Old Ladder New Ladder

As I was looking at ladders propped up outside the shop, an elderly man stopped and looked with me.
"You are looking at ladders," he said.
"Yes I am "
"Oh, they are dangerous.You can fall off."
The voice of experience, I thought and looked to see which ladder seemed most stable.

I told the ladder merchant in the shop that the ladder I had inherited was rather wonky.
"Ohhh, that's not very good," he said, sizing me up with a worried look. "Its very dangerous, you could fall off."
Then he said, "Look, you stand on this and see how it feels."
He unwrapped all the plastic and tape from his 'On Sale' ladder and stood it on its four legs.

I climbed up. No wonk. Instead of feeling as if I was balancing in a boat, the ladder felt like an extension of my own legs. What a difference. I looked around to show the elderly gent from outside how stable I was, but he had disappeared.

PS Blue bedrrom walls are now white. Scraping back paint from cupboard doors reveals a darker blue beneath. Sigh.