Who Yelled ‘Fire!’

While walking to Pet Me Please in San Diego neighborhood Normal Heights, today, I passed a mural that demanded photographic attention. Unknown to me at the time: The building’s business is All County Fire, which sells protective equipment for preventing or combating unwanted, ah, flaming events.

The Featured Image is a single shot; my plan to take another was interrupted by a gentleman who asked if I had taken a photo of his car, which was parked on the street. He worried about an accident; perhaps he had experience, but I didn’t ask. After understanding the object of my interest, he praised the artist who painted the mural, explaining another adorned the other side of building. I later looked but didn’t find it.

I left Leica Q2 at home, so this moment comes from Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 12, 1/580 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 11:13 a.m. PST.

My journey continued to the pet shop, where I bought a 12-pound bag of Orijen dry food for our cats Cali and Neko. Despite continuous chatter online about supply shortages, and rising prices along with them, I paid around three dollars less than the last purchase a few months ago.