a charity of their choice.
'Everybody I know has given it a fairly good reception,' he added. Eden District Council leader Keith Phillips said: 'The property in question is not a listed building so the resident is not breaking any planning guidelines. 'I hear that the motivation behind it is to cheer up the people of Penrith in these gloomy economic times. I hope it has the desired effect.'

You can spot this Penrith house a smile away: Why has a window cleaner from Penrith given his house an elaborate new paint job? Vince Holden, of Benson Row, added yellow dots to his pink house this week and has put a sign in his window asking for money. A window cleaner from Penrith is hoping to ‘send a smiley’ to everybody in town after giving his house an elaborate new paint job. Vince Holden has painted his house in Benson Row pink with yellow spots, and plans to give the larger spots smiley faces based on the text message ‘smileys’ on mobile phones. The 47-year-old said: “I didn’t want it to look like Mr Blobby, I just wanted to put a smile on folk’s faces.
“There are 14,700 people living in Penrith. If they all have a smile on their face and give a pound to charity every time they see my house it would be fantastic. “It’s very artistic, you can’t knock it for that. I got the idea from a house in Barrow with a chimney stack painted like a Liquorice Allsort.” The new paint job is not specifically designed to raise money for charity, but Mr Holden, who regularly donates money to Cancer Research, has put up a poster in his window asking that anyone who enjoys his artwork gives some money to a charity of their choice. So far the response from friends, neighbours and passers-by has been largely positive. Mr Holden, who moved to Penrith seven years ago having grown up in Blackpool, said: “Everyone I know has given it a fairly good reception.”
Eden District Council leader Keith Phillips said: “The property in question is not a listed building so the resident is not breaking any planning guidelines. I hear that the motivation behind the painting is to cheer up the residents of Penrith in these gloomy times, so I hope it has the desired effect and may attract some more visitors to the town for a look during the run-up to Christmas.” After a painter gave the house its first pink coat, Mr Holden painted on the yellow spots himself.

What if you were asked to be on TV tomorrow? What would you do? Let’s say that a reporter from your local television news station called you up tomorrow morning, around 10:30am, to tell you that they were doing a special segment for the 6 o’clock news on Professional Eavestrough Cleaning, and wondered if you might be available for an interview? And what if they also said that they were interested in filming you doing the work, and also wanted to run some common concerns by you to see what you had to say? Would it be worth it? Would you do it?
One of my local competitors received a phone call just like that, this morning, Wednesday, November 11, 2009. He told them he was too busy. Interesting. His company is listed number one in Google for the search phrase “toronto eavestrough cleaning”. My company is listed second, so when he said “no”, the reporter hung up the phone, and dialed my number next.
The result is below. I recorded tonight’s 6 o’clock news report on my iphone, so it’s not perfect, but you get the idea. Incidentally, the reporter, his assistant, and the cameraman all asked for my card after the filming and interview were completed, and said they would call in the Spring. The moral of the story: Exploit, don’t squander valuable marketing opportunities. Repeat that to yourself so you don’t forget. You never know, a reporter might be phoning you up tomorrow morning.

Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? Friday the 13th has traditionally been when the superstitious take extra care and double check everything they do. Now experts at the Glasgow Science Centre are looking into the global phenomenon to determine if there is any science behind the superstitions. GSC said it is a mix of superstitions - Friday being the unluckiest day of the week and the number 13. Mr Laing said another widely held superstition is that walking under a ladder is unlucky.
It is said to stem from the Christian belief the triangle was the symbol of the Holy Trinity and therefore, by walking through the triangle - made by the ladder, wall and ground - you were being disrespectful to God. However, Mr Laing said there is a more practical explanation for it being unlucky to walk through ladders: "Imagine how unlucky you would be to walk under a ladder and the window cleaner's bucket tips over you? Maybe not unlucky but being a bit silly and definitely soggy."

