As Neil had an early start this morning, I walked round to my neighbour to see if she would give me a lift to work, as she had offered at the weekend. She was happy to drive me the short distance and the morning was a lot easier than yesterday. I decided I would stay a little longer and leave once my colleague came back from lunch. As Neil was not going to be home to pick me up, I decided to check the local bus service. I knew there was a bus that called at the supermarket across the road from my office block that went along the street at the end of where I live. My thought process was that I would go for some lunch in the supermarket restaurant first and then get the bus home.
Before going in for lunch I checked the timetable. The bus does a loop and I wasn't sure whether my street was at the beginning of the loop or if I would be staying for the full circuit. I wasn't concerned either way, I was in no rush to get home. The timetable showed the bus was due to leave at 2.05 and get to my street at 2.11 - I was at the early part of the route.
The timing suited my plans, I would finish work at 1.15, pop across and have my lunch and be at the bus terminal with 5 minutes to spare. Knowing this was a start terminal, I wasn't too worries about the bus leaving ahead of time. It turns out I should have been more worried about it leaving at all.
I had a good morning in the office and didn't feel to weary when I left. A fabulous bowl of pea & mint soup later, I was ready to start my journey home 10 minutes ahead of time. As I was about to leave the supermarket I overheard and elderly couple talking of waiting inside the entrance to the store to see the bus go to the terminal before going out as it was raining. It seemed like a sensible suggestion but I decided I would just go and look around the corner to make sure the bus wasn't already there.
The weather had a definite winter feel to it and once happy that the bus wasn't already hiding around the corner, I decided to follow suit and wait in the dry warmth of the supermarket entrance and returned.
And we waited, frequently checking the time on the wall clock, watching the time tick away. No bus came into view in any direction. 10 minutes after the scheduled departure time the elderly couple decided they would wait no longer and started walking off across the car park, to where? I had no idea!
Another 5 minutes and I too decided I was waiting for a bus that was not going to show. I had a decision to make. I could go back to the office and ask if anyone had time to run me home, it would take no more than 10 minutes out of their day and, if it was me in the office and a colleague needing a lift, I would be only too happy to help. But, the independent part of me kicked in, and I decided to walk home, in the rain. After all, it's only my shoulder that's a problem and I could hold my umbrella in the other hand. So, of I set.
The cold and rain didn't particularly bother me and, despite the weather, the walk along the canal was actually quite pleasant. After about 15 minutes my left shoulder began to ache, just from the weight of my arm hanging on the end of it. I didn't have any pockets in my coat or trousers so couldn't take weight of my arm as I had before when out with the dogs. I tried tucking it in the belt fastening on my coat but found I was actually tensing my arm to do so, as otherwise it just fell out, and that was no more comfortable then having the weight of my arm pulling on my shoulder. I still had 15 minutes walking to do. I had not taken into account the effect on my damaged shoulder area of having an arm hanging there for half an hour.
By the time I got home I was in a certain amount of discomfort and very glad to be able to settle down on the settee with my every trusty V-pillow.
Out of interest I rang the bus company to see whether the timetable was out of date, but no, the timetable was correct, there was just traffic issues that had prevented them getting the bus through. Typical, the first day in about 10 years I had decided to trust public transport to get me from A to B and it doesn't turn up.
With hindsight, I should have taken the easier option and gone back the office to ask for help. Lesson learned? Probably not.
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