Days 35 - 40, Wednesday, July 20 through Monday, July 25

I stayed for a total of 6 days with Steve and Heidi Li in Sacramento. Steve and I got to know each other back in highschool in Burnsville, MN. Back then our outlooks on life were extremely different. Steve was much more conservative and militaristic than I was and I was much more of a liberal and naturalist than he. It’s been more than 10 years since I’ve seen Steve and a LOT has happened in the interim. There’s no real excuse for the 10 year down time I let slip. I was simply irresponsible about maintaining the friendship. Steve and Heidi have been incredibly gracious in taking me into their house and their lives for the last week. It’s been really great to reestablish my friendship with Steve. I think both he and I have matured in our view points and are now much closer to a common ground in how we look at the world. As I think I mentioned earlier, my initial goal was to make it to Sacramento on July 9 to be here in time for Steve and Heidi’s daughter’s birthday. Karina is an incredibly cute little girl and it’s great to see how completely devoted to her Steve is.
While here I’ve tried to make myself helpful and useful to them. I hate feeling like I’m free loading. Soo…. I mounted a shelf and brackets in Heidi’s craft room, I removed and replaced a disposal in their kitchen sink, I replaced a light switch in the kitchen, I took apart Steve’s car door and fixed a broken window switch, and I designed and built a semi-hidden retractable clothes line system for Heidi on their deck. God I love projects!
Other interesting side bars… On Sunday Steve, Heidi, Karina, and I went over to Heidi’s parents’ house in Davis CA for a swim in their back yard pool. After that Steve, Heidi, Heidi’s mom and I went ballroom dancing. It’s been so long since I’ve done that. In Chicago, I did country, West coast swing, salsa, and chacha dancing on a regular basis, but I haven’t done true ballroom dancing since college. Back in 1995 and 1996 I was actually the secretary for the ballroom dance club at the U of MN. What a blast that was. It’s been too long!
I’d originally intended to get off by Monday the 25th, but I concluded by Monday morning that there was enough stuff I needed to get done on the bike and in prep for my continuing trip, that I’d be better off leaving Tuesday. It’s been a great week here in Sacramento and I really owe Steve and Heidi a huge debt of gratitude for taking me in and making me part of their family for the week. I owe Steve an even more sincere ‘thank you’ for saying “yes, please come stay with us” when I’d been so negligent in maintaining our friendship. Thank you Steve.