You Never Forget How to Ride a Bicycle

No matter how hectic being a Sacramento real estate agent is for me, I always try to set aside some time over the weekend to enjoy an adventure, something totally unrelated to real estate. There comes a point when I must pull my head out of my computer and go outside. And not just to take a listing, which is a lot of fun in itself, but to do something completely different. It keeps me refreshed, motivated and focused during the week. Agents who don’t take a little time off now and then can burn out.

Besides, I have just put another listing into escrow this weekend, an unusual property in Orangevale. Negotiation of a sale to fruition is generally a good cause for celebration. It’s not easy to put a sale into escrow when the seller doesn’t have email nor a computer. This is where having the luxury of 17 Lyon Real Estate offices around the Sacramento Valley comes in very handy. Without satellite locations for me to work in, I’d have to make several roundtrips by car to obtain signatures, which can eat up half an afternoon. It’s not the best use of my time, driving around. The best use of my time is talking with a client and advising a client.

Sliding my cellphone into my wristlet, my husband and I ventured off into Midtown. Although we live in Land Park, we often walk to Midtown because, well, because we have two feet and we can walk. The weather was beautiful. Homes in Midtown are unique and interesting. And all of that walking helped to burn up some calories we probably packed on after a stop for Dim Sum at New Canton on Broadway, but hey, a person can get hungry walking around.

It was about then that the thought popped into my head that perhaps I should buy a new bicycle. I don’t really like the bicycle I have. It was not a bike I picked out myself. It was a Christmas present one year from one of my ex-husbands who didn’t really know what he was doing. This was during the 1980s, and the doofus bought me a silver touring bike to ride around town, super skinny tires, turned-down handle bars (hard on the back) and one of those cross bars that if you fell on it, yowza, you don’t forget the pain. It’s also oversized for me, and it’s been hanging up in the garage for years gathering dust.

We headed over to the bike shop in Midtown on 24th & K Street: City Bicycle Works. This bike shop has a lot of inventory. If there’s a drawback to living in Sacramento, it’s the fact that most stores in town, regardless of what you want to buy, lack inventory. I was really attracted to the Bianchi bike in the photo on top of this page, but I ended up buying a hot pink Electra Townie (to the right). It has a basket to hold that imaginary cat who someday will want to ride with me, a chrome bell to warn those in my path to get the #$%& out of my way and, of course, a cellphone caddy.

Unfortunately, my new bike would not fit in the back of my husband’s Prius, so I rode it home. It was only 3 miles. Truth was I could not wait to get on it. There are bike lanes all over Midtown, but the ride down T Street under the shaded tree canopy was especially lovely. The other aspect I found to be especially enjoyable was being able to tap the bike pedal backwards to slow down. It’s one of those instinctive things a person like me would recall from when I first learned how to ride a bike in the 1950s. That feature is back in these new models. I guess they know their market for nostalgic town bikes.

Maybe today, after listing a pool home in Carmichael, I’ll take an hour off and head over to the river by Old Sacramento and zip down the levee. If you spot a woman on a pink bike with a cellphone attached to handlebars and her ponytail flying, wave hello.