“Don’t listen to him”

“I watched you get outta that cushy chair,” said a friend at the Canandaigua YMCA swimming-pool where I do aquatic balance-training.
“It took a couple tries, but eventually you got up no hands. My friend lifeguards that pool.
“I didn’t know anyone was watching,” I thought to myself. Beyond 90° at the knees is difficult, but I attempt it at home because usually I can do it if balanced properly.
A lady she was with remarked how much progress I’ve made. “When you first came here you could hardly walk.”
“But I wish I could do better,” I said.
“Don’t listen to him,” my friend said. “He knows he’s doing better.”
It’s true; I’ve noticed various small epiphanies. I can safely walk railroad rock-ballast chasing trains in Altoona, PA.
A couple weekends ago I attended a model-train show with an ex bus-driver, retired like me. How things have changed. A previous show I was fagging out after an hour or so. This time it was my friend. I felt I could go farther, but we quit after about an hour.
I’m also able to descend steep stairs without falling. In fact, I hardly fall at all.
Months ago I told my lifeguard friend how someone suggested I get a cane. “No canes for this kid!” I snapped. “I should be able to walk without a cane.”
She liked that. Ornery as Hell! “I don’t like this getting old,” I said. “Yer young only once, but can be immature all yer life.”
As far as I can see my balance has worsened. But I usually catch tipsiness. When I do fall it’s from not paying attention. I also walk a lunging Irish-Setter in a nearby park where rocks and tree-roots await.
“Most people give up,” the lady said.
“Not this kid!” I exclaimed.

• I do aquatic balance training in the Canandaigua YMCA’s swimming-pool, two hours per week — plus a third hour on my own.
• RE: “Chasing trains.....” —Altoona, PA is the eastern side of Allegheny Mountain, where the Pennsylvania Railroad crossed that mountain toward Pittsburgh. Pennsy is now Norfolk Southern, and my younger brother and I are railfans. We visit Altoona frequently to photograph trains, and that segment of the railroad is very busy. We take along our railroad-radio scanners to know where trains are. Every time a train passes a trackside signal its engineer has to call out the signal aspect on railroad-radio. We know where those signals are, so can conclude whether we have time to get ahead of that train (“chase”) to photograph it.
• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. My heart-defect caused stroke October 26th, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability, and that defect was repaired. I recovered well enough to return to work at a newspaper; I retired from that 13 years ago.