Having what I consider to be a rather formidable stash of plaster supplies, my only preparation prior to the weekend was that of obtaining proper transportation. I had to rent a vehicle that was equipped with an automatic transmission seeing that my wife was away with the car that has the automatic transmission. I reserved a car for the weekend at what was a reasonable rate which included 750 free miles and a tank of gas.

After work on the Friday, I dropped off my vehicle and picked up the rental car. It was a red 1997 Pontiac Grand Am. The interior was somewhat restrictive due to the sporty bucket seat arrangement. I drove home in order to take the next step at fulfilling my first cast adventure since Valentine's day 1997.

Getting the supplies out from their storage area, I then proceeded to unwrap several rolls of 6 and 8 inch plaster. The texture of certain of the older plaster rolls seemed a bit strange. As I began the application process, my suspicion that the rolls were starting to become too old was confirmed.

In fact, I guess it isn't surprising in that the supplies are kept in my basement where the air is very humid pretty much year round.

I've always found the leg cast self application process to be a bit tricky. Especially for llc's where I go about the application process in a step-wise manner starting at the foot and lower leg then proceeding up to the calf area to be followed by the knee and thigh. I am really appreciative of being casted by someone else. I've been casted by someone else on 5 occasions. Three of the casts were applied by Peter the Plasterer (1 sac and 2 llc's) while two were applied in hospital by medical personnel (these were 2 recreational slwc's). I've never ever had the opportunity of being casted into a medical cast.

I went on to self apply my llc. I was able to accommodate the older plaster bandages by using them mostly on the underlayers of the cast. As I got to the last two outer layers, I used more recent supplies that readily produce the thick cream upon application, the stuff which you can rub over and over in order to get the nice smooth look to the finished cast. As a finishing touch, I used a wetted old sweat sock to smooth out the cast. I grasped the sock at either end and went up and down the rear half of the cast between my toes and thigh pulling with either hand in alternating fashion. It was like a belt sliding around a stationary pulley. I then repeated the maneuver over the front side of the cast. This was the first time I've ever used this technique in order to smooth out a cast and it seems to have worked wonders. Not only were the usual areas I rub down nicer, but especially were the hard to reach areas down around the foot.

The supplies used include a leg length of 4 inch stockinette, about 4 rolls of cotton padding and plaster, namely 2 rolls of 6 inch by 3 yards, 3 rolls of 6 inch by 5 yards, 1 roll of 8 inch by 3 yards and 2 rolls of 8 inch by 5 yards. The plaster was a mixture of Smith and Nephew "Gypsona" and Johnson and Johnson "Velroc".

Once the cast application was complete, I got hold of my crutches and made my way up the two flights of stairs up to my computer room where I accessed the 'Net and mIRC and went into the castroom. I didn't stay late because I was looking to be up and on the go early Saturday morning.

I was up first thing Saturday. I put on my modified sweat pants that have the right leg cut off and I covered the front end of the cast with a blue thermal toecap that used to be an entire sock. It wasn't yet sunrise when I left the house and crutched on over to the car. There were two reasons for my presunrise departure. First, I didn't want my nosy (and only) neighbor to see me. Second, since I reside in a small town setting, I wasn't going to do my publicking where I would assuredly be spotted by people I knew, so I had to travel in order to get to public.

Getting comfortably settled into the sporty Grand Am bucket seat proved to be somewhat of a challenge. In the ideal situation, I lay my casted right leg over onto the passenger seat. In this car, the middle area between the driver and the passenger seat is cluttered with the gear stick and a bulky console. I managed to solve the problem by my sitting on a pillow and having another pillow on the passenger seat, in that way, my butt and leg were sufficiently elevated in relation to the interfering obstacles. The only problem was that on occasion, the thigh portion of the cast would push against the drive stick and put the car into neutral. Next time I rent a car to cast, it won't be a Grand AM!

The two and a half hour drive seemed long. It was at a mall just opening up at 9 am where I'd do my first publicking in this cast. The parking lot was snowy and icy, I had to be careful despite the salt, sand and gravel that had already been spread about.

