A weekend RS article about the Redding Electric Utility and their policy to evict residents who cannot pay for electricity drew hundreds of comments on Redding.com, making it easily among the most popular articles ever written there. A thread quickly developed that suggested a candlelight protest at a Council meeting. A qui

Auto Fuel went up a bit this week, but is still astonishingly low. While it’s lovely to fill up for $25, and definitely bringing out the fuel guzzler classics and monster trucks around town again, it is also somewhat disconcerting. Fuel prices dropped far and fast. There was no abrupt increase in supply. Either the [

Heh. I was given a reprieve by the blog gods, and one of my restore operations brought the old blog back to life. I had spent yesterday moaning and wringing my hands as 3 years of posts turned to dust. Okay, I was more like wailing in sorrow, and shaking my fist at the cursed fates. [...]

2009 is off to an inauspicious start, here at the ReallyRedding blog. The database had been acting up on the backups, and I thought I’d use the holiday break from work to “fix” whatever was going on with the tables. Instead, it seems to have completely bit the dust. I killed it, somehow. And [...]

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It’s been so beautiful out the last couple days of 2008. A lovely way close out the year. I took the opportunity to shoot a couple of Then and Now scenes in my favorite city. The old photos are courtesy of the Shasta Historical Society (consider joining us) and the new ones I took [...]

Merry Christmas to you. I ran into this image while surfing today, and thought I’d share it with you. It was done by an artist on Flickr named Haarnaald you can see HERE. Nice work. Amazing what a skilled photo/artist can do with fractals. Happy holidays to all!

You can find a link to the 10 Worst Housing markets in the US as published by Fortune Magazine via CNN/Money HERE. Redding isn’t on the list, but since 8 of the 10 entries are in California, you can see how we are being affected. Our former flood of equity refugees is but a trickle. [...]

Here’s a few images of the new McDonalds building on Cypress Ave in Redding, rising from the ruins of the old building. It looks to be very substantial, and much more well constructed than the building it replaces. The old building was destroyed by meteor strike from outer space, as seen below. Okay, just kidding a

Food for Thought is running a winter photo contest. There are some lovely entries. If you haven’t seen them, you can click HERE and vote for your favorite. I really like Brian Rueb’s entry, which looks like Burney Falls in snow. These two here I took of the western range a couple days ago didn’t [...]

While Christmas shopping, I went to the Bug Emporium on Hartnell, only to find it shuttered and empty. Wow, that’s too bad. Where will shoppers find that perfect gift now? I wonder what happened? Just over a month ago, I wrote this piece about them for Food for Thought. I hope they just sold out of [...]

Perhaps you read that the National Park Service is trying to eliminate the communications equipment from the top of Shasta Bally. Their concerns revolve around aesthetics and views for the park. Those concerns are valid, but only to a point. The laws of nature and physics dictate the best positioning for this equipment, no

Local story goes big. RS staffers seen later whooping it up. Kids these days.Tsk.

This image is making the rounds on the internet. Sort of funny and not funny, all at once. Yesterday, local Red Bluff Ford announced they were declaring bankruptcy. And Miller Auto of Redding announced they would be abandoning Mitsubishi. Today, we learn they won’t be selling Suzuki or Cadillacs, leaving only Jeep. Ob

My friend and fellow planetarium musician Jim Combs plays in the Atlanta area (mostly) as Sensitive Chaos. He also plays in collaboration with other folks, and leads the music festival there, City Skies. If you’ve been enjoying some of Craig Padilla and my music posted here, you will probably also enjoy Sensitive Cha

I posted some results for November from the local MLS at the link to the left or HERE. Noteworthy is that sales declined from 168 in October to 127 in November. Also, median price went up from $229K to $254K in that same period. Sales are down, and prices are up, at least in the [...]

You see time. This recently released 18 minute video from TED is thought provoking. Awe provoking, really. TED has lots of thought provoking information from smart people. Worth a lengthy surf to their site if you haven’t seen some of what takes place there. It’s always encouraging to see smart people.

A mortgage workout is where a troubled homeowner can renegotiate the terms of their mortgage to make it affordable. I have been dismayed to see so many scams recently appear to take advantage of the people who are in mortgage trouble, preying on the most vulnerable. So I put this page up on this blog [...]

Where was this Fred Thompson when he was running for president? That’s the problem with actor/politicians. You never know when it was just the script they were reading.

I’ve been thinking all week about that poor guy who was trampled to death by WalMartians last Friday. A Black Friday to mark in our memory. Stomped to death by his fellow man, in a hurry to get some cheap Chinese shit; what have we become? Contrast that act of humanity to this recent video [...]

Okay this might not look like much here, but it was visually stunning yesterday evening just after sunset. The crescent Moon, lined up near Venus and Jupiter. I got out my camera and tried to capture the majesty, without much success. Here’s the moon using the 200mm lens on my real estate camera. The conjunction was

Escapees were seen later…

Let’s begin this with the acknowledgment that the Record Searchlight is nothing but a business that makes money selling advertising. In the past, their position in our community as a strong representative of independent journalism guaranteed readership, and thus advertising revenue. Now, they are attempting to switch

I have so much to be grateful about, it wouldn’t even fit into a day. Nevertheless we are celebrating at home with friends and family, and Karry’s usual “Martha Stewart on steroids” dinner. Love it all. If you make the rounds of local blogs, you’ve probably seen this recent post. But if not, I

Hee! This one tickled my funny bone. Thanks to Andy and Glenda, the Tropical Twosome, for this twisted bit of humor.

This video showed up in my e-mail the other day. I don’t know if it’s authorized, but it’s nice. It says the music was recorded Freitag (German for Friday) Nov 14. Solar Fields is a European music artist with whom I have a slender connection. Craig Padilla and I were invited to appear on a [...]

