I can't tell you how many times I've been asked this question, in fact just today someone from the Bay Area asked (which is what prompted this post)! And I can see why...people think since we're located just a couple of hours South of Oregon that we get snow.

Well...we do...somewhat...just a little...like every 3-5 years. Wait...I'm not saying it never snows, I'm talking snow snow, heavy, white, stick on the ground snow! That doesn't happen every year in Redding. We may get...

Because of what I do for a living, I'm often asked what are my favorite neighborhoods here in Redding CA. That's a tough one! I say that because there's not "a" favorite, I have several that I really like.

Looking towards West Redding, I really like Mary Lake, it's an older, well established neighborhood of older and newer homes but very clean and well maintaned. Lots of character in this community.

There's a small lake (well...more like a pond) surrounded...

This has been the weirdest summer I can ever remember. It came early this year, no spring to speak of, just winter and then overwhelming heat.

So many forest fires all at once. The air was so bad from the burning that people with breathing problems were told to stay inside and use air conditioning. So that's what I did and now my utility bill is so high I don't know how we will pay it. That plus the unending heat, record-breaking temperatures for days on end. In attempting to stay...

I don't know the precise title of the poem, or the precise year in which it was written, but there's an old piece by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, which opens with the following words: People getting divorced / driving around with their things in their car...


My first encounter with Mr. Ferlinghetti was highly unanticipated - in my lowly high school, located in a suburb of Charlotte, the library included a handful of examples of beat writing: a general anthology, and two of Ferlinghetti's...

(February 2010 draft)

So there's this great moment in the world of customer service: you're completing a transaction, and it's usually not an especially impressive one, when the guy in question - in a moment of grand, high theatre - snakes his arm around the credit card terminal, a fat shield of flesh manouvered to prevent your (that is to say, my) prying eyes from making the mental notation of his PIN number.

Dirty peon or not, I've been the victim of nefarious...