I entered the mall through a bargain department store. There were customers at this early hour and I got my share of looks that ranged from glances to stares. I crutched my way out into the main concourse of the mall. Once again, I was a magnet for most pairs of eyes. It was great. Many of the stores were being opened by the personnel. Several women and a few men actually paused to get a look at me as they were carrying racks of items to the store entranceways as part of the store opening. I went to the extremity of the mall sat down for a rest from the tiresome crutching. I sat in front of two boutiques where the female employees seemed somewhat interested in the plaster stocking that adorned my right leg. The trick I've found is to be subtle as a castee. You can't let the people realize that you noticed their staring. In most cases the person will stop staring or at least start looking away more when they have been caught staring. I try my darnest to not discourage any woman from staring at me and my cast.

The only individual who spoke to me was a man who said something to the effect that I must be on the Injured Reserve list in my condition. My trek back through the mall was an enjoyable one. There was a bench where three women who I believe worked in a nearby beauty salon were seated. They couldn't take their eyes off of me as I slowly crutched by their location. I even added to their amusement by pausing for a while in front of a photo/poster shop. I wasn't actually looking through the window at the posters and photos but rather I was looking at the women's reflection in the glass. Their eyes were glued to me and one of them said something to another, I couldn't make out what was said but I'm sure that it was about me.

I then made my way back to the bargain department store where I had originally gained entrance into the mall. As I entered the store, I came face to face with a gentleman of about 40 years old who was in a wheelchair due to his lack of legs. On the one hand, I feel sympathetic toward him, especially if he would prefer having legs, conversely, I don't like having to share my handicapped state with anyone else. I feel that other disabled people in my proximity will rob me of the attention I so crave. Especially if the disabled individual is much more so - as in a legless guy versus little old me in the temporary immobilization device that a cast pretty much amounts to.

I left the area where the legless guy was and crutched around the store for a while affording as many customers and employees as possible the chance at getting a look at me. Eventually I left the store and made my way back across the slippery parking lot to my motor vehicle.

I then located another smaller mall located in the next town. I publicked there as well. The mall was really a mini-mall. I crutched back and forth before another group of store employees gathered in a central area and I got my usual allotment of looks. At a drug store, I didn't encounter any interesting people but I did go look around the orthopedic appliance section a bit. This for me is another advantage of being casted, you get to hang around these areas and not have people look at you and think you're weird or something. I was looking at the different types of crutches that they had. I did see an interesting pair of aluminum crutches at a very good price. If I decide to get myself some, I now know where to go.

Back in the car, I headed for the next town of note located about a half away. I visited another mini-mall where there wasn't a whole heck of a lot happening. The only thing of note was a guy who spotted me inside who I believe went out to his car before me and waited in it in order to watch me crutch out to mine. I purposefully drove a circuitous route in the mall parking lot in order to see whether he'd follow me or not. He did not follow me.

I ended up entering into a drug store. Not able to see into the store from the outside, I was pleasantly surprised as I was the only customer in the place and I was surrounded by three female employees. It was comical as they were in mid conversation as I entered and one of them was in mid sentence when she saw me.

"Yep, when you spit into the wind, it'll usually end up right back in your own face - eh - yikes, what a cast! Oh my gosh!", exclaimed the attractive brunette of about 25 with the widened eyes focused down on my hardware. "What happened to you?" "I fell off the roof of my house", I explained, "I got six breaks in my tibia and seven in my fibula."

"Wow", was all she managed to say as she winced and then returned to her work by going down to her knees in front of the rack onto which she was placing stock.

I then took a package of razor blades off of a shelf and crutching past her location, I paused and using the tip of my right crutch, I managed to slip off my toecap. "Ahh darn" I exclaimed doing my best to get her attention back.

Still on her knees, she slid over to me and picked up the sock and extended it in the general direction of my hands. "Here ya go", she said.

