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 of a dog risking it’s life to save its friend on a busy freeway.
Dog Risks Life To Save Injured Friend – Watch more Entertainment
Happy Thanksgiving! Plus, link to a good post for today
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 will bring this to your attention for today, as it follows the spirit. My friend and fellow Realtor Lara Wells Osborn wrote a thought-provoking post over at Food For Thought. It’s one of those rare pieces that stays with you long after reading. Lara is one of my favorite fellow agents. She and her husband have several cute kids too, which added poignancy to her excellent prose. That, along with the fact that she has established herself as a marketer of luxury homes, and has done very well with that high-end market segment. She’s just a good person to be around, and people sense that sort of thing. You should read her post if you didn’t already, and the link is HERE.
Thanks for writing, Lara. And a Happy and thoughtful Thanksgiving to all!
Diestlehorst bones by Skip
Welcome to deflation
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 increase in supply. Prices are falling with demand. What’s that mean for us? Well I don’t exactly know, but you might want to read what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said about this possibility 6 years ago today. Take a few minutes and read through his thoughts about the subject HERE. Definitely worth your time. Somewhat frightening, actually. (I got a couple of offline comments about my post scaring people. that wasn’t the intent. If you read the Bernanke piece, it looks like his main weapon of choice to fight deflation will be a printing press, to print a bunch of money to spread around “willy nilly” ((his words)) That’s a prospect you may want to plan for.)
Buy American?
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 Wagoner… Continue reading “Buy American?”
A good explanation of what happened
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 thought it worth posting in case you didn’t see it. I think it pretty much sums it up.
You’ll need to view this in full screen mode to read it, which is the little icon that looks like a projection screen at the bottom of the slide viewer. The show has no audio, so you might want to put some music on first by clicking on the Ovi player. This piece, Infinity’s Edge is from the live planetarium recordings featuring Craig Padilla I have been running the past few days, and is about 10 minutes long.
What might Hilltop look like without palm trees?
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. Maybe they are taken care of by tree service near me, they look very well kept so possibly. That’s readily evident when you look through old photos. But if there was a second choice, these trees on Shasta View near Lema Ranch surely would make a fine alternative. They are simply stunning.
Lovely vistas greet the eye at every turn in the Fall
Odds n ends
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 to even mention it to a geezer like me. It will be good if Obama’s success has captured the attention of young people, and got them thinking about the importance of elections. BTW Even though Sarah and her husband are still in their early 20s, they have their own small business. How cool is that? Shasta Pizza on Lake Blvd has the most delicious Garlic Chicken Bacon pizza, call 244 9999. Yum.
Even though it’s November, we still have one Day Lilly blooming. Global warming? Maybe it’s just confused. Photo by Skip.
Secondly, local Realtor Brad Garbutt has a blog. He’s written some excellent information regarding “home retention” scams on his blog. There are a large number of unscrupulous people trying to take advantage of the many people in mortgage trouble. You can read his blog HERE. The series started Nov.4. He did an excellent job of spelling out the mechanics of the latest fraud schemes. Fraudsters are everywhere. Beware.
If you are interested in local real estate issues, you might pop over and take a look now and again for his take on things. I read it.
Emotional election night
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 in the U.S. Sometimes the changes are slow to come, and sometimes they arrive in an instant. Last night that paradigm shift moment arrived via TV for me, with Charlie Gibson stating “We are ready to predict the winner….” The winner was all of us.
I enjoyed the Onion’s take on things. Click HERE. Warning, link contains ironic humor.
The music in the player is by Craig Padilla. It’s an excerpt from the song titled Vast Emotions. It’s one of my favorites from the 1996 CD Eye of the Storm. My emotions were vast indeed. The music reminds me that Obama has big job ahead. Let’s all wish him luck, because we’ll all need it.
Ambient music piece
Ambient music, as defined by me, is music that sets a mood of some sort, and is interesting, but not so interesting as to be distracting or serve as a central focus of concentration. It’s good background music for mental activities or other such abstract endeavors. I like to think of it as music that you’re very likely to hear whilst you’re shopping in your favourite retail store. It’s not too heavy or distracting, it just provides a calming and relaxing experience and that’s definitely what you need when you’re shopping. In my opinion anyway. I think you can also refer to it as muzak – a type of soothing music that can be played in many places or buildings. This type of music is beneficial when you have a task to be getting on with and you don’t want to get too distracted.
Does any of that make sense? Well, like most art music, you know it if you hear it, and writing about it won’t help you get it. This 8 minute piece “Lunaria” mostly works for me on that level, but stands unfinished. Maybe I’ll finish it now. Maybe not.
If you are interested in hearing more music of similar nature, you can check out my fellow musician and friend Darrell (aka. Palancar) Burgan’s online “radio station” Stillstream. Some of what you hear on Stillstream falls outside the true ambient definition, but that keeps it interesting. Stillstream is a zero-revenue enterprise. Artists contribute their music, and there are no ads. Worth a listen. You might find you like it, and if so you should tell a friend. You probably won’t hear much of this genre anywhere else.
Firecrew at the Sundial Bridge, photo by Mary A. Thanks!
I’m quoted in the RS
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