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.

Obama campaigns

Candidates answer questions.

Candidates in redding
I attended the Shasta Board of Realtors meeting today October 8 2008 for their candidate’s forum. The lineup from left to right is Russell Hunt, Missy McArthur, Norma Comnick, Melissa Hunt, Dick Dickerson, John Wood, Ken Murray, Terry Oxley, Jim McDilda, and Gary Cadd. Norma and Melissa are running for council in Anderson, and the rest are running for city council in Redding. Shown above with Ron Largent brandishing the Shasta Voices sheet of loaded questions. The questionaire’s author Mary Machado was in attendance too, as was somebody from the RS.

Gary Cadd talked about the council agenda, and his idea to make it more council driven, and more available to the public. Jim McDilda emphasized that priorities should be put on core services like police and firefighters. Terry Oxley wants to expand Redding’s attractions to bring more tourist dollars and growth. Incumbent Ken Murray talked about his record and things he opposed like Fix 5, and Eminent Domain. 65 year resident John Wood wants to have more Town Hall type meetings in addition to council meetings. Incumbent Dick Dickerson emphasized his experience in local and state government, and explained his priorities were core city services and planning for their future. Incumbent Melissa Hunt was appointed, and so this is her first election. Norma Comnick emphasized her 3 terms of experience, and having served as mayor. Russell Hunt shotgunned his usual blast of ideas and plans from an outsider populist perspective.

If you have been following along, these folks and their positions are well known. There were no surprises at the meeting. Having watched the “debate” last night with Obama and McCain for president, I guess I expected more from this bunch. Instead it reminded me of high school. Funny. Sometimes, it seems like high school never ended.
Candidates in Redding
Fortunately our cities are well run by highly paid (ahem) staff. That’s only a little tongue-in-cheek. I really do believe we have 2 well-run cities here.

Housing bubble burst

Toxic mortgages had the predicted impact on Wall Street. 500 points yesterday. Yikes. The question is whether the fed or the government will continue to react shortsightedly trying to stop things from unraveling, or buck up and take their medicine. Sad to say, but the sooner we hit bottom, the sooner we can start climbing back up out of it. (of course, they may have said that in 1929 too) Meanwhile, there are a lot of people who mistook debt for wealth, and many of them live in houses they cannot afford. We hear about the many baby-boomers now retiring every day. Many must be wondering whether that’s a good idea right now. Whilst this might not seem practical for all of us, those who have worked hard enough and are financially stable enough could consider retiring early. This younger generation of people who have enough money to consider slowing their lives down have ensured they have enough in their bank accounts to allow them to start enjoying their lives more. When considering retiring at such a young age, it’s vital to make sure that you’re happy with the home you will be spending a lot more time in. For many of these younger people, they will be retiring whilst they still have their children at home with them. This means that they will probably need a family-friendly home in a safe neighborhood. For many people looking at retiring, they have been looking around Main Line Homes and other real estate communities. When retiring, it’s important to find a house in an area with a slower lifestyle that is still safe for children. Hopefully, these baby-boomers will enjoy their new retired lifestyle.

Redding looking north

Fleas

Apparently, I spent much of my adult life sheltered from what must be a daily reality for some. I showed an inexpensive bank-owned house yesterday evening to a curious buyer. Among other issues, it was infested with fleas, a quick Google search for “pest control experts iowa” was so useful for this though. But up until the most recent housing cycle, I had never seen fleas swarm one’s ankles when walking into a home with wall to wall carpet. I am unfortunately familiar with that now. It is still disturbing to think that humans live this way, and maybe even unimaginable for most people until you see it with your own eyes. Imagine Redding summer heat and no electricity for so much as a vacuum cleaner.

Yesterday started me thinking about the health implications, so I browsed over to the CDC website.
flea cycle
Ever heard of Typhus? (2 kinds) Tapeworms? Flea-borne Rickettsiae? I was wondering about plague (Yersinia pestis, known in history as black death) but that’s not prominently mentioned. From the site, “flea-borne diseases could reemerge in epidemic form because of changes in vector-host ecology due to environmental and human behavior modification” and “economic factors, as well as changes in human behavior, have resulted in the emergence of new and the reemergence of existing but forgotten infectious diseases during the past 20 years.” Hmm. Anyway, here’s the website if you’re interested:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol3no3/azad.htm -and thanks to the CDC for the image seen above.
It’s quite a sight to behold, fleas leaping from carpet to your feet and legs with such swarming gusto. As I witness how annoying fleas can be for humans, imagine the discomfort these little pests can have on animals? This is why understanding the difference between frontline plus and frontline gold products, for example, could help with the discomfort that the fleas may bring to your pet. It may also be a preventative measure, which could be beneficial. Pets can be a big factor in bringing fleas into the home as the pests attach themselves to the pet’s fur. If you want to avoid bringing them into the home, you may want to consider an outdoor dog kennel, even if it is just while you treat the carpets.

Not all bank-owned properties have fleas. Its not that bad in the winter, but on a hot day, they have remarkable mobility. It doesn’t even startle me anymore. Maybe it should.
The one that still haunts me is the house in south Redding/north Anderson last year, where it was apparent that the evicted had been doing child day-care. I saw the home pre-eviction when there were kids there, and then a few days after they had left. Along with fleas were the largest rats I’d ever seen. That one was brutal. My sheltered life left behind.

