April Fool's Day

Grilled tilapia and corn tortillas for Taco Night.

I hit the 10,000 steps mark before 9:30 this morning! I'll tell you how.

I try to get eight hours of sleep so I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. last night, hoping to sleep until 6:30. That didn't happen.  I was wide awake, though tired and wishing to sleep, at 4:30. (Sometimes I can explain to myself why I wake up in the night, but most times I don't know why, and I wake up at least three times most nights.) Finally at 5:30 I allowed myself to give up and I turned on the lamp and checked the tide table.

This morning's low tide was at 8:00 a.m. Perfect for a morning trek -- especially this time of year, when it's still dark until after 7:00 a.m. After a shower, emails and coffee I was out the door by 8:00. I decided to walk north today.  As I got nearer to Indialantic's James Nance Park I made the third red lifeguard stand my turnaround goal. I wasn't wearing my GPS watch but I estimate that it's 2 miles up the beach to Nance Park, since it's 2 miles to the Nance pavillion when I walk through the neighborhoods up Palm or Shannon Rds.

When I walk north I always think, "When I get to Indialantic, I'm going to run into Starbucks and get something to drink on the way back."  It never happens.  For one thing, after my two early morning cups of coffee, I'm done with coffee.  For another thing, I don't want to get a drink and then have to carry the empty cup for 30 minutes. So I never do what I always envision myself doing.

Not many interesting encounters today.  I did notice a few student-types, probably on spring break. One was doing some fishing, another was sleeping off his hangover near the dunes. Also: a British or Australian man interrogating an American tourist about in-shore fishing (on the way up I interrogated this same man about his fishing success, or lack thereof, because he had the world's littlest fishing pole, and he informed me he bought it because it was collapsible and would fit into his carry-on bag and that he wasn't catching a thing but it was fun anyway); a family of vacationing Asians who very cheerfully nodded and bowed in greeting; and several other pairs of walkers who may or may not have been vacationers.

My Fitbit Flex vibrated to signify the 10K step mark while I was on the way home, in the block between A1A and Pine. It took me by surprise. I decided that I had earned a couple glasses of wine this evening.

April Fool's Day is a day of prank playing. Growing up, my family paid no attention to it, my family not being pranksters at all, and so I never participated in the celebration traditions of April the First. Aware of today's significance because of  social media. I was still disappointed to have to name one of my contractors this year's April Fool, and horrified that I had to fire him for his shenanigans!

Relieved to have that over and done with, I look forward to celebrating the end of April 1, 2016 with a half bottle of good wine.