If you have managed to stumble on this blog, you might also be interested in Redding Weather. Redding weather is inextricably entwined with the weather all around us. And water issues as well. Of course, you can get current weather info in all sorts of media. But Weather West is where you can find more in-depth and detailed weather information for Northern California and beyond. Weather West is run by a climate scientist named Daniel Swain. I first began following him on twitter @weather_west. He has also recently begun a You Tube channel, to which I immediately subscribed. Click on the image below to be taken to his Weather West Blog. Highly recommended and relevant to Redding, and to everyone in California.
So much new construction underway in Redding! I took the drone out for a look, otherwise you can only see it from ground level. Apologies in advance for the jerky camera movements. Over the years I have been flying I usually shoot still images, so this is much needed practice. Fun to see all the activity and structures!
World famous Burney Falls is about an hour drive East from Redding. We went up for their Heritage Day festivities, and it was great fun. Here is Burney Falls:
Here’s an image of the event:
There were lot’s of demonstrations and participation for kids in various “Pioneer” crafts like wood cutting, branding irons, and (my grandson’s favorite) candle making. There was a BBQ food fund raiser by the local Rotary, and some Indian Tacos. Speaking of Indians, there was some Indigenous Dance demonstrations by (I assume) the local Pit River people. I read on the flyer where this is the first time they have participated in this annual event, so that’s both progress and sort of a sad commentary on what has passed for “Heritage” around here up until now.
I give it 5 stars, would go again next year. Best of all, admission was FREE.
I walked through the new downtown Redding shortly after it opened in early 2021, and I created this virtual tour. It was all so new and clean. It was almost startlingly surreal at the time. Some of the businesses seen in these images have already changed since then.
Enough Covid gloom. I feel like I need to get back to regular posting.
Here’s some photos I took today of the City of Shasta Lake’s Civic Center. I think it looks pretty terrific. Especially so if you had seen it’s predecessor. Located on the former campus where my kids went to middle school.
“US response to Covid has ultimately been like our response to school shootings: Once we decided unimaginable loss was a price worth paying for an imagined ideal of freedom, the number of deaths ceased to matter. We’d trade a million lives for our need to do exactly what we want.”
Peter Manseau @plmanseau ·
This tweet is spot on. Same is true for human caused climate change brought on by land use change, meat production, and burning up as much fossil fuels as we can.
Back when the pandemic first hit in 2020, there was a panicky lockdown. It looked like it could get pretty bad, but nobody knew for sure. It did get bad, especially for frontline medical workers. But then it eased up with increased mask use, and the several excellent vaccines. And then Redding saw a second wave with a more contagious mutation named Delta. You can plainly see it in the graphs:
The new variant came, and quickly spread. More people died, hospitals filled up. But then the wave passed, just like the first wave in late 2020. So now there is a new mutation called the Omicron variant. Will it bring us another wave? Well it might, because despite the wide availability of a free and effective vaccine, many people refuse to take advantage of that protection. Health officials literally just shut down the free clinic at the Redding Senior Center because nobody was using it. You can still get vaccinated easily (again, free of charge) at any drugstore. But the local ratio of vaccinated to unvaccinated population has remained about the same as it was before the last wave, with predictable results:
So the virus still has lots of opportunity to continue to spread and further mutate among the unvaccinated population.
“Once we decided unimaginable loss was a price worth paying for an imagined ideal of freedom, the number of deaths ceased to matter.” Yep. Oh, and there was another school shooting today, and 3 kids are dead. I suppose this is just normal life now. Get used to it.
So there’s a new Covid strain in town coined the Delta Variant, which apparently packs a virus load in the sinus that can be 1000 times higher than the original virus. It’s much more contagious, with predictable results in hospitalizations:
Recent hospitalizations are now more than the prior peak last Winter. I wrote here in Spring that things seemed to be improving, and so was the mood. Now infection rates are rapidly worsening, just as kids are now back in school. Back during that first spike in late 2020, we went into a lockdown to “bend the curve” and avoid overtaxing the hospitals. Now, there is no official response, and seemingly no politically acceptable way to re-impose a new lockdown. Worse, a free and widely available FDA approved vaccine that we didn’t have during that last spike is being shunned by a significant number of county residents.
My Facebook feed is festooned with hard core anti-vaxxers, not just the vaccine hesitant. Nobody can change their opinion.
So it looks like we are in for a rough ride, especially our frontline medical workers. Sorry!
I last posted here during a grim Christmas season. Despite lockdowns and (frequently ignored) masking and sanitizing regimens, infection rates were on the rise with no end in sight. I could not escape a feeling of gloom and uncertainty about how bad it might get.
But it got better… gradually.
A promised vaccine materialized miraculously (THANK YOU scientists), and now my family members and I are vaccinated. Most local kids got back into school months ago, and thankfully in-person instruction proved not to be a serious source of infection. Rates fell fitfully but steadily, and we recently had a 9 day period when there were no Covid patients in an ICU in the Shasta region. Lately the numbers have started to tick back up again. Probably due to people letting their guard down. Nationwide rates are still fearsome, but California still looks pretty good. Now millions have gotten vaccinated, and vaccines are becoming widely available to all.
Covid-Shasta-3-31-2021
So things are looking up again. You can see it clearly in the re-openings, increased traffic, and people out and about enjoying our terrific Spring weather. I’ve never felt anything like the buzz I got after getting that final vaccine injection. Like a veil of impending doom was lifting. Almost giddy. It’s been a hard year on everyone. But that was then, and this is now.
