It's April. Clean Something Every Day. Eat Your Vegetables. And Don't Forget to Ride your Bike.

Under the influence of The Happiness Project, this month of April started with a vow.  To clean something every day.

Specifically, to clean out something every day - like a closet or a drawer.  Some area that has been neglected for awhile.  I could start anywhere, pick anything.  

It seemed daunting to start with the main, walk-in clothes closet, so the medicine cabinet worked for a starter.  Then the hall closet.  Some dresser drawers.  The book case.  My purse. 

The very worst part about cleaning stuff out is finding Valuable Stuff.  I wish everything I found was junk so I would have no qualms about simply throwing it away. 

But no.  Valuable Stuff can not be thrown away simply. 

Stuff like original Star Wars toys. 

Now what?  I can barely make myself stay inside on a nice day and clean a closet.  I am certainly not the type to go figure out EBay. 

(If anyone is, there's a commission in it for you.)

It's been a long month.  Can that really have been the first of April that I started the cleaning quest?  It feels a lot longer than three weeks.

Was it really already April, when we went to Graham's Swamp?  And ran the hiking trail times two.  Then rode the bike loop, times two?

Could we already have been to the Econ twice this month?  Or was it three times?

Watch Your Knees!

One Sunday, Popeye ran the first loop, eleven miles.  He seemed disappointed with his time.  I went along on Killer, doing my best to keep up over the technical stuff and riding hard to catch up on the flats.  We finished together.  It was my best bike time ever.  

I don't know if he'd agree, but I'm saying he is ready for "The Claw", the 10 mile XTerra trail run in Alafia on May 1st. 

Then we do the loop again, me trying to keep up to him and Inspector Gadget on the bikes.  And then that becomes my fastest loop ever. 

The Stand Up Paddleboard craze has hit the Econ.

At least a dozen last Sunday.

I get to Wickham Park and Tropical Trail too many times to count, but still not enough.  I really need to run more if I am going to meet my goal of 15 miles in the time it takes Popeye to finish 26 on Wickham Park Marathon Day.

I admit to being discouraged in Wickham Park.  The ploughed up trails limit access to my comfortable, premeasured loops.  And to the only water fountain en route.

The soft sandy new firebreaks make some sections a tough slog.  There's trail left, but just the same, it's kind of depressing.

The view on Tropical Trail hasn't changed though.  And neither have I.  I still can't resist the veggie stand on the way home, even when I don't think to bring the bike rack.  

This day I ask for a second bag. 

"Why?" says the owner, "so you won't go 'round in circles?" 

Yes.  Exactly.

And there is the danger of the new pothole in the bike lane on the way home.

Sometimes it's a good thing, not to be a roadie anymore.

Then one week, there was some art appreciation.

First the Native Plant Tour. 

Amid the cool, green plantings, the  mulberry tree in old Melbourne had to be my favorite.  (The Professor, Merry Ann, and I sneak free samples - yum.)  Even as another old favorite, an MD-88, roared on take-off overhead, ruining the allure of the shady, older neighborhood. 

But the modern windmills and rooftop grass were what really wow'd me at this green home in Indiatlantic.

The 2 windmills were works of art in themselves.  Between the windmills and the new solar panels, the owner expects to be selling power back to the grid next month.

Later in the week, Merry Ann invited me to see the "Little Black Dress" exhibit at the Ruth Funk Center for Textile Arts at Florida Tech.

Opera gown, circa late1800's

And lunch.  Almost as cool as an Oscar De La Renta, the new cafeteria at the university is it's own work of art.

The big highlight this month was a full moon hash...

...ending under a bridge.  Awesome!  We ride clear to the end, even though we have already decided to broach good hash ettiquette and skip circle in lieu of an early-up the next morning.  But when next morning comes...  Oh well, it was awfully darned windy for a century anyway.  And the Econ wins out again.

Later, we end up paying a tad more than hash bucks for our beers. 

A pint a pound, the world around.

At Coasters, it's a pound a round for us weight prone types.  

Good week, careful eating, lots of riding.  Down five. 

Two pints at Coasters.  Up two.  In two hours.

Which would have been OK...  but for you know what holiday.

And I was doing so well.

Hey, but there's a whole week of April left.  And Alafia too.