Today would have been my grandfather’s 124th birthday, so now I post this year’s edition of the digital birthday card. Here he is at age 85, climbing atop a roof:

I notice three problems. First, nobody is steadying the ladder for him. Second, by taking his picture, the photographer is distracting him. Third, 85-year-old men aren’t supposed to climb ladders, much less to rooftops.

But there was undoubtedly work to be done, and folks were made of sturdier stuff back then, and he certainly wasn’t going to take the risk that hired help might mess up the job, so… up the ladder he went.