Cleaners At Risk in Credit Crunch - Friday the 13th

Domestic helps and window cleaners in Northamptonshire could be among the trades hit by the recession, as householders become more self-reliant, a major insurer has warned. Figures from Legal and General, released today, show people were becoming more self-reliant when it came to odd jobs around the home. The insurer found 45 per cent of people who employed some sort of home help in 2008 were cutting back, with 23 per cent of householders employing people to help around the house, compared with 42 per cent in February 2008. Jodie Gascoigne (pictured) set up Maid 2 Shine, a domestic cleaning company, three years ago with money from the Prince's Trust. She said she had noticed a small drop in the number of clients. She added: "It's quieter. The phone isn't ringing as often and there has been the odd cancellation. People do want their homes cleaned, though, so they tend to try to find an alternative, like cutting back. "I hope for more spring cleans and one-off cleans within the next six weeks, so we will see it pick up." Legal and General found there had been a 48 per cent drop in the number of households that employed a window cleaner.
Dave Moore, of Grange Park Window Cleaning Services, said: "I have a few customers who have cut back from one month to two months, but it's not much different. I wouldn't say it's affected me in a major way." But commercial window cleaners said the recession had left them relatively unscathed. John Devall, of Devall's Window Cleaning, in St David's, Northampton, said: "We have lost two or three jobs, but we're picking them up at the same time. If you've got dirty premises, people won't go into them. "People are always ringing me up and asking if I do domestic." Pete Goodwin, of GB Window Cleaning Services, in Ecton Brook, Northampton, said his company's schedules were changing as a result of recession.
He said: "Where companies used to have it done monthly, it's changing to quarterly. They're cutting back like everybody. There are a lot of places closing down and it affects us as well."
"We don't expect to do much this year, except keep going. "There's plenty of glass out there, so we can pick the work up. We're not like other industries, which rely on companies to give them work. "Even if it's once a year, people need their windows cleaning."

Friday, 13 February 2009: There are two main theories to why walking under a ladder is unlucky – some believe that in medieval times, a leaning ladder was thought to resemble a gallows, so if you walked under a ladder you were guaranteeing your own death by hanging. Others believe the triangle made by the ladder against the wall is the symbol of the Holy Trinity and by walking through the triangle, you are violating God and will be punished. David Whale, from Pane in the Glass window cleaners, in Kettering, said: "We use ladders all the time and people are always very wary about walking under them." Window cleaners around Kettering have also reported people crossing the road to avoid walking beneath them when they are out working and have noticed people are more likely to avoid walking beneath them on Friday the 13th. Pictured: Fingers crossed – Marco Martinelli takes his chances under window cleaner David Whale’s ladder.

Tesco saved my eyesight, says George Green father: A FORTUNATE father is looking at life in a new light after a free eye test at a Slough supermarket saved his sight. Colin Stares dropped into Tesco in Wellington Street to pick up some paracetamol for a headache when the offer caught his attention. Forty-eight hours later the former window cleaner was undergoing emergency eye surgery to tackle a severe case of Glaucoma - a rare disorder that could have blinded him within weeks. The 49-year-old from George Green this week visited staff at the pharmacy to thank them for saving his sight in the nick of time. He said: “I was getting severe headaches and I was in a hurry so I thought I should really quickly go and get some headache tablets. I saw they had a big eye-unit where they scan eyes for free - and at the time I thought I was just saving myself a tenner.”
Pharmacist Jameel Zuman found he was suffering from dangerously high eye pressure and immediately packed him off to Prince Charles Eye Unit at the King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor.
Colin, who closed his window cleaning business in 2007 to help raise his two-year old son, Cameron, said he was two or three weeks away from total blindness: “Tesco were brilliant - if they hadn’t spotted the problem I might not have been able to see my son grow up.”
Doctors found he was suffering from Primary Closed Angle Glaucoma - a condition that is extremely rare among under-50s. It is caused by the failure of tear ducts to effectively lubricate the eye and can cause eyesight to rapidly deteriorate. Five months on, Colin has been given the all clear this week and is telling anyone with a headache to check themselves in for an eye-test.