I reached out toward the sock but avoided actually touching it. I said hesitatingly, "Gee, I don't know if I'll be able to get it back on".

"Allow me then", she stated as she spread the sock open between her hands and proceeded to place it back onto the cast. When she had finished, she tapped the foot part of the cast simultaneously with her two hands. "I trust that'll hold".

"I'm sure it will", I said. "Thank you very much, I don't know what I would have done without you."

I've always loved getting "socked" by women. I figure that I'm doing a great service to those who are cast lovers. They get to see the cast up close and they get to touch it. I've had one woman have me place the foot part of the cast on her thigh (with my toes about an inch from her crotch) as she squatted down and replaced the sock. I've had others cup the heel of the cast in one hand as they used the other to apply the sock. Others have grasped the foot part of the cast with one hand while they used the other to apply the sock. Most however use the spread technique where they grasp the open end of the sock in either hand and spread it open and put it on. Ultimately, some women aren't cast lovers. I figure that the fact that they did a small favor for a guy is no skin off their back. The worst that I've seen happen on a few occasions is a broken finger nail when I was using a particularly tight sock.

The inspiration for the "socking" came to me in college when I was accompanying a fellow who was in a plaster slwc due to a broken ankle. Still at the crutching stage, he was hobbling along next to me as we headed off to write an exam. At one point, he stopped, and using the crutch tips, he picked up the sock that had fallen off of his toes. He raised the sock in my direction and asked if I could grab it. I asked if he wanted me to put it back on for him but he declined as we were just yards from the building where we were going.

Finished at the drug store, I paid for my blades, got back into the car and drove off to another larger town. There, I again "hit" a drug store. This one was busy but I got to the cosmetics counter where a female customer was in the process of being served. The saleswoman did a bit of a double take upon noticing the cast that I was wearing. While she was talking to the other client, she kept looking over at the cast, she seemed not to care that she was being very obvious. I let the previous customer go on her way and asked for the photographic film that I wanted (since in this place, film is sold at that counter).

After I had paid for my purchase the woman started a conversation about my predicament "What happened to your leg?" she queried as she leaned over the counter and once again took a good look at my cast. "I suffered a nasty break when I fell off of the roof of my place."

"That cast looks brand new, was the accident recent?" "Well, I got it two days ago, but this is my second cast. I was in hospital for a week, I had the first cast for 10 days, then I got this one", I explained. Seeing her interest in the cast, I figured I'd go for full sensation. "This is better than the alternative - amputation. It got infected and wasn't responding to treatment. They were on the last antibiotic possible before the final solution. Luckily things turned around."

At this point, I realized that I may have gone too far as her demeanor changed, as if my story was obviously beyond belief. I figured I'd at least give her the opportunity to sock me.

"Ah shit, I've lost a part", I cried out looking down at the sock laying on the floor just beneath my now exposed toes.

Swiftly out from behind the counter, she bent down and picked up the sock. "You're going to need help, want me to put it back on for ya?."

"Gee, thanks, I'd appreciate that", I said.

She crouched down as I raised the casted leg up slightly toward where she stood. She spread open the sock between her hands and gently slid it into place. "Hopefully it'll hold", she said as she erected herself.

"Thanks a million", I smiled and crutched away.

My next stop was at a full sized mall in the same town. It was almost noon when I arrived and the place was packed with people. I crutched into the main traffic area in the mall. It was great, I took position in an obvious location and just sat back and watched discretely as I attracted loads of attention. Although the most intense of the stares usually come from children and teens, I did get a fair number of stares and double takes from adults. After about 45 minutes, I figured I'd crutch a bit.

It was after crutching to the end of the mall and turning back that I spotted a crutching female in the distance. She was crutching in my direction but soon crossed over to the other side of the walk area. Wanting to cross paths with her, I followed suit and crossed over as well. She was crutching awfully fast, like someone who was used to it. From the distance that I was, directly in front of her, she appeared not to have a lower right leg. It would make sense that an amputee would be a fast crutcher I thought.

