You won’t recognize the place after watching this short video. And this was recorded a few days before our Deepwater Chernobyl.

We keep trying to help the salmon that swim by our River City. But they have to go and grow up in the ocean. And we wonder why there are fewer every year. It’s all connected, it’s Really Redding.

The recent Deepwater Horizon/BP oil blowout is big. How big? Here’s a map of the spill, only spread over Shasta County.

Paul Rademacher is using GoogleEarth to give us all a better understanding of the size and scope of the problem. Although the news is using phrases like “the size of Delaware,” it can be hard to visualize. The link lets you place the oil over any geography on earth. You need to install the Google Earth plugin if you don’t have it already. It seems to be a harmless plugin.

The oil is not harmless.

Early on, some doomer bloggers were predicting this would be something we’d never seen before. That it would be unstoppable, and carried in the gulf stream, it would eventually destroy the entire ocean ecosystem of the planet. Maybe. Can you say it won’t? So far they have been unable to stop it, or even slow it down. And if you have been following the news daily, they seem to be downplaying it every day, until the news get worse. At first it was just a fire, then it sunk. Then just a few thousand gallons leaking, now millions. Then, they were going to put a cap on it, but it failed. A mile beneath the sea, and 30,000 feet below that, the oil has other ideas. It’s like a bad science fiction movie, only real.

Anyway check the link. We are an oil based civilization, and the fragile sea pays the price.

Erin worked hard on getting out the February issue of The Voter, the newsletter of the League of Women Voters. Events around Women’s History Month are coming up so there is lots associated with that celebration. Be sure and join their LWV group on Facebook, and help us grow the number of local people who appreciate non-partisan voter education.

Last year was, uh, interesting. Time for a new one. Today we wish you a Happy New Year.

Today we are re-launching our main real estate website, RedHotHomes.com It was sort-of cutting edge back in the day (like last year), but was starting to look a bit stale.
Some of it needs more work, but what doesn’t? Click on the image to take a peek. And thanks to all our viewers last year. May the next year and decade see all your real estate dreams realized.

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.

Erin and I worked on the November issue of The Voter last night. We added an innovation to the online article about the State Senate 4th District candidates. We included the Podcasts of the 2 Republican candidate talks recorded at the Shasta Association of REALTORS. So you can see them and listen to them too. Hopefully we can do this with the Democratic candidates as well. Click on the image to view.

The 4th District has been repesented by Sam Aanestad, who has termed out. The 2010 candidates so far are listed below.
Republican:
Doug LaMalfa
Rick Keene
Democrat:
Paul Singh
James Reed
Lathe Gill

Erin and I have been working on helping to get the Redding League of Women Voters more online. They have long had a website and a print newsletter, but it’s a real adjustment to go more online. It will be worth the effort. The League has always played an important role in offering non-biased information of public interest, and surely in this wired world, the need is stronger than ever. Your right to accurate and factual information before a vote is a right worth fighting for. They are just getting started. You can join the group on Facebook.

You may also read and/or subscribe the online newsletter at The Voter (http://www.LWVRedding.info). Better yet, you can contribute to the information and discussion at either place. Get on board!

The Shasta Association of REALTORS hosted speaker and author Edwin Edebiri on Wednesday. He talks about happiness.

He grew up in Nigeria and now lives in Corning. He is a professional speaker and self-titled Inspirator. He shared his research and thoughts on happiness with our REALTOR membership. A group hit hard by the downturn in the market. His words and ideas were indeed inspiring. What is happiness? How can you achieve it?

His talk was recorded for a Podcast. It runs about 50 minutes. I guarantee you’ll find it well worth your time. Edwin is an engaging and thoughtful speaker, with a dramatic style of presentation. He offers 10 ways to put his ideas into practice here as MP3 file you can click on to play, or left-click to save for your iPod.
Edwin Edebiri on happiness
Here is a link to the list of 10 things:
EdwinEdebiri PDF file of 10 things
My sincere thanks to Edwin Edebiri and the Shasta Association of REALTORS for this post.

Yesterday a group of folks gathered at the north end of Redding’s Sundial Bridge to observe the Solstice, and perhaps to verify that their cell phones report the same time as the planet. Noon. Yep.

There was a band, and some booths. At one of the booths you could look at the sun, but there were no sunspots or flares, so it pretty much looked like just a bright disk.


Redding lays claim to the tallest known sundial on the planet at 217 ft. We humans have a history of building large and relatively permanent structures to observe the planetary movements.

Happy Father’s Day to me, and to you and/or your father. I spotted this sign a few days ago and it made me smile. This is the Methodist Church on the corner of East and South Street in Redding. The church is a handsome and utilitarian building in a classic Redding style, and the thoughtful sign is appropriate today. I went looking for them on the web, and they are a very interesting church. Check it out HERE.