Category: Society

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 13, 20249:14 pm

The New Normal

Hillcrest is San Diego’s gay neighborhood—and I don’t mean happy. Judging by the many miserable-looking homeless folks sprawled across sidewalks, gay describes something other than disposition.

Rainbow flags are everywhere. During June, some fire hydrants are similarly repainted. An inclusive church presents each color on its own door. So I shouldn’t have been so surprised, today, to find a new manifestation: Rainbow crosswalk—and more. There are two. In succession. One is the straight color motif, and the other adds the trans flag. Depending on your opinion about this kind of thing, the colored crosswalks are either appropriately, or ironically, placed at Normal Street.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 10, 20249:52 pm

When We Were Acquainted

Annie smiles for the camera in a portrait probably taken by me. You do remember when film shooting was the only option—not the nostalgia thing that it is today, yes?

We were a newly matched couple in Yongin, Korea. My guess on the date for the Featured Image: Jan. 10, 1989, maybe the 11th. We would be blessed in marriage with 1,274 other couples on January 12. I will share more about that event, and our 35th wedding anniversary, in two days.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 7, 20249:38 pm

When Time Runs Out

For weeks, I have seen a sign outside one of the long-time, local University Heights businesses: Relocation moving sale. Today, I walked by and could see men working inside around fixtures, so I stopped by to ask where is the new location. There is none. Yet. Maybe never.

Commercial rents rise like insane homeless people shouting and swearing as they pull along their belongings in shopping carts. The store’s proprietor told me that his rent nearly doubled, leaving him little option other than to close up after first opening—in nearby Hillcrest—in 1974. What worse way to celebrate 50 years, eh?

Living by Joe WilcoxDec 29, 202310:33 pm

Prime Cuts

Like many other Amazon customers, the day after Christmas (Bah humbug to you, too, Jeff Bezos), I received email informing that “starting January 29, Prime Video movies and TV shows will include limited advertisements”. That one sentence sentences my Prime membership to execution. I won’t renew when the current annual period expires.

My family’s first Amazon purchase was in 1998, and we joined Prime a decade later. One of the benefits for which we keep the service is commercial-free video content. Advertising changes everything. Free, fast shipping isn’t compelling enough.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 26, 20239:31 pm

Is This How You Feel?

Lots of people do, and I hope not you. Humility mixed with heap loads of gratitude is a better way to end the year. We are entitled to nothing. Most everything we have comes from somewhere else. Modern society is built on the sacrifices of those who came before us. We are indebted.

Do you grow your own food? Drill, extract, and process the gasoline for your vehicle? Generate the electricity that powers your home? Pick and mill the cotton for clothes you bought rather than made? Fresh water is piped to your home and toilet water piped away—all from infrastructure that you didn’t build, right?

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 25, 20238:46 pm

That’s Not True

For some time, I have been bothered by the sign outside the Hillcrest church with the rainbow-colored doors. Seeing as this is Christmas Day and Christian churches are supposed to celebrate Christ, I take this opportunity to correct the record.

“Love is love is all you need” is not true. Correction: it is a lie.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 23, 20239:35 pm

Yes, But What About Porch Pirates?

What a terrible coincidence. Tonight, I planned to share the Featured Image, taken yesterday using Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Beforehand, I peeked at my inbox, where there were two random emails about Nextdoor posts. Someone from another San Diego neighborhood also puts out treats for delivery drivers. Last night, there was an, ah, incident.

The poster writes: “Just before 10:30 p.m., these two awful people stole the entire box of treats (bin included) that I had left out for the deliveries. Usually, we bring them in much earlier, but we were out visiting a friend we haven’t seen in ages, so it was left out past 9 p.m.” She includes a 20-second video of the thieves in action.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 21, 202310:13 pm

When Did You Last Go to the Movies?

I can’t remember. SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns pretty much squashed my movie-going, coupled with too-high ticket pricing. The theatre is pretty much always better than streaming at home, so to be clear: couch-potatoing isn’t my reason for abandoning an afternoon show.

I used Google Pixel 3 XL to capture the Featured Image five years ago today: Dec. 21, 2018. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 70, 1/50 sec, 28mm (film equivalent); 12:10 p.m. PST; composed as shot. This AMC is located at Westfield Plaza Bonita in National City, Calif.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 20, 202310:05 pm

A Pair of Classic Cars

I avoid walking through Hillcrest, unless need presses. The neighborhood is atmospherically and physically filthy. Strange how people don’t know that they live in Hell. But the same could be applied to most of California, expanding Dante’s nine circles of Hell to the 21 missions around which major cities were built. San Diego was the first, in 1769.

Franciscans sought to bring Heaven to native populations, rightly or wrongly (you decide which). Centuries later, the fire of Hades burns across the state, by many measures.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 18, 20239:26 pm

It’s Digital Time

About a month ago, I received a steroid shot in my left hand to treat trigger finger; the middle digit wouldn’t close-fisted and clicked with a spine-chilling popping sound when extended. While technically a righty, I primarily use my left hand to open jars, turn doorknobs, and hold Galaxy S23 Ultra, among many other activities. I worried about the affliction leading to a calamity: dropping the smartphone, which is carried caseless.

So when Samsung offered generous, $150 trade-in for my Apple Watch Series 5—wasting away unused—on top of steep holiday discount for Galaxy Watch6 Classic, I ordered one. The smartwatch arrived today. To be clear, I love my no-nonsense, distraction-free Luminox Automatic Sport Timer 0921 and will not completely retire it: Digital by day, analog by night.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 13, 20239:54 pm

Finally, Somebody Uses the Bike Lanes

Dec. 9, 2023, as I stopped to photograph someone’s life belongings heaped onto four shopping carts, suddenly, and rapidly, riders roared by along University Ave. in Hillcrest. San Diego’s panache for tearing up parking spaces and replacing them with kilometers-upon-kilometers of bike lanes is controversial among businesses and many residents but unapologetic policy public.

On any normal day, bikers are few, and their numbers are next to meaningless compared to the volume of buses, cars, SUVs, and trucks, among other vehicles. So I was rather surprised seeing such mass of riders, who vastly spilled out of the bike lane into traffic.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 12, 20239:58 pm

A Life Reduced

For Dec. 9, 2023—before encountering the problem delaying new posts—I had planned to share some sightings in Hillcrest that same day. I had ventured there to drop off at FedEx a box containing my wife’s Galaxy Tab S8. For holiday sales, Samsung offered insanely generous $600 trade-in against the S9 Ultra, which I ordered for me and Annie happily inherited my S8 Plus. Expect a future first-impression about the larger tablet.

The homeless are prominent fixtures along University Avenue in, ah, Hellcrest. Used to be that street dwellers had crusty, weathered appearances; many had problems with alcohol, drugs, or mental illness—perhaps all three. But during the past 12 months or so, particularly, more of San Diego’s homeless appear to be new to the streets, older in age, or both. Many of them cart along more belongings—shopping carts carrying real possessions, not the debris collected hunter-gather style by long-time wanderers.