I torqued my back last week. I’d like to say it happened while I was engaged in some kind of Herculinian feat, but no—I was weeding my garden and felt something go “ping.”

It’s my fault, anyway. Through some combination of genetics and lifestyle, I’ve been “blessed” with exceptionally tight hamstrings. And if I don’t stretch every single day, they begin to pull at the muscles of my lower back. If I let this get bad enough, sooner or later, “ping!” and I’m stuck limping around for three to five days.

The lesson here, I guess, is don’t get old. Or, if you do decide to go down that road, maybe try stretching once in a while.

There’s another lesson in here for me, too, though. I have really let my physical health go to crap, and I really, really need to fix that.

Some of this I can blame on the whole quarantine and pandemic anxiety. When every trip outside is accompanied by a not-so-subtle fear of plague, it’s very easy to stay inside and eat another slice of last night’s cold pizza.

Or have another beer. Or a few more cigarettes.

Bad habits abound, and some of them look quite appealing in comparison to confronting the daily disaster surrounding us.

I can’t blame it all on the present situation, though. My physical health just hasn’t been a priority for the last couple of years, and I’m simply reaping the results of that decision.

The bottom line is that there’s probably a dietary change in my future, and I definitely need to get outside and walk more once this back loosens up. It’s on the mend now, but I’m still a day or two away from being able to do any sort of exercise more strenuous than the basic stretches I should have been doing all along.

Whatever, let’s talk about some positives that have happened.

Just before my back decided to go wonky, I finally managed to get my head around a bunch of projects I’ve taken on, and found room in my schedule for a couple more I’ve been wanting to do. This may seem like a small thing, but I’ve got three planets in Aries, and an extremely fire-oriented chart all around. I collect new projects faster than a pile of poo collects flies, so getting a workable plan together to address them all is no minor feat.

Gardening, brewing, doing some much-needed re-organizing, working through several self-study courses, and reading the mile-high stack of books I’ve been trying to get to all top the list. And that’s not counting my everyday magical practice, or the usual household obligations I have.

And, that’s just what’s on the summer agenda. The fall is going to be a totally different animal.

On the reading front, these past few days of being laid up have actually been kind of a gold mine. I joined Scribd a while back, and picked up an Audible membership last month. I’ve been giving those two services one heck of a workout, reading books on Scribd until my eyes go crossed, then switching over to an audio book until my brain is super-saturated.

I’d like to say this means that the aforementioned “mile-high stack of books” has been getting shorter, but since most of what I read includes either bibliographies or “further reading” chapters…what can I say? I told you I have three planets in Aries.

Anything else I should mention? Probably. But I’ve hit my limit of sitting-in-a-chair time. My back is telling me I should take a hot shower and wait for the pain medicine I just took to kick in, so I’ll wrap this post up and get on that.

Happy Monday.