Governator comes to town

Arnold Schwarznegger blew into town last week to let us all know that there are budget cuts coming to Cally-fornia. There emerged a rather amusing story of one of our city fathers at the meeting asking Arnold a question out of left field as to why he doesn’t support our right to own 50 caliber weaponry. Welcome to Redding Arnold! Anyway, the gist of the speech centered on a probable 10% cut to everything that the state funds. Sounds fair enough. Across the board. Everybody takes a hit.

Except.

Later that evening, after Arnold blew out again, we attended the Soup Supper of the local League of Women Voters. The speaker was Muffy Berryhill of the Shasta First 5 organization. This group is funded by the apparently never-declining cigarette tax. While they don’t fund pre-natal and early childhood programs directly, their purpose is to help organize and offer resources to those organizations in town that serve the very young. There is much more at their website: http://www.first5shasta.org/ She had some statistical data that was disturbing.
Child in Shasta County
There are 10,441 children in Shasta County (2006 data)
4,340 (40%) live in single parent homes versus 24% statewide.
33% live in poverty, as defined as annual income of $20K or less for a family of 4.

My personal view is that, after national defense, ordinary government serves no higher purpose than overseeing the care of the helpless. The mentally ill, indigent elderly, and very young children. Our state taxes-and-spends loads of money. We can cut budgets across the board. It sounds fair enough, but I wonder. When we cut the programs that serve children, and specifically brain development, won’t we pay dearly for that later, when they grow to become (hopefully) productive citizens? Is that a budget expense, or really an investment?

Right now, Muffy says that children in our county born testing positive for Meth is down to about 5 or 6 a month. I don’t find that hard to believe. Plus other drugs and alcohol, probably. So lets say 50-60 children a year. How is that okay under ANY circumstances in our civilization? We pay now or we pay later.

Amazing Medical Services in Redding

My knee is sore, so my doc sent me over to MD Imaging for an MRI. It really hits home how well equipped the Redding area is in terms of Medical Services. It’s a very well run operation. Laying on my back, inside this giant loud donut, emitting a really powerful magnetic field, it’s easy to imagine that the iron in your blood lining up in a pattern like iron filings clinging to a magnet. The want to know if you have any metal plates, pins, or metal slivers in you. One can imagine metal particles bursting out of your body and attaching to the magnetic donut. It makes you think hard, laying there completely still, like they ask. I used to do some hobby welding, and there was much metal involved, not always where you expected it. However, I emerged from the donut, none the worse for wear, so apparently I’m non-ferrous throughout.
Mercy in Redding
For a small town we have world-class medical services. In the lobby of MD Imaging, they have a display with medical tools of the trade from years gone by. Scary stuff! it makes you appreciate our current high level of technology all the more. Or, will the giant magnetic donut be the scary display in some future medical office lobby? Anyway, if you simply must be in need of medical care, you can do much worse than my town, with our 2 hospitals and teeming professionals all over the place.

Hard times hit Redding

There are always hard times. Even in times when the local real estate market is booming, with nany people looking into buying a foreclosed home to renovate and live in you can find a hard time story. It’s just humanity. Lately, there seem to be more hard time stories than usual. The area just isn’t what it once was. It really should come as no surprise that many people are moving away. Some of the Florida homes offered at unionpark.metroplaces.com have proven to be too irresistible. I expect more people to be tempted in the future. Anyway, a couple of days ago, I was in a hurry to make an appointment and stopped into a local Title & Escrow company that shall remain nameless. As I stepped into the lobby, there were about a dozen or so people standing there and looking at me like I just walked in on something important. They weren’t smiling. Looking more closely, it was evident that several were crying. Obviously I interrupted something here, and my first reaction was that I should leave, but I needed to get something done for a client leaving town. One of the women offered to help me, and the group broke up. The tension was evident, but she put on her best game face as she helped me locate the file. She was wearing slippers like you might wear at home and wiping back her tears as she worked. I guessed she had just gone into the lobby from her desk at whatever news had just hit, and I was the only non-employee in the office. I got what I needed and left, but I felt like she needed a hug. I didn’t hug her, though, because that would be weird to hug a stranger. Which is kind of weird, also.
Alliance Title now goneAnyway, I was haunted all day by the image of her flushed face, tears glistening under the harsh office lighting. No one offered to share what had happened, and I wasn’t going to ask, so I had to pry a bit later in the day with some other folks in our real estate community. As it turns out, she had just lost her assistant to a layoff. Merry Christmas!
There’s a lot of layoffs in housing-related services here. Today’s paper had a photo of 84 Lumber closing it’s doors. Merry Christmas to you too. I don’t know if their 5 employees stood in the lobby and cried. Or hugged.
I was once laid off from a company after 20 years, right around the holidays. It stings. I decided to go into another career where the only person who could lay me off was me, and here I am. It hasn’t been easy. It won’t be easy for these folks either.
The Record Searchlight article also said that there were 600 fewer real estate related jobs in October in the Redding Area. I expect that the diminishing number of employed accelerated in November and December. When housing catches a cold, Redding employment gets pneumonia. All those folks will need to find work.
The cliche is “that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Perhaps more appropriate, that which doesn’t kill you leaves you standing for the next assault. Best wishes to all in our housing-related community.

Hugs, but only if you ask for one.
Vacant real estate office with skips car in background