Hell, much relieved by good friends who care, and a fit of the giggles

Hell, well yes it is a bit like hell ... those handicapped signs look so anodyne, so, oh I don't know, gentle, comfortable.

Well, it's not like that for me. Not now, anyway. It's hell. It all began a week or two ago, with increasing weakness in my right leg, but working out as I do, with quads to die for, I soldiered on and all was really pretty OK.

Until yesterday. When the pain suddenly hit, mainly behind the knee (I've got a tear in the anterior cruciate ligament back there, ACL to you sportsters, has it gone completely??) and the leg became virtually unusable.

Out came the serious walking stick, for the first time in three years, and even then I can't get to the loo in my own bathroom, just the one in the hall. Pain excruciating, walking slow if at all, nooo bending of the knee or I get repaid with complete agony and apoplecty.

Made it to quilting bee this morning, just, sitting and listening and chatting and looking at patterns was worth the pain, just. Being the right leg, driving, let alone getting in and out of the van, well, Satan was somewhere giggling.

But he wasn't the only one laughing. Because there at the bee, as one woman was idly looking through a quilting catalogue she came upon the ironing board cover pictured above. A bit of a hottie, not least because when you are ironing, the heat of the iron makes the towel disappear and things are, well, apparent, apparently.

The half of the quilters who had been nurses growled and grumbled they'd seen enough of that thank you very much. Some others quietly took down the address. But whichever camp they fell into, and camp is probably the right word, they, we, all giggled. Quite a bit.

That, and friends who actually cared that it hurt, well, it doesn't get any better than that. Back in your hovel, Satan, you lost this round.