A Very SoCal Christmas

Christmas Day assumed various nuances that made memories for the Wilcox family and others. For starters, we could celebrate free of SARS-CoV-2(severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates that oppressed the previous two years’ holidays. Summer suddenly reappeared in a magnificently mild and sunny day, with the temperature reaching 25.6 degrees Celsius (78 Fahrenheit). Even as I write, temp is unseasonably 19 C (66 F). Tomorrow is supposed to be nearly as warm as today.

As I will more fully explain in a few days, my wife and I have changed computing platforms—PCs and smartphones. At 12:30 p.m. PST, I met parents and their adult age college student to buy Annie’s 13.3-inch MacBook Pro M1 (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD). I have yet to find a buyer for my 16.2-inch MBP M1, which is a monster configuration that only a crazy man would let go—or swap for something seemingly less. All will be revealed soon enough. There are reasons.

Our daughter is staying at a women’s group house in a Pacific Beach enclave. After my return from the laptop sale, Annie and I drove West and dropped off Christmas presents and then continued on to PB’s ocean area, where we hadn’t gone for, gasp, (where did the time go) more than five years. I posted about that visit in April 2017, when shooting the Fujifilm X100F.

The Featured Image is an appropriate memory marker. As I started to frame the shot, a woman asked me to shoot a portrait of a family group using her iPhone; I did. Then I resumed my attention, with Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, to my own composition. The Christmas tree is at the end of the PB pier. How often do you see an expansive ocean horizon behind one? Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 12, 1/250 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 1:52 p.m. Composed as shot.

The companion photo gives name to the location by way of the eatery. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 12, 1/1250 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 1:43 p.m. Bikers, roller skaters, and walkers were everywhere.