I spent part of the weekend up on the roof.

Armed with a pruning saw and bypass loppers, it was part of my annual tree trimming and sweeping the roof.

High winds the week before reminded me it was time given low hanging branches were whacking the roof-top evaporative cooler that I’ve never used while newer small branches were scraping the roof.

It’s hard not to hear the sound when you have an almost flat-top roof with a 4 percent or so grade with no attic.

You can also hear birds hopping across the roof and retrieving twigs with their beaks to build nests as well as the occasional cat.

I happened to mention to Richard Silverman that was what I was doing which is why I didn’t make it to Woodward Park on Saturday.

Rich made the comment ladders aren’t your best friend when you get older.

I won’t disagree, but I’d argue ladders have never been my best friend.

One of my top 10 embarrassing moments involved a ladder when I was 20 years old.

I was chairing a committee raising donations and volunteers to improve athletic facilities at Lincoln High.

Most of the work involved installing irrigation systems for a baseball field and a softball field as well as placing concrete curbing around the track.

There was also a need for a storage shed for sports equipment.

We managed to get the concrete block for the walls as well as the roof tile donated.

One of the committee members knew the owner of a fruit stand on Lincoln’s main drag — G Street (Highway 65 at the time) — who had put a new roof on six months prior. The owner three months later, had an offer on the land for someone who was going to build a convenience store, gas station, and three commercial suites.

The fruit stand was going to be demolished.

The cross beams and such were new and more than adequate for our project.

At any rate, arrangements were made so we could salvage the wood before the building was demolished.

The plan, according to what I was told, was to “surgically” remove the roof and we’d be able to salvage the wood we needed saving us roughly a thousand dollars or so.

Keep in mind it was 1976 and $1,000 was a lot of money. Also to be clear, it was not my idea as I knew basically zero about the ins and outs of construction or demolition but others with knowledge said the beams were as good as new.

There were eight of us who were going to tackle the dismantling of the fruit stand roof on a Saturday morning.

The task I was assigned was tailor-made. All I had to do was stand on a ladder at various spots where I was directed to do so and swing a sledge hammer where and when I was told to do so.

It went fine for the first hour or so. We had salvaged about 90 percent of the wood we would need to recut for the storage shed roof.

It was time to take off one more cross beam and leave the rest for the wrecking crew that was going to show up Monday morning.

Charlie Woods told me where to position myself.

I was on the second to the last step on a 10-foot aluminum step ladder.

For whatever reason, someone on the outer edge of the roof decided to swing their sledge hammer to make sure fasteners were working loose.

Apparently they had.

A loud creaking noise drowned out the morning highway traffic.

Charlie Woods and several others set personal bests for 100-foot sprints. Second later, what was left came crashing down.

The ladder protected me from being struck by much of anything. I had dropped the sledge hammer and held onto the ladder. I didn’t strike my head against anything but my leg got pinned.

The first thing that came to my mind when the roof collapse was done was, “please don’t call the fire department”, which of course they did.

Lincoln at the time had an all-volunteer fire department. They were summoned by blasts of a siren. Two blasts meant it was an accident.

It also meant half the town would end up being alerted something was going on which meant gawkers.

I had a minor injury to my leg and was driven in the back of a station wagon to the Roseville Hospital ER.

My pride was more bruised than my leg.

In case you’re wondering, that barely made my 10 embarrassing moments list that is topped by falling naked out of a bathroom window, landing in a lantana bush laden with prickles in full view of the street as two Catholic nuns were strolling down the sidewalk.