Tag: Leslie Bonci

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Mooching Around Midtown Sacramento

I moved to midtown Sacramento to be in one of the liveliest places in Sacramento, which is not saying much in a relatively sleepy place. It is the first Sactown neighborhood to re-embrace mixed use with restaurants and shops on the first floor and apartment living above. Plus it hosts the Second Saturday for Art events and a lot of other celebrations. It is loud and lively most every night from Thursday through Saturday.

Hoping for a kinder, friendlier police force.
Hoping for a kinder, friendlier police force.

I chose this light and spacious apartment 2 floors above the Rind restaurant to keep from becoming a hermit and to cycle to work and shopping (even more than in Davis).  I am finding that I interact with all sorts of people much more here. Just now as I type I can hear a duo busking with their guitars in front of Capitol Dime bar. I compare it to my experiences in Chelsea NYC.

My dog Lulu also gets me out of the house 3-4 times a day. And this week I am caring for Dozer and so my life is dominated by the dogs’ schedule–something I call living in dogtown. People are very interested in the dogs and this opens conversation as well as providing an excuse to cut it short and move on.

Beautifully restored home and garden near where I worked in the 1990s.
I used to walk past this dilapidated home and garden in the 90s and imagine how I would restore it. Someone else has done it beautifully.

I am enjoying riding my cruiser to church and around town for shopping errands or picking up my mail. I need to get on Map My Ride and begin making longer rides. Indeed, to prepare for RAGBRAI I restarted Bike Your Butt Off by Selena Yeager and.Leslie Bonci.  It is 12 week program that will peak July 4.

I love the Saturday Farmers’ Market at 20th and K Streets. I shopped at the Davis Farmers’ Market, but now I have a decent kitchen. So I am cooking at home more and making an effort to eat more healthy and fresh foods.

I thought I would give myself a challenge of picking one activity out of Sactown Magazine or Sacramento Magazine and do it each month. It turns out I do not need an official challenge. I have been inspired to try new restaurants, drink coffee in new places, go to the movies more, and generally enjoy the neighborhood amenities. I shop at Time Tested Books instead of the Avid Reader. Monday I will go to a Rivercats baseball game and in a few weeks a soccer game. Now I have a local wool shop in Rumplestiltskin. There are so many places within just a few blocks to watch rugby that the upcoming World Cup will be awesome.

Every move gives an opportunity to purge belongings, create new patterns, and make new friends. It also takes a while for my molecules to settle again. I have not learned to sleep through the night noise yet so I am tired in the afternoons. I look forward to the return to normal levels of creativity and energy.

Mostly I am glad to be here in this present moment and to explore my new neighborhood as if I were living in a foreign land.

Coming up: The Handle District will host the second annual Dress Up, Wine Down on May 9th between 3 – 9:30 p.m. The block party will be on Capitol Avenue between 19th and 18th Streets for a fashion show and wine tasting. Free to the public, donation to WEAVE suggested.

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Prepping for Le Tour

I rode out towards Winters about 8 a.m. The sun was shining and the farmers were already plowing and planting transplants. A welcome site in this drought. A red wing blackbird perched on the fence sang in full song as I whizzed by on my new bike, yes NEW road bike. I quietly passed wild turkeys grazing along the side of the trail as the spring sunshine caught the beautiful colors on their feathers. My new Trek Lexa is super fun to ride.

Trek Lexa S in Platinum
Trek Lexa S in Platinum

I bought the bike from Joe at the Freewheeler Bicycle shop in Davis. He did a superb job fitting the bike to me and his colleague helped me learn to use the clipless pedals on the trainer when I picked up the bike. They adjusted the pedals so they are easy to clip in and out. I am still nervous about all of my bike handling skills and gaining confidence with every kilometer.

I am 10 weeks away from my departure for Le Tour de France. I am using Bicycling magazine’s Simple Plan to get in shape. The Simple Plan is a six week training plan by Selene Yeager and Leslie Bonci. It is living up to its name and it pushes me on my gear shifting skills.

In March I set a goal of riding every day for 30 minutes. It was an achievable goal and it motivated me to take Black Beauty to Seattle so I could keep riding. At the end of the 30 days I felt much stronger and comfortable on my bike. I made the pledge to ride everyday in April with the 30DaysofBiking. So 3 days a week I do an interval training ride and the other days I ride to commute or to relax.

Davis Adult School offered a bike repair class and conversational French class–both on Tuesday evenings. I decided that knowing how to repair my bike would be a useful skill for the long haul and not just this summer. We work on our bikes at the workshop at Martin Luther King Continuation High School. I had to laugh though, when I told one of the women who is an accomplished bike mechanic why I wanted to take the class she laughed and said, “You don’t need to know how to change a tire. The ratio of men to women in cycling is so great that all you have to do is wait by the side of the road and someone will fix it for you.” Hmmm. Not my style. Then I met a woman from Montreal who speaks fluent French and she said, “Well you can’t really learn much French in 10 weeks.” All I can say is Theo, our instuctor is a great teacher and I am enjoying the class.

People in my class are fascinated by my Brompton foldable bike. As soon as I am done overhauling Gidget (my beach cruiser) I will watch some more videos on the Brompton website and take it in and practice changing tires and other repairs. I found a great bike shop in San Francisco, Huckleberry Bicycles, that carries Brompton Bikes and parts.

It is getting real.