Smiling People

[Crackle]

People are smiling at me. People don't normally smile at me, they scowl, eye me suspiciously or just ignore me. What is the cause of this sudden turn of fortune I hear you ask. And even if you don't, I'll tell you anyway.

I am limping, with a Leki pole, a grimace and one unbending leg. Like a cast-off from a Pirates of the Caribbean film. The reason, in a continuing story of a man gone to the dogs, is Bursitis: Housemaids knee.

I noticed this strange phenomena as I pegged my way back from the physio appt. needing to get a bus. Mothers with small children smilingly herded the little scurrying critters away from my gammy leg, someone on the bus got up from their seat with a smile, random strangers stepped smilingly around me hogging the whole pavement with my windswept sideways tack.

It's disconcerting; I've tried smiling back but I suspect I'm just baring my teeth in a grimace and it's tiring too, I'm not the bonhomie type. If I have to go out again, I shall wear a cap and keep my head down so I don't have to put up with people smiling at me.

This message is to warn you not to smile at people with limps. I can almost certainly tell you on their behalf, they don't want you too.

Still, better than the bloke with a suitcase, steam rollering down the pavement with the damn thing bouncing and hopping like it was about to derail. he missed me thanks to a judicious hop on my good leg but I was unable to pivot fast enough to belt the twunt with my stick.

 

[Crackle]

[QUOTE 3104997, member: 259"][/QUOTE]

That's not funny.

 

[TVC]

Put your baseball cap on sideways and pull your jeans below your arse. That'll stop them grinning.

 

[Dave 123]

Bursitis, that's a lame excuse.

 

[Fnaar]

Smiling Faces Sometimes...

 

[Pat "5mph"]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR5usMpFTQI

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I am limping

ARE YOU OK DEAR? I SAID, ARE YOU OK DEAR?

 

[IDMark2]

Welcome to the world of sympathetic smiling I know well, where, having seen me sail past them on a bike before waving a cheery hello (them, not me, I'm much to grumpy to wave first) the same people next see me walking my dog using my walking stick. Now I'm sure that I am getting the same looks sometimes as motorists getting out of a car with a disabled badge on it gets when he is apparently not 'that disabled' but in reverse...

So anyway, I see this almost weekly, a nod or recognition as I walk fit and strong without my stick and a stop and chat and concern for my wellbeing when it is obvious from me using my stick that I'm not as well. Quite nice but a little concerning that it takes an obvious sign before any common decency or community spirit is unveiled.

 

[Bollo]

...Quite nice but a little concerning that it takes an obvious sign before any common decency or community spirit is unveiled.

Tell me about it! I'm severely colour blind but people often mock my garish clothes and show little sympathy when I plough through red lights.

 

[IDMark2]

Tell me about it! I'm severely colour blind but people often mock my garish clothes and show little sympathy when I plough through red lights.

Yep, there's no simple black or white answer is there..?

 

[byegad]

I walk with a stick. My right knee is going to the dogs, Arthritis, and while I can walk without the stick, I run the risk of pushing the knee too hard and setting off inflammation which lays me up for a spell. Most people give me a bit more room (Which means I don't have to change direction suddenly when the weight is on my right leg.) and are very considerate in offering me a seat when they can, and yes they smile.

However some people.... some people have caught the stick with their shopping, causing me to fall (My balance isn't what it once was.). These few people can also be a royal PITA by jostling me as they hurry past causing a jar to the knee. I don't walk slowly, except on very softor slippery ground where crowds are a rarity, I just need a little more room and a bit of consideration until I'm deemed old enough and the knee knackered enough for the NHS to replace it.

 

[Crackle]

Well today, feeling a bit better and going a bit stir crazy with my leg up all day, I took the dog for a short tack around the park. He doesn't do short walks, so when we reached the turn around point and he realized what was going on, he started hiding behind bushes, going selectively deaf, chewing grass and forgetting to pick up his ball. We got around eventually though.

True to my word, I wore a cap and kept my head down. Only caught the eye of one kid who grinned at me inanely. I studiously ignored him and then a few minutes later, realized I knew him.

 

[Bryony]

Sorry couldn't help myself!

 

[Doseone]

Bursitis: Housemaids knee.

You are going to have to come up with something better than that, Housemaids knee is not a cool malady.

You need a cover story, something along the lines of you got injured trying to rescue an air hostess on a runaway horse.

 

[Crackle]

You are going to have to come up with something better than that, Housemaids knee is not a cool malady.

You need a cover story, something along the lines of you got injured trying to rescue an air hostess on a runaway horse.

Does prepatellar bursitis sound cooler. It's the best I can do. It's all part of whatever I did in February, running. It's not from cleaning the shower. Various family members can vociferously attest to that.