Friday as I was toweling off after my morning shower, my back seized up. You know the feeling--everything's normal, then in a split second the back muscles spasm for no reason and cast you into excruciating pain. Luckily it was just one little spasm, and after stretching a bit I was able to get dressed and go to work. I took a few ibuprofen just to be on the safe side.

Friday evening John (keanubear) and Greg came over. We went to Tower Burger for dinner, then back to our place. John, who had had a busy week taking Orff classes (lots of folkdancing) and I went in the hot tub while Greg and Steve (rootbeer1) sat on the deck and chatted. Then we watched an episode of Secret Service (Gerry Anderson puppet-thriller about an Anglican priest/secret agent whose sidekick agent gets shrunk with a special ray and carried around in a briefcase) and I ♥ Huckabees. The back was a little better, but by the next morning was spasming a bit. Steve planned a trip to the beach, but I needed to stay home and protect my tender back muscles. Garry (sfgarry), Geoff (heypyro), and Jim (poohbearjim) came by for the beach run, and the four guys drove off, leaving me to take a Valium, lie on the deck with the sun warming my sore back, and get started on the new Harry Potter book (which, for its size, is an amazingly fast read. Steve says it's because it's not as dense--not so much character development or explanations, more action). I'm halfway through already.

This morning the back still hurts. I took a double dose of naproxen (Aleve) and just got out of a long soak in the hot tub. It's a little better, but if there isn't marked improvement tomorrow I'm off to the doctor. I've had back problems off and on all my life, even when I was a normal (150 lbs) weight in the early eighties. I had an MRI a year after we moved to SF, and a couple of discs show signs of arthritic degeneration. But this current pain feels like it's all muscular.

Maybe I should take up yoga.