Category: Aspiration

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 22, 20238:39 pm

Master the Moment

New Years, today by the Lunar Calendar, affords opportunity to make—or in this instance amend—my personal motto. On Jan. 1, 2023, I presented “Be Strong” as my declaration for the year ahead. Three weeks later, a tweak is necessary. On January 19, when encouraging you to not be slave to fear and hysteria, I quipped: “Master the moment”. Oh I like that.

To master the moment, you should be strong. To be strong often demands taking charge (e.g. mastering the moment). So the two can stand alone or be combined.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 18, 20236:45 pm

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.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 13, 20237:39 pm

‘That Would Be a Great Story’

Yesterday, as I arrived for my haircut, the barber walked out of the adjacent grocery store with two lottery tickets in hands. Later, after finishing the masterpiece made with razor and scissors, he boasted about giving me a $1.3 billion cut—referring to the Mega Millions drawing later tonight. I would look dapper in a tux ready to collect the prize, he said.

Well, yeah, if I bought a ticket. But I only had cash enough to pay for the haircut, unless he gave up part of his tip. “That would be a great story”, he answered, telling it and agreeing that I should keep back two bucks to play. I walked next store and bought a ticket.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 9, 202310:00 pm

If They Allowed Cats, I Just Might

The house directly across the street from where we used to live in Kensington, Md is available for rent—and for less than what the monthly increase will soon be for our San Diego apartment. My wife discovered the listing last night, and I called about the place this morning. A house. Huge yard. Just outside the Washington Beltway. The Metro-area that for both of us still feels the most like home. Alas, pets aren’t allowed.

Besides, the Featured Image is a gritty reminder that the Mid-Atlantic region most certainly has four seasons, unlike Southern California. I used Canon PowerShot S20 to make the moment twenty years ago! How coincidental: Feb., 17, 2003. Vitals: f/5.6, ISO 62, 1/125 sec, 6.5mm; 9:27 a.m. EST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 7, 202310:55 pm

The Swimming Pool

Rising and falling voices coming from outside our front window served as ambient noise as I puttered about the apartment this afternoon. Sometime later, I stepped through the front gate on an errand run, when one of the talkers—a younger woman—approached and asked if she could ask a question. The older lady accompanying her used to live in one of the apartments—50 years ago! The former resident recalled there being a swimming pool, or was she mistaken?

Oh, yes, long ago, a pool was the courtyard centerpiece, but the thing had been retired and filled in decades ago. Where people swam, a tree grows, as you can see from the Featured Image—taken today using Leica Q2—and the companion photo from iPhone XS on Aug. 16, 2019.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 2, 202310:56 pm

I Tipped Over the Apple Cart

During December 1998, I walked into CompUSA and walked out with my first Apple computer, the original Bondi Blue iMac. Appropriate timing, perhaps, December 2022 brought that chapter of my digital lifestyle to a close. I have moved on from the company that Steve Jobs’ vision built and which Tim Cook turned into an empire.

Since that winter’s day 24 years earlier, I primarily used fruit-logo hardware, despite additionally running Windows PCs for many years (since Microsoft was my beat as a reporter). The biggest gap came with my enthusiasm for Chromebook, starting in 2011 and 12. If Google still sold something as luxurious as the Pixel or LS successor, I likely would be typing on a Chromebook now.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 1, 20239:20 pm

‘Be Strong’

For nearly three years, soon after SARS-CoV-2(severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2) set the world on lockdown against COVID-19, I started hearing—and also saying—”be safe” as closing remark whenever parting from anyone; particularly public places, such as grocery stores, where workers risked exposure to something every day.

A few days ago, while watching a YouTube video from Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen, I was surprised, and delighted, when he closed with admonition “be strong”. That’s it! I thought. How right to say! So I lift from him my motto for 2023. Too many people have been trying to stay safe—fearful and insular—for too long. We all should instead be strong—and fearless before any and all uncertainty. Take authority for yourself, family, community, and country. Yes, be strong.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 29, 20229:44 pm

When Life Gives You Lemons…

You live in Southern California. I see citrus growing year-round here in San Diego, and plenty of lemons in December. What a relief to see one of my neighbors picking them from her tree on the same day—Dec. 24, 2022—that I passed by the fancy stand in another yard.

As is customary, on Christmas Eve, I walked to Pizza Hut, located at University and Texas in North Park. Since the place is closed on the 25th, we take out Super Supreme (without black olives) the previous day.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 26, 202210:35 pm

The Mouse House

Almost every holiday, the residents of this house located along Campus Avenue in San Diego neighborhood University Heights bring out decorations galore. My wife and I passed by on Christmas Day. Walking on without taking a photo would have been absolute negligence. The Featured Image, composed as shot, comes from Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/8, ISO 100, 1/125 sec, 28mm; 10:17 a.m. PST.

I am not an overly enthusiastic fan of all things Disney. The Magic Kingdom lost its spell about the time I reached adulthood. That’s not a criticism. We all grow out of something.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 25, 20228:10 pm

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.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 24, 20229:56 pm

Oh Holy Night

A few weeks ago, Dad asked about conducting a video call with the remaining (adult) children gathered. My sister Nanette, whose day job is software support, took the request and set up a Zoom meeting. Our father is 81 years old, and his computing device is an iPhone, so some testing was necessary beforehand. Of course, during last night’s final prep, his home lost electrical power (weather is stormy back home). She persevered, as did he.

Following some snafus getting him connected, sometime after 7 p.m. EST, we gathered online—some of us seeing one another for the first time in decades. We all live in different states. Nan’s husband joined and my wife. Our youngest sister is widowed. Missing and sorely missed: The eldest daughter, who passed away in 2016.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 22, 202210:51 pm

July in Christmas

Feel free to call me cruel, but gloating is not my intention so, please, don’t assign such motivation. The Christmas Day forecast for much of Southern California is unseasonably warm. Predicted San Diego weather is 25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) and 23 C (73 F) on both the preceding and following days. Break out T-shirt and shorts for summer remembrance.

Meanwhile, much of the rest of the country expects something colder, which already creeps Eastward. As I write, it’s -17 C (2 F) in Amarillo. Texas! Oh, that’s before the wind chill. For Christmas, randomly-selected highs: Atlanta, Ga., 1 C (34 F); Nashville, Tenn., -2 C (28 F); Newark, NJ, -3 C (27 F); Ocala, Fla., 7 C (45 F); Raleigh, NC, 2 C (35 F). For more of a sense of what’s more typical, for the cities, respectively, the following Sunday forecast: 19 C (66 F); 17 C (62 F); 15 C (59 F); 26 C (79 F); 22 C (71 F).