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Rain in Sacramento Does Not Stop a REALTOR
Everybody knows we desperately need the rain in Sacramento, so even though the weather yesterday was dreadful, nobody really complained about it, much less this Sacramento REALTOR. We had so much rain we set a record at Executive Airport for the most rain in a calendar day at 2.2 inches. Flooded roads and sluggish freeways didn’t slow me down, though. That’s because I have driven through the Halloween Blizzard of 1991 in Minneapolis. I can drive through any storm. What’s a little rain?
My first stop was in North Highlands to exchange out a Supra lockbox for a contractor’s lockbox in hopes that the gas company will utilize it. That’s a big problem with putting rentals on the market after tenants vacate and the sellers live out-of-town. PG&E makes it very difficult to get the gas turned on. They somehow think a Sacramento REALTOR has so much time on her hands that she has nothing better to do than sit in a cold house without any furniture on a blustery rainy day and wait over a 4-hour time period for a representative from the gas company to pull up.
This is not cable hookup, people. We will do anything for cable TV. We will prepare a chili casserole for the cable guy and throw in a case of beer. This is just a stinkin’ gas turn on.
My aching calves from that hike last week up to the Bald Mountain Summit made it difficult to walk up the steep driveway, and the wind was super strong, it almost ripped off my car door. The wet leaves on the way back down were so slippery that I had to engage other aching muscles to hold myself vertical and not go sliding down the hill from the rain in Sacramento.
My second stop was Cortopossi Tile in Rancho Cordova, where I selected Cararra marble for our Land Park bathroom remodel. Carrara is an affordable marble. The blue gray veins will accentuate the soft blue ceiling. Around the corner, I stopped at Dick’s Rancho Glass to get a quote on a mirror, and a tub / shower enclosure, when it suddenly dawned on me that a) they don’t make triple tracks for smaller doors, which is what we need as our tub is partially built into the wall, and b) I don’t really need to install shower doors if I buy an adjustable shower head.
Off to Heieck Plumbing Supply where I discovered that business no longer maintains a showroom. They thrust at me a couple of Kohler product books, without the four-color glossy photos. I was no longer their customer. They would sell to me but they prefer commercial customers now. I felt all hang-doggy as I stumbled out the door to Brothers Plumbing. The rain in Sacramento was coming down in sheets at that point.
Well, I hope to goodness that PG&E will turn on the gas today at this rental house and access my contractor’s lockbox to get inside. At least the sun is out at the moment. But we could use more rain.
Sonoma Wine County Tour is a Blast
Whether the Sonoma wine country tour from yesterday contributed to my inability to stand upright this morning is not really debatable when the cause of my pain is limited strictly to my calves. Oh, yeah, it was all fun and games climbing to the top of the summit at Bald Mountain, with no regard given to how my body would react by the second morning, and let’s just say my husband could, if he so desired, plop me into a golf cart and drive me to the parking lot where our car is located and loaded down with more than one case of wine in the trunk. Or, he can listen to my yelps along the way.
Roughly 20 years ago I spent time in Sonoma and toured a few wineries on vacation from Minnesota. Because I have the good sense god gave a duck, I packed the wine into my then boyfriend’s luggage, wrapped up in his underwear and socks, which ultimately had to be thrown out because those red stains set hard. Tip: you should always have your wine boxed and shipped unless you plan to carry it on the plane yourself. We also drove ourselves, and it’s a miracle we’re still alive today after that.
Oh, how the wine country has changed since then. Years ago you could drive for miles and not spot a winery. Today it is so many wineries and so little time. We went with a group of 10 people, and our driver kept telling us on the way to our first winery that we were much too quiet, and how all of that would change and our conversation would become much more lively after our first winery. We knew he was right.
We visited the Petroni Vineyards first. I suppose the reason for this was a little bit like how some Sacramento REALTORS show homes. You know, often the first home toured is the home the buyer will want to buy and the home by which every home thereafter will pale by comparison. That’s what it was like to visit the Petroni Winery during our Sonoma wine country tour.
