So last night I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie, the second of this season. This time I was able to crop some of my own rhubarb, and I didn't have to pay $4.95 a pound at the market. The strawberries are ninety-nine cents a quart. I also used 1/4 cup of tapioca (dry) with the sugar in the fruit. It is better as a thickener than flour and doesn't have the flour taste.

The pie came out great, but my back is toast. Here's why...

As I began the dough rolling with the rolling pin, my sister called. I held the phone to my left ear with my shoulder. I did this during the entire time that it took to roll the bottom crust and get it into the pie plate, tuck and crimp it, and set it in the oven for 12 minutes at 450F.

That was a period of about fifteen minutes or so.

That is all it took to wreck my upper body overnight.

I woke up this morning,stabbed my toes into my slippers and stood up to greet the day with sore ribs, shoulder, neck and upper back.

Don't do what I did. You have to exert a lot of force to press pie dough flat and all the other things you must do to get it in the plate.

I managed to survive the morning shower, the trip with my Mom to brunch and back home. But then it got worse. So I took care all day to do nothing but paint and nap.

Until trash time. Our trash pickup is Monday morning. I usually do the trash-out and all the other items related to it in about a half hour. It took an hour and a half tonight, accompanied by moaning, tripping over helpful cats and the occasional really deep groan.

When I came back inside from pushing the heavy bin to the curb, I dosed a Percodan.

Now I am not going to be able to sleep, one of the side effects of oxycodone for me. So I will catch some awful overnight TV movies and make a note to let the phone ring when the pie is being built next time.