I posted an article over at A News Cafe about local free legal services available to low income individuals and families. It’s pretty comprehensive, so I won’t repeat it all here. Here’s a link to the article about the free legal services in the Redding area. If you don’t need these services right now, perhaps you know someone who does, and can pass this information on to them Thanks!

Above, their office on West street in Redding. Here is a link to the Legal Services of Northern California website for more information.

We attended the League of Women Voters Soup Supper at Lema Ranch. I sat for soup with Redding Mayor, Patrick Jones. He’s a very dedicated public servant, and I came away impressed.

Above, LWV member Erin Murphy and Redding Mayor Patrick Jones. Along with great homeade food in a matchless setting, we listened to a presentation by the State Auditor’s office about the upcoming legislative redistricting. There’s more about that, and how you can be involved at this article I wrote at A News Cafe.
Seen above, Mary Stegall of the Redding City Council, getting some soup. You can learn more about the Redding LWV at their online newsletter The Voter. Also, come on over and become a friend of the League at their Facebook Group. Their mission of non-partisan voter education continues.

A News Cafe ran the 3rd and final installment of my Homebrew series of articles. In case you missed it over there, you can link to it at the image below.

Erin and I worked on this month’s publication of the The Voter, which is the online newsletter for the Redding League of Women Voters. Stop by and take a look HERE. Also, Erin invites you to join their group over at Facebook HERE. Be an informed voter, participate in the process.

My printed paper arrived totally soaked today. Obviously the carrier didn’t bother reading the headline! Perhaps he thought he was delivering the online version.

At least we were able to enjoy the Alliteration of the second header, Pot Plantations Problematic on Private Property. Good one, fellas.

Yay! Yesterday, Craig Padilla received the first shipment of our new CD Beyond the Portal.. This his being distributed worldwide on the Lotuspike Label, via Spotted Peccary records, an artist run label. We’re pretty stoked!

We celebrated with champagne we had been saving for the occasion light beer. Yay! Hope to have some samples up soon (of the music, not the beer).
I should point out that this CD was the collaborative efforts of 3 artists. Missing from the picture is Zero Ohms, who lives in Memphis, and was unable to join us in Redding. Hoist one for us, Zero! Our thanks for your fine work.

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 pretty spectacular in real life, but if you missed it, you’ll just have to use your imagination, perhaps. Using my telescope, you could plainly see several moons of Jupiter lined up in the same plane as the Earth’s Moon. And Luna herself was amazing with the light giving sharp detail to the massive craters. It was a nice evening for stargazing. I bought this 4″ Meade Newtonian reflecting telescope from an unemployed mortgage broker for $50 (no joke). Too bad I can’t hook the camera up to it (yet).


Appropriate to the setting, we have a rare live recording from the Schreder Planetarium of Craig Padilla’s Night Rain, originally from the album Eye of the Storm. This was recorded under the stars, under the dome a few years back. This 7 minute piece features a pyrotechnic guitar solo by Al Mires, now proprietor of Palo Cedro’s Music Max music store (Remember to shop locally folks). And Craig plays acoustic electric guitar here, no less. I think this recording was released only as a cassette prior to this, so I hope you enjoy it.

A good article about buying foreclosures by David Benda appeared in the RS on Sunday. It was thoughtful and accurate. Read it HERE.

Mother doesn’t go out anymore
Just sits at home and rolls her spastic eyes
But every weekend through the door
Come words of wisdom from the world outside
Sunday papers don’t ask no questions
Sunday papers don’t tell no lies
Sunday papers don’t raise objections
Sunday papers ain’t got no eyes

Joe Jackson – Sunday Papers A cool song indeed.

Fall fishing inside Redding city limits