As she neared me, I then saw that she did indeed have a lower right leg after all. It was encased in a plaster slc that had the toe extremity covered by a white sock. Being an slc allowed her to hold her knee in a bent position. But boy was she fast. Not at all smooth though. As we reached each other's location, she appeared as if she was going to crutch right on past me. For an instant, our eyes met and I smiled, she smiled back. Unfortunately she crutched on past me without ever slowing up. I leaned up against the wall and watched her go. From behind, I was able to see that she actually had a slwc with an incorporated heel. The heel was brown in color and was a double type with two weightbearing areas each about 2 inches wide by 1 inch long.

She was a woman of about 40 and was accompanied by a teenage girl. I watched her until she disappeared into a store down at the far end of the mall. I waited for about 10 minutes but they didn't come out. I slowly made my way down to the store and once in front of it, I spotted the castee in the store. She was no longer using the crutches as she had them together in her hand and was limping around the store. From my vantage point outside, I could not get a clear view of the cast so I felt bold and entered the store. Being casted myself, I somehow feel immune to being accused of stalking.

Once in the store which wasn't all that large, I went to the aisle next to where the casted woman was and looked at her through the large overhead mirror that was likely there in order to discourage shoplifting. I was planning to maybe pull the sock trick on her and to ask for assistance in getting the fallen sock back on. She came into the aisle where I was and it was quite clear that she wasn't really interested in little old casted me as she didn't even seem to notice me. I kept watching her but decided to try getting "socked" by a pretty blond woman who was a customer looking at stock on a nearby shelf. I used my crutch tip to slip off the sock, just at the moment when she had gotten the item she was looking for and was heading off toward the cash to pay.

"Oh darn it," I exclaimed.

Noticing that I hadn't gotten her attention at all, I decided to be more proactive, "Excuse me ma'am?" "I don't work here," came her terse reply without so much as looking at me.

I watched almost in disbelief as she hastily made her way to the front of the store. Oh well, I thought, you win some and you lose some. There wasn't anyone in my immediate area who I cared to be socked by so I bent down and picked up and put on the sock by myself. I was contemplating going up to the blonde while she stood in line at the cash and scolding her for her lack of caring but I decided against it due to the many witnesses around. I got a few more glances of the woman in the slwc as I headed out of the store.

Crutching out into the mall, I pondered the advantages of being casted for a sighting. Besides the aforementioned feeling of immunity regarding stalking, I thought of how much easier it is, in general, to go up and talk to a fellow castee. You both have something in common. I also considered the main disadvantages, namely, not being as mobile as possible and more importantly, the lack of inconspicuousness. Blending into the background is somewhat difficult when wearing cast, especially a llc. So you can't follow someone for two hours!

I decided to try getting a few pictures of this casted woman when she exited the mall. I went to the car and got the camera ready and waited outside by one of the exits. I believed to have spotted the casted woman coming out of a distant exit. I had trouble maneuvering through the traffic to the row in the parking lot where I thought I saw her go. I spotted a car pulling out and thought it was her driving with the teenage girl in the passenger seat. I followed the car to another smaller mall where I was able to ascertain that I had screwed up. The occupants were not the ones I had hoped to see. I had followed the wrong car!

At this point I decided to make my way to the next town. My gas gauge was approaching the 1/4 notch so I decided to keep my eyes peeled for either a gas station where service is provided by a woman or a self serve station where the attendant was female.

The next stop was at a small mall situated in a tiny country town. The parking lot was so icy that it was just plain treacherous. I slowly made my way over to the closest entrance.

The inside of the mall was crowded. The problem was that it seemed like everyone knew everyone else, except for me of course. I felt like an outsider. There was a pub that was packed with all sorts of people spilled out into the mall. Inside I spotted a pair of crutches leaning up against the bar. I noticed three men and two women near to the crutches so I surmised that they belonged to one of those five individuals. Still crutching in the mall, I attempted to get an angle from which I could determine whether the owner of the crutches was casted. Unfortunately I was able to see that both of the women had their legs intact so I crutched on.