The other day I wrote about gasoline prices falling twice in one day. It’s fallen again. Before you rejoice too much about the sudden cheap gas, you may want to consider it as a leading indicator of a deflationary economy. They didn’t just find more gas on Gas Point Road or anything. There was no [...]

We’ve been members of the Redding Chamber of Commerce since 2005. I never thought of myself as a “chamber” type person, but it’s actually a pretty good thing, and I’ve learned a lot. Once a week, many members meet for what’s called Greeters. It’s always on Thursday mornings at 8:00

Fall flower photo by Skip The following information is of interest only if you bought or sold a house over the last couple years in California using Coldwell Banker, Prudential California Realty, RE/MAX, Century 21, or ERA Real Estate. The corporate parents of these brokerages agreed to a settlement to pay back certain kic

I love the colors of the Fall. This Liquidamber seems to be growing out of the top of my car here. I took this a few days ago. I was thinking about my Cadillac today after watching GM CEO Rick Waggoner… on the TV at lunch. He’s in Washington today begging for handout, sort of. [...]

Sunday’s RS had a cover story (no less) about some local real estate agents hosting a seminar to “help” homeowners facing foreclosure. It posted the article as though it were news worthy of the cover, above the fold. At the seminar will be information, some for a fee, that will help them avoid foreclosure.

As in, what happened with all the bad mortgages, and how that affected the financial markets. The drawings are crude, shall we say, and so is the language, but it makes the point. Not suitable for work, maybe, and don’t look at it if you are easily offended. I saw this a while back but [...]

I ran across this intrepid reporter getting video of the cheap $2.12 gas at Arco yesterday. Never thought I’d see that again. Later I went by there after he’d gone, and they had dropped it again to $1.99. That news video didn’t last long! Send out the reporter again. This tune titled Indian Spirits is [

The music from the other day that was recorded at our Planetarium started me looking through the archives for others we recorded in the darkness of the Schreder. This one caught my ear. Give it a listen and if you want to read more….This tune is titled Parhelia by Craig Padilla. It was a staple [...]

There was a lot of controversy when date palms were planted on Hilltop Drive for beautification. Personally I don’t have a problem with palms. I think they look fine, and Redding has a long history of palm trees. That’s readily evident when you look through old photos. But if there was a second choice, these [.

Right after Veterans Day in Redding we can expect a frost. Not yet, so far, but soon. The musical excerpt Lithium is from Craig and my CD Planetary Elements Vol 2, released on the Space for Music label. It was recorded live at the Schreder Planetarium on Magnolia Street in Redding around 2004. Here’s the [...]

This is John Rodney in his later years, wearing the Union uniform he wore fighting for Vermont in the Civil War. We’re told he never really recovered from the war, in terms of his health, but we see him here looking proud, about 120 years ago. Happy Veterans Day John. We salute you. John Rodney [...]

Yesterday, I ran into one of Erin’s young friends, Sarah. She said to me “Hey, how about Tuesday, huh?” I was taken aback. Most of Erin’s 20-something friends seem very unconnected to politics. I found it hopeful that this young woman was excited enough about how the presidential election played out

I suspect there were few dry eyes in America last night. I know mine weren’t. We saw history, some of it ending, and some just beginning. I’ll leave the political commentary to the other bloggers, however. If you are near my age, you have seen many changes in the way we consider race. Sometimes the [...]

We attended last night’s one-year Birthday Party for Food for Thought / A News Cafe. It was a blast. Lots of people I hadn’t seen in quite a while, and very well attended considering the rainy weather. I did one of those “stick out your arm with the digicam and take us both” shots here with [...]

We received preliminary cover art for our new CD collaboration project on the Lotuspike label “Beyond the Portal“. I think it looks pretty fabulous. Very exciting! I can’t wait to have the production CD in hand. I have to share this artwork with you. This is the follow up release to the earlier Path of L

Mary A. saw the old photos I posted yesterday, and sent me a link to even more old Redding photos online at UC Davis. Check out this one of Swimming in the River Imagine swimming in the Sacramento River now. Brrr! Part of the Eastman Collection. 38 lineal feet of photographs. There are lot of [...]

Cloud Study v2 by SkipMurphy I found a new music widget, and thought I’d try it out. This is an unfinished pieced titled Cloud Study, I’ve been working on, and now posted on SoundCloud. Worth a listen perhaps while looking at old photos of [...]

Birthday number 53 is near for me. My maternel - tante (aunt) Doris sent me a 30 year old photograph as a gift. On the right are my maternal grandparents, Henry and Cecile. Karry and I are on the left, circa 1978. My middle name is for Henry, who was [...]

Pfft. The power went out only for a second. Enough to reboot. Later the sirens came. We’re told it was woodpecker this time. Last time it was a flaming squirrel. With a light breeze at my back, I feel better about this. It’s not moving fast and it’s going the other way. A nervous neighbor gets the woodp

I met yesterday with KRCR reporter Orville Thomas at a nice REO house we have for sale on Columbine. We chatted for about 15 minutes, mostly about what good deal somebody can get on these foreclosure properties. I also briefly mentioned how important it was to let people who may be losing their homes know [...]

My blog gets a much needed makeover today. I’ve posted a Craig Padilla synth pop classic from 1996, The Gift, for your listening pleasure while you look over the new format. I hope you like it. Geese waterski on the Sacramento River in Redding, Fall of 2008, photo by Skip

Back to real estate for a moment. Here’s a link to an image that ostensibly shows housing prices adjusted for inflation since 1890. The value shown is a house worth $100,000.00 over those 100+ years. I can’t vouch for the data, but it looks plausible enough. Obviously we had a bit of a bubble (understatement [..