Big Day - No Fooling

April 1st 2012 - April Fools Day - is going to be a big day in my life - and I'm not kidding!

First, as most of you know, I'll be staring my 5th round of 30 Days of Biking on April 1st. 30 Days of Biking is a challenge to ride your bike every day for 30 days. I did my first 30 Days of Biking two years ago during April of 2010 and it really changed my life. Seriously. I'm now a way more active person than I ever was before and my whole family has taken up bicycling. We now spend a lot of family time with bike-related activities.

Just today we biked the Midtown Greenway so we could stop at a bike shop/coffee shop called Freewheel Midtown. While at Freewheel we visited with Patrick Stephenson (aka @patiomensch), one of the 30 Days of Biking founders and got fun spoke cards for our bikes. After that, we headed over to another bike & coffee shop, Angry Catfish, for a benefit bike art auction called Big Ring: 2nd Gear. The art auction is a benefit for an organization called SAVE (Suicide Awareness Voices of Education). This organization also hosts a benefit bike ride each year called the Tour de Nick and, guess what, Owen and I did this ride two years ago and last year all four of us did the ride. I think it's safe to say that 30 Days of Biking turned our family into a Bicycling Family!
Ryan and I with our 30 Days of Biking spoke cards. Picture by Patrick Stephenson

Consider doing the 30 Days of Biking challenge yourself. It's easy to sign up - just go to www.30daysofbiking.com. And honestly, it's not that hard to complete the challenge. You just get on your bike and pedal it a little bit each day.

(Added on April 1st - This just in! Though I never thought something like this would happen to me a couple of days ago Molly Guthrey, a journalist at the Pioneer Press, contacted me to see if she could write about how 30 Days of Biking changed my life for her Turning Point column. It was sorta strange for me to be on the other side of the story and be interviewed and I felt like I babbled the whole time. But Molly was able to sort through my wordiness and wrote a great story. Click HERE to read it.)

The second Big Day activity happening on April Fools is I will be playing in my first Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra concert. I haven't played in anything resembling a concert since I was a junior in high school when I played the violin so I am kind of nervous. Actually I'm a lot nervous. I'm worried I'll do something like drop my pick an lose it in the middle of a song or play the wrong notes. I joined the MMO so I would get back to playing my mandolin - and I sure have been playing it. The music we're playing, fourteen songs are on the schedule, is difficult and I'm still not proficient at playing all of the songs. But I'm way better at playing now than I was when I joined the MMO three months ago (and have gotten good at following along on the songs where I can't play the really difficult parts). So, ready or not, I'll be there ready to play. Nervous? Yes. But willing to give it a go.
Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra - minus a few players who were missing on picture night - Photo: MMO

So, if you want to listen to some great music Sunday evening, head on over to Edinborough Park in Edina for our 7:00 concert. It's free! (no fooling). If you can't make this concert the MMO has several more in the months to come. The performance schedule is at the MMO website: www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org.

As for the Third Big Day happening, well, it's kind of a sad thing but something I want to mention. April 1st was the birth date of our dear Border Terrier, Chaucer. We had to say good-bye to Chaucer last October. Chaucer (Saga Hills Chaucer's Folly JE) would have been sixteen this April Fools Day. We miss him. He was a good dog.

Comments

Loving the Bike said…
#30daysofbiking will always be our little annual reunion....still thankful for it as the means of us meeting up. Happy #30days to you.


Darryl
April 1, 2012 at 9:22 AM
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