I figured that I could maybe get a haircut if I could find a place where it would be a female who was doing the cutting. I followed a sign for a hair place but there were no women cutting the hair there, in fact, there weren't any men either as the place was closed up and appeared to have gone out of business. I decided to go into a nearby drug store instead.

There were several women employees who I'd of appreciated getting socked by. The place was just too busy. Most employees were tied up with customers.

A woman in her mid thirties who was accompanied by two children did a double take when I came into sight of her. As I got near, one of the kids was in my way. "Come on over here", she said as she grabbed the kid by the arm. "Now's not the time to break this man's other leg, that cast that he's already got on the one leg is big enough", she laughed.

I paused next to her and explained how the cast was protecting my leg from most forms of attack. Only my toes were vulnerable. But I did agree that my "good" leg was a valuable commodity at this point.

I left this small mall, again having to crutch through the parking lot with the utmost of care. One thing that did cross my mind was that I was considering staging a slip and fall if I encountered a woman or women of interest. Like the "socking" and many of the things that I do while casted, this idea was based upon something I heard about from a friend who was casted in a llc. He had fractured his ankle while skiing on a Saturday. That evening at the hill clinic, X-rays were taken and the Doc decided to cast him and give him an appointment for the following Monday at a hospital in town. Arriving at the hospital on the Monday, he fell as he got to the top of a set of stairs that he had crutched up. He was able to fall forward and avoid going back down the stairs. He was helped up by an unidentified male employee. Unfortunately the fall opportunity didn't materialize for me this time so I put that idea on hold for now.

In the next town, I went to a mall where there were absolutely no parking places near to any of the entrances. Not feeling like crutching a marathon, I decided to try my luck elsewhere. I was able to find a self serve gas station where the attendant at the cash was a female so I pulled in and began pumping my gas.

There was a guy filling up his Honda at the next pumping island. In the car was a female likely in her mid twenties, who seemed to be highly interested by my attire. I don't think she ever stopped staring at me. After I finished pumping the gas, I went inside in order to pay. The female behind the counter asked me about what had happened and so I gave her the falling off of my roof explanation. Eventually she asked how I was able to drive like that so I explained how I was able to drive left footed.

Elsewhere in that town, I went to another drug store where I got a lot of exposure but the conditions were not right for me to get any woman to sock it to me. I also went to a bank ATM machine. While making my withdrawal, I thought about the potentially lucky person on the other end who would maybe be able to see the video from the hidden camera that equipped the machine. If I had access to such equipment, I'd have miles of footage of pretty women and casts and probably a lot of other interesting stuff.

Another thing I tried in this town was to have my hair cut. At one place at a strip mall, I saw that there were two women cutting the hair of two male customers. I figured I may go in and wait for them to be done with and then I'd be next. But, after having gotten out of the car and having crutched over towards the shop, I noticed that there was another hair person in the shop - a man. Not wanting to afford him the pleasure of cutting the hair of a casted guy, I turned around and decided to look for another place.

I found a hair place a few streets away. From the outside, this place appeared to be unique in that instead of just having a row of barber chairs, the chairs were located within different rooms. It seemed interesting in that it would afford the possibility of a private setting between the three of us, the hair girl, me, and the cast! I entered into the place and from the decor, I suspected that a cut would probably be expensive.

"Hi", I greeted the girl who emerged from one of the rooms where I could see the back of the head of a client who she was currently working on.

"Hello", she replied as she advanced to a point about a dozen feet away from me where she stopped and her attention turned downwards to the cast, "What a beautiful leg you got there." By now her eyes were fixated on the cast and widened somewhat, I assumed in order to get a better look at it.

"Oh yeah, you find the cast to be nice eh? How about we make a trade?", I proposed.

"No thank you, have you at least got a heel under that thing?" she asked bending slightly at the waist trying to get a better view of the underside of the cast.

"Nahh, I don't... see?", I asked raising the casted leg up in order to allow for her to get a look at the cast's underside. "Hopefully my next cast 'll be equipped the a walking amenity."