The tasting rooms are part of a large cellar, with 20- to 25-foot ceilings carved in the shape of a cave, with walls and ceiling sprayed in some sort of rough stucco. Giant chandeliers, strategically placed, showcased row upon row of wine barrels, offset by separate areas for wine tasting. I recognized our dining room table from Crate and Barrel.
After viewing a video, we nestled into an alcove to begin our wine tasting. Ryan, our guide, who invariably must go by some other title such as wine technician or wine guru or assistant to the vice president of wine production, I dunno, was extremely informative and entertaining. Let’s just say we bought the bulk of our wine purchases at this winery, but it also didn’t stop us from picking up at least 2 to 3 bottles each at the other 3 wineries we visited.
We learned how to check a glass for legs. Roll our glasses on the table without spilling a drop to coat the sides of our glass, although I did manage to spill some because I rolled the glass too quickly. You don’t want to smell the wine at the bottom of the lip because that’s where the alcohol concentrates but instead should sniff the upper rim furthest from your face. Ryan says he simply turns his head slightly and lets the aroma float past his nose. The colder wines we could warm by simply holding the bottom of the glass in our palm and not by its stem.
By the time we reached the last winery and nearing the end of our tour, the pours became smaller. Which, according to Andy, our driver, meant the other wineries had been pouring much more generous tastes that exceeded the one ounce limit. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, because it was a glorious time, and I’m still partially standing upright today.
Hike to the Summit of Bald Mountain at Sugarloaf Ridge
Bitching is the one consistent factor my husband can always count on when he and go hiking together, and it was no different on the hike up to the Bald Mountain Summit in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, about a half hour from Sonoma. It was a long hike for this Sacramento REALTOR, over 6 miles and our elevation gain was roughly 1700 feet. I didn’t bring my hiking boots to handle the terrain, and it was a bit chilly yesterday morning, starting out around 50 degrees, but I didn’t need those 2 things to complain about when I could readily find so many others.
Now, see, I don’t really call it bitching. My preference is to say I am observing nature and making comments about it and its affect on my physical well being. That’s not really bitching. But my husband would disagree because just about anything I say that is not framed in a positive light to him is whining and time for the waaah-bulance.
We were a good 20 minutes into our four-hour roundtrip hike to the summit of Bald Mountain and back down through the meadow when we came across an elderly couple standing near the edge of the trail, taking a photo of something. It looked like the fellow was leaning on crutches. Please, please let it be crutches, I fervently wished. If he was disabled, that would give me tremendous hope that if he could do this hike, it would be piece of cake for me. No such luck. They were resting on hiking poles. Darn.
She hails from Devon, England, and her mother thinks our robins look like starlings in drag. They were not happy with our pitiful looking robins and continued to berate them until my husband pointed out that robins in Chicago, for example, are bigger and redder than robins in California. This is also a woman who hiked from the north end to the south end of the Grand Canyon. She understood my thoughts about the crutches, which I admitted. She had made that Grand Canyon hike alongside an amputee with a prosthetic leg. So, there you go.
For the first two hours, the terrain was pretty much UP. No flat. No down. The views at the top are spectacular. 360-degree views, and if the day had been more clear without fog in the Bay, we could have enjoyed the view all the way to the Pacific Ocean. As it was, I took a photo of the plaque with the valley below and sent it to Ingress as a portal suggestion.
I carried in my head all the way back, as I tried not to slip down the gravel and break my hip, visions of a massage back at our hotel. We had the foresight to make an appointment for a couples massage before we left. That was my reward. 90 minutes of pure heaven. I’m glad that we went on the hike up Bald Mountain, because it was outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes, it feels good to push yourself, as long as you don’t have me alongside bitching about it.
