The Featured Image is several stories all intertwined over time. Let’s start with the past. In November 2024, my wife and I passed an excellent bookcase in an alley with some items placed on the shelves. We were ready to haul it off when a woman walked across the way and placed more things. We assumed that she owned the lot of stuff, and we decided to not interfere with how she wanted to put out giveaways.
We were mistaken, by the way. Nothing in that alley belonged to her.
The next day, about five blocks away, one of our neighbors heard noise in her garage. The same woman was inside, and she had made off with some possessions while also making a cozy, semi-permanent place for herself. She also had broken into the parked SUV. Turns out that this gal, estimated to be in her thirties, was a wee bit unhinged and unsurprisingly reluctant to abandon the nest she had created.
One problem: The garage belonged to a tough and uncompromising woman of physical strength and character. She was an all-star basketball player in high school and class valedictorian—and no California native. She could handle a squatter and sent her packing. Literally. The intruder turned out to be homeless, unsurprisingly, and perhaps by choice. She was clean and well-dressed enough that you wouldn’t necessarily guess.
I planned to tell the above story soon after the event but to my recollection I didn’t. I even shot the original of the Featured Image for illustration. Vitals: f/1.7, ISO 1000, 1/60 sec, 23mm (film equivalent); 5:46 p.m. PST, Nov. 13, 2024; Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.
That brings us to the present. My neighbor, and she’s a good friend, had asked if I could assemble a garment rack. My daughter’s doctor appointment prevented me from getting to the task today. So my friend said she might try to do the job herself: “If, big if, if I have time tonight, I will attempt. But the biggest if ever”.
I remembered the photo of her SUV parked snug against the garage door in intruder-blocking position. Tonight, on the S26 Ultra, I used Galaxy AI to remix the original photo by adding “If” graffiti to the garage door. My friend laughed and hopefully let the garment rack be. She has big, busy day tomorrow.
As such, we look to the future, when the SUV is parked on the street and the garage doors are open. She plans to have a big, honking yard sale tomorrow, and I will be there to help. I wanted her to rest before the stress, rather than become frustrated assembling the garment rack. That is, if she listened to me.