"Hmm" was all that she said until she seemed to realize that she had a client in the chair and that she'd eventually have to get back to him. "What can I do for you?" "I was wondering if there was any room to fit me in for a cut", I asked.

"I'm terribly sorry, I'm booked solid for the rest of the day."

"OK then, thanks anyway", I said as I turned and headed back out of the shop. making my way back to the car, I couldn't help but think about the agony that guy in the chair would be going through if he was a caster. I dreaded just imagining hearing talk about a llc in my proximity yet unable to at least get a fleeting glimpse of it.

I eventually made my way to the largest mall in the town. From the looks of it from outside, it was indeed a large and busy mall. The only drawback was that it was within about an hour of closing time and there were a lot of people leaving.

I was able to catch a glimpse of a pretty blonde woman leaning on crutches outside of the mall. Although she was wearing long pants, I could see enough of her right foot area to determine that she was in what appeared to be a plaster slc. Her toes were were covered by a small sock. I drove past her location and tried to circle back. I was contemplating stopping in front of her and saying hi and showing off what I was wearing. The traffic was so dense that by the time I managed to get around, her lift had come to pick her up. It was a Bronco driven by a man who I presumed to be her significant other.

The question for me was whether I should follow the Bronco in order to maybe see them go to a public place and afford me the opportunity of seeing her some more and maybe even crossing paths with her? If I did that, I risked losing the opportunity of publicking in the mall that was going to be closing in about an hour. I decided to forget about the Bronco and tried publicking in the mall instead.

The mall was indeed very big and very busy. I mostly crutched around pausing at various locations. I sat in one well situated seating area for about 20 minutes. I got all sorts of attention. Once again a lot of people did double takes. It seemed that a lot of adult women were especially interested by the cast. I wasn't about to complain.

Between rest breaks I crutched all the way to the end of the mall. There, I stood up against a wall and let myself be seen some more. There was a punk type teenage girl in a group of her peers about forty feet away from me who just could not take her eyes off of me. She was talking with her friends and kept looking at me. At one point, some friends arrived and they greeted each other. She was hugging one of the newcomers and lucky for her, she was facing in my direction. So, needless to say, she was staring at me and the cast all the while.

After about 15 minutes of my exhibiting myself to her, I headed back through the mall. By now I was starting to really be tired from all of the crutching. My shoulders and arms ached and my hands had calluses. I remembered that save for a few sips of water from a mall water fountain, I hadn't ingested anything all day.

I made it back to the car. I could smell the sweat off of my clothes. I headed for the next town which was fairly quiet in light of the time of day. I saw a drug store that looked barren but was apparently still open.

Inside, there were two female employees placing stock onto shelves near the front. I crutched to the back where the prescriptions were dispensed from only to see that the druggist was a man. I picked up a bottle of shampoo and headed off to the front and the women.

As I approached the cash, the younger of the two women went behind the counter. Picking up the bottle of shampoo in order to bag it, it slipped out of her hand and it broke. There was gooey shampoo on the counter as well as on the floor on her side of the counter. She got the other employee to go get another bottle.

After I got the new bottle, I was ready to be on my way. But, for some strange reason, my sock fell off from its position on my cast. The employee was busy cleaning the shampoo mess that she didn't notice me pretending to struggle trying to figure out how I'd get the sock picked up and back into place. After maybe 5 minutes, she did emerge from behind the counter presumably to go back to the pantyhose that she was placing on a rack.

"Ehh, I'm sort of in need of a tremendous favor here", I began as she approached me, "I will need some assistance with this sock". At that point I lifted the sock off the floor by pinching it between the crutch tips. I stopped my lifting when the sock was about three inches from her right hand.

Without saying a word, she took the sock. I raised my casted leg about a foot or so up off the floor. Using her fingertips, she gently slid the sock back into place.

"Thanks a lot", I said lowering my casted leg back down into its usual position.