Sacramento Real Estate and Sonoma Square Portals
Our cats received their Thanksgiving treats in the comfort of their home in Land Park, being tended to by our in-home care sitters, while we’re in Sonoma, enjoying a somewhat brief vacation with our electronic devices in tow. This gave me the opportunity, after pigging out at the Sante Restaurant with my husband, to engage in blowing up portals after dinner. Other people have dessert or maybe an after-dinner drink, but no, we grab out cellphones and head out to Sonoma Square.
What good is a Mophie juice box if you don’t take it along? It’s smaller than a cellphone, even smaller than the old flipper phones, which I read are back in vogue because they do such a good job of, gasp, making a phone call.
Besides, we bumped into Thanksgiving dinners twice yesterday. Once at Sante, where we couldn’t pass by the miniature dessert spread — because you know there are no calories in any delightful thing that small and tiny — without grabbing 5 or 6 items, and again at the El Dorado Kitchen in Sonoma Square. Too many meals for one day.
Too many portals in Sonoma Square, too. But we established 3 km links and so many control fields that my points zoomed to their highest level ever. The Google gods are smiling down on our stupid little frozen bodies. Did I mention it was cold in Sonoma yesterday? Cold enough to have to wear my husband’s jacket over my own.
The guy is a saint.
Through all of this, my clients managed to sign on to DocuSign, sometime between bedtime last night and this morning to sign final counters offers and / or purchase offers. Although, I do believe the title companies are closed today due to Thanksgiving weekend.
The Ingress Mission Ends at Oshima Sushi Sports Bar
Just as my hand touched the door handle of the Fugu Lounge, Oshima Sushi Sports Bar & Restaurant in downtown Sacramento, my iPhone buzzed, which diverted my attention to my screen: I was instantly awarded another badge of accomplishment in Ingress. Eureka, we had finished our Ingress Mission, the Capture Sacramento Helios, which we started last Sunday and was supposed to take 3 1/2 hours to complete.
My husband and I are two of 19 people in this lovely river city of Sacramento to have completed that mission, and I can see why. Because it takes a lot longer than 3 1/2 hours to do. Granted, we were enticed to stop here and there and blow up a few other portals along the way and, once we captured a portal, we deployed many resonators and mods — plus, we did stop for an excellent lunch at River City Brewing in Downtown Plaza last week — but the entire mission actually took us two Sunday afternoons to complete. I don’t know if most game players don’t possess that kind of focus and drive, yet the game is addictive.
In fact, my brother-in-law had to physically remove the game from his cellphone because it consumed too much of his time. Just warning ya.
At least at this point we were finished with the Ingress Mission and could enjoy lunch. I’d never been to a sushi sports bar before and it began to dawn on me why. It was a weird experience. The bartender / waiter approached to ask what we wanted. No menus in his hand. He pointed us to a wall on the other side of the room where we could leave our seats and walk to in order to peruse the various types of beers on a shelf. No descriptions, just beer. Finally, the bartender brought us a menu.
If you are looking for nigiri sushi, this doesn’t seem to the place to find it. Oh, you’ll find big wads of rice rolled into hard round balls, which appear to have been squeezed between the bartender’s thighs, sporting thin slivers of fish that lack integrity stuck on top. You’ll also find an item called a California Roll, which should have more appropriately been named a Texas Roll because it has a small smattering of fake crab meat rolled up in rice the size of a semi-truck tire, dry and tasteless.
You can double your pleasure by listening to the screams of a couple of football fans glued to one of six television screens. That’s what you get in a sports bar. The place was pretty empty for a Sunday afternoon with several football games happening. But there are other choices in the neighborhood of Mansion Flats.
By the time we returned from our Ingress Mission to our home in Land Park, many of my 24 new portals were in the midst of capture and my husband noted that teenyhedgehog was on the roam. That’s how it goes. I lost my mind control fields, too. And now it’s back to work as a Sacramento REALTOR this week. I checked on the updates for my Sunday open houses. Plus, I have new listings to put on the market. Yes, just before Thanksgiving. I keep working.
