Covid again

“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:
Covid in Shasta County
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:
Vaccinations 11-24-2021
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.

Stronger than Carr, the short film

The Carr fire of 2018 wounded Redding badly.  A few local citizens hired a local film studio named speropictures to create something about special about it, and it is quite amazing. The live event premiere of the short seems to have been taken down. But here is a trailer for what may be a monger version.

 

It reveals a lot about Redding. We all learned more about ourselves and our community during and after the fire. 

For me personally, watching the short film brought back some of the PTSD like feelings surrounding the evacuation. My home did not burn, but the beast burned homes on the next ridge over from us. I’ve no idea why it stopped there. I saw and heard the fire tornado firsthand. Nothing could stop it.

I was pleased to see my name in the credits, although I had nearly nothing to do with the production. They used a brief video clip from the video of the fire tornado I shot before fleeing for my life.

Redding’s Ribbon Bridge after the Carr Fire

Aerial footage from the day they re-opened Redding’s Sacramento River Trail on the north side. The bridge itself was closed due to the Carr Fire.

I posted this on Facebook saying it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared. That comment drew some surprised reactions. Granted, it is pretty bleak. But fire is natural in this ecosystem. There are already green shoots coming out of the ashes. What I feared was the gut punch feeling of seeing entire neighborhoods in my favorite city burned to the ground. That is not natural at all. This will grow back. It’s still beautiful. It’s just different.

12 Angry Men at Riverfront Playhouse

Just returned from “12 Angry Men” at Riverfront Playhouse. Brilliant concept and execution! An immersive experience. Really hits home if you’ve ever served on a jury. The superb acting just draws you in. Runs until July 7. Highly recommended. More at https://www.riverfrontplayhouse.net/


Nathan’s Artisan Sourdough Bread

Nathan makes amazing bread in his home kitchen in Fall River Mills, and sells it at Redding’s Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings.

Our favorite is the Organic Garlic Asiago. Glorious!

“Ingredients: Organic wheat flour, water, organic sourdough culture, garlic, asiago cheese, sea salt, LOVE.”


The LOVE definitely shows! You can also find Nathan’s artisan sourdough breads at R&R Meats in Redding on Tuesdays and Fridays. His kitchen location is appropriate. Fall River Mills began as a water powered mill town. Nathan told me he has a website, but I can’t find much about his baking online. His phone number is 530 276 3717.

Highly recommended! Nathan’s sourdough is Really Redding.

Smokejumpers practice their skills

I was in Mountain Gate when I happened upon these smokejumpers practicing. Click any image to enlarge. Check out the person standing in at the door. Jump!


So, these folks jump leap from perfectly good airplanes…


…into forests of pointy trees…


…that ARE ON FIRE!!!


Godspeed, grace, and protection, Redding smokejumpers. Thank you for your service.


Jumping out of aircraft to put out fires, that’s Really Redding.

High water release at Shasta Dam

A series of views of the Shasta Dam spillway running at high water release I captured on Feb 12 2017. This water flows into the Sacramento River. I believe the flow was around 70,000 cubic feet per second at this point.

I think this was about the same time that state officials became seriously concerned about the Oroville Dam. Shasta looks solid, though. Click to enlarge:

A TV station in Medford Oregon called and asked permission to use my footage of the Shasta Dam spillway, which I found to be gratifying. I asked them to attribute it to Really Redding.

Images of Redding from the West

A view of my favorite city beneath a snowbound Lassen Peak. Taken from a friend’s home in West Redding. And look for Redding’s big flag in the lower middle. Thank you Enterprise Lion’s Club for maintaining Redding’s iconic big flag!
CLick to enlarge.

Below, the Sundial Bridge from the same vantage point. You don’t often see the bridge juxtaposed with Best Buy, but here it is.


Really Redding is really beautiful.