"You're very welcome", came her reply as she took another good look at the cast and headed off to her pantyhose.

It was as I faced in the direction of the door that I first noticed the man standing in the entranceway, staring at the cast. In fact, beyond staring, he appeared to be mesmerized. The fact that he was making it totally and completely obvious to me that he was staring did not seem to be a concern to him.

Deciding to give him more stare time, I paused near the pay phone and thumbed through the directory for a couple of minutes. His staring did not stop.

Eventually, I crutched over to the door where he stood. Close to him, I was able to come to the conclusion that this guy was mentally disabled. The lights were on but nobody was home. I greeted him with a nod but he did not respond, he had a cast that he was staring at!

I got back into the car and headed for home. I stopped at a gas station where a woman was pumping the gas. I didn't get out of the car but I noticed her discretely taking a look at the cast that I had laying out to my right as she stood next to my window waiting for me to get my money out. Since she didn't make any comment, I decided to raise the topic. I explained that I needed full serve stations since I wasn't exactly mobile at the moment. All she said was that she had noticed my leg and had concluded that for herself.

I made one more stop that night at another drug store. I was a bit uneasy as I was starting to get close to home.

I purchased film at the cosmetics counter but was unable to get the elusive employee to sock me after the sock had made its usual way to the floor. With no one of interest in the area who could help me, I had to resock myself.

At the first drug store that I hit, I once again purchased film and had my toecap come off.

I took a few steps toward the exit when I stopped and looked down, "Oh dear, I've lost something", I exclaimed heading back toward the counter.

The good looking girl looked at me as if she did not understand what I was referring to.

"It's my sock, it fell off - I didn't notice until I felt a draft on my toes", I explained.

"Oh, I think you'll be needing a hand, won't you?", she asked as she came out from behind the counter. Not waiting for my reply, she bent down, retrieved the sock and proceeded to put it back into place. "Geez, that's one Heck of a big cast you've got, I don't know if I've ever seen such a big one. What happened to ya?" "I fell off the roof at home, busted both the tibia and the fibula."

"Your cast looks all nice and new, was this accident recent?" "The accident happened three weeks ago, this is my second cast. I got this one two days ago."

"How much longer are you going to be like that?", she asked seemingly really getting into it.

"Well, I go back in four weeks. At that point there'll be three possibilities, another long leg cast, a short leg walker or no cast at all. I was warned not to get my hopes up but the most likely scenario is a short leg walker."

"Crutching at this time of year when its icy and snowy doesn't seem like the greatest thing", she continued.

"Yeah, you got that right. But now that it's been three weeks, I'm starting to get good at crutching. In the snow it's just a matter of being careful and taking one's time."

"OK, good luck for a speedy and complete recovery", she said as she turned and headed off toward the rear of the store.

"Thank you, for the sock and the wishes", I stated as I headed toward the front of the store.

The cashier at the front of the store was a late thirtysomething, heavyset fairly unattractive woman. When she caught a glimpse of the cast, she seemed especially interested by it. Although she never really stared, she continued doing what she was doing but kept looking back at the cast. As if she was trying to be discrete.

I stopped at another drug store in the next town but there wasn't really anything interesting that happened there. The one woman who could have been a good socking candidate was deeply in conversation with a male client who she likely knew. I didn't feel like waiting as the conversation sounded as if it were not about to end very soon. On the way out, the door was held for me by a man who told me all about his cast experience several years ago where he'd been in a llc and so on. This is often the norm when you're in a cast.

I next went to a drug store in the first town down the road big enough to have one. There the cosmetics counter was staffed by a lovely, long dark haired woman. Unfortunately, there was some guy standing there talking to her. Wandering through the store, I found a quiet aisle where an attractive female employee of about 40 with short red hair was placing items on a shelf. I crutched over to a spot a few feet away from her and began looking at the various aspirin and acetaminophen brands on the shelf before me.

"Can I be of any assistance to you?", she asked in a soft feminine voice.

"Eh, thanks, I think I've found what I'm looking for."

