“I can’t quit”

—“BobbaLew!" said my lifeguard friend at Canandaigua’s YMCA swimming-pool as I came around the pool.
She’s the only one to call me “BobbaLew” beside a friend with whom I once worked.
“This is the third time I’ve seen you this month, and I like it,” I said. “You’re someone I can talk with.
I been here three consecutive weeks, and you been here every time I been here. Do you work here every Wednesday?” I asked.
(Wednesdays are my aquatic balance-training class.)
“Yes I do,” she answered.
“Well I guess I better not quit!” I said.
“Which is why I show up,” she said. “You BETTER NOT quit!”
We laughed and laughed and laughed some more.
I find this amazing, after all the mistakes I made with this lady.
“No pretty lady will ever become friends with you!” —A legacy of my childhood 70 years ago.
2-3 years ago she said hello to me by name, and I managed to get up the nerve to say hello back, later of course.
I been scared of women all my life = another childhood legacy.
She was probably just being sociable, but I thought she was interested in me. Bad mistake.
Fortunately I never had her phone number, so I never was able to try too hard.
What I did instead was chase her around the pool, trying to talk to her.
I’d imagine a conversation, then hike over to her lifeguard-stand to say a few words to her.
Other times she’d “rotate” around the pool to where I was, and we’d talk to each other.
(Two lifeguards are on duty at all times, and they “rotate” to positions around the pool).
Other times I’d call her name, and we’d come together to talk to each other.
With the childhood I had, I was always amazed she continued to talk to me. (“No attractive lady will bother with you!”)
I have befriended many pretty ladies ever since that lifeguard said hello to me. And I no longer think they’re interested in me.
My bereavement-counselor suggested I just be myself; that I’d make many more lady-friends being myself than trying so hard.
So now perhaps my thinking she was interested in me has departed. Romantic interest no longer messes things up.
Our eyes meet, and our yammering begins. “Yada-yada-yada-yada-yada.” We talk and laugh and joke and make snide-remarks.
Friends at last, and I really like it.
And the fact she’s an attractive female counters the fevered zealots who convinced me at age-five I was disgusting.
Yrs Trly unloaded an 88% chocolate bar on her the other day.
“Too bitter,” I told her. “I can’t eat it.”
“Well I can,” she said. “Just eat it with red wine; that’s what keeps me going!”
“So in other words if I just guzzle some ‘Wine-wine-wine Spodee-Odie,’ I’ll regain my youthful ‘vigah’.”
She’s 64 years old, but on her lifeguard-stand she looks like she’s in her 40s.

• I do aquatic balance training in the Canandaigua YMCA’s swimming-pool, currently one class per week — almost an hour — less than usual due to COVID-19.
• My wife died over eight years ago. As a result I see a bereavement counselor once per month, although she became more a psychiatrist.
• Wine-wine-wine Spodee-Odie, and Jerry Lee Lewis are before her time.
• “Vigah” is how President John F. Kennedy pronounced “vigor.” If she was born in 1955, Kennedy may be before her time.