I spent a few moments looking at the various sizes and brands available. While she continued placing stock on the nearby shelf, I used my crutch tip to pin the tip of the sock to the floor and I slowly pulled the casted leg back slightly. I stopped when the sock come off from it's intended location and was now on the floor.

I hesitated for a moment and turned my attention back to the red head, "I was premature when I said that I didn't need your help before. I doubt that I can pick it up let alone risk trying to get it back on in a standing position."

"It would be my pleasure", she said as she took two steps toward me, picked up the sock and spread it open between her hands. She then crouched down before me and put it back on, "There ya go, that ought to do it."

"Indeed, thank you very, very much" I said.

I crutched back on over to the cosmetics area where I saw that the fellow was still standing there talking with the girl behind the counter. I decided to head on out of there feeling satisfied since I'd at least gotten socked. And for free, since I didn't even purchase anything!

My next stop was at the nearby hospital. It is a sparkling, brand new hospital that must be about a year old. I'd been in the hospital as an able bodied individual on two previous occasions. Once, it was on a Sunday at about the same time as it was on this day. On that occasion, I had waltzed on into the outpatient area which had been left unlocked. I found all of the treatment rooms to be open, including the cast room which I went into and looked around, dreaming of being a patient there.

I parked the car and headed into the building. It was quiet at noontime on a Sunday. There was a woman who was probably in her fifties standing smoking outside the main entrance. Inside, I spotted a few people seated in a type of cafe. I crutched down the hallway that led to the outpatient department. I passed in front of the admissions office where a woman was seated behind a desk. After she was through looking at my cast, she looked up and our eyes met. Her mouth broke into a pretty smile so I smiled back.

One of the pair of doors to the outpatient department was blocked by two folded up wheelchairs. My immediate impression was that the door was probably locked on this day. I confirmed my hunch as I pulled on the door and it failed to open. I had been hoping to get back into the cast room and to look around some more. I had been in several hospital cast rooms over the years. In the casted state, no one would question my being there. In fact, on a couple of occasions in the past, I'd been spotted by personnel while in cast rooms, providing that it's not the cast technician, no one would know that I had no business there. One on occasion in the past I had been caught in a cast room after hours. The individual who was part of the maintenance crew had asked me what I was doing there, I had showed him my braced left wrist and told him that I'd been there earlier that day and had lost my watch. It went over without a hitch.

At that point, I decided that I'd put one of the wheelchairs parked in front of me to use. I opened it up and sat in it. I raised the pad for my casted right leg and laid the crutches down alongside the cast. I then started wheeling around the hospital.

Wheeling in a hospital is a real pleasure. On a couple of occasions I had wheeled myself around outdoors in a chair. Sloped streets and sidewalks were a veritable nightmare for my neophytic self (when it comes to wheelchairs). The hospital floors are good and flat.

The hallways were almost completely deserted so I wheeled myself out to the main entranceway. I parked the chair in the main lobby for a while. Next I decided to go outside where about 4 smokers were gathered getting their fixes. There I got various forms of stares and smiles from the people going in and out. One woman who was standing there smoking who appeared to be in her early twenties asked about what I had happen to my leg. After I had provided her with the usual roof explanation, she went on to tell me about a girl friend of hers who'd been casted like I was for something like 4 months and then had been in a boot top walker for 2 more months. When I told her that her friend was a lucky girl, she smiled, mistakenly thinking that I was being sarcastic.

After I had been outside for about forty five minutes, I wheeled myself back into the hospital. Of course, I took pleasure in using the automatic door openers that the entranceway was equipped with.

I wheeled down the same corridor that I had taken when I first arrived. The admissions woman was busy with what appeared to be an incoming patient. Arriving at the entrance doors to the outpatient section, I got out of the wheelchair and tried the doors once again. They were still locked so I folded up the wheelchair and crutched out of the hospital through a "side" door out into the parking lot.

I drove the hour or so back home eventually removing the cast on the Sunday evening. It had truly been a memorable weekend.