How San Diego will Kill People

The Featured Image and companions document the beginnings of a disaster. For weeks, San Diego contractors have been dropping compost containers outside residences. These are in addition to recycle and trash bins already in use by apartments, condominiums, and homes across the area. Their deployment is the worst kind of stupid public policy, which is designed to protect the environment and diminish the so-called effects of climate change. Humans aren’t important enough to matter in the public policy equation.

Shortlist of grief: Animals knocking over bins and spilling rotting food into the alleys and streets. Hungry homeless people digging into the containers, also spilling rotting food, becoming sick from eating it, and likely spreading one or more of any number of bacterial infections. Disease is the clincher. These compost bins surely will be breeding grounds that could, and likely will, lead to E. Coli and Salmonella outbreaks—to name but two. One is reason enough to worry.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 13, 202310:23 pm

Measuring Inflation by Cat Math

In early February 2017, the Wilcox household purchased its first set of Katris blocks for our kitties Cali and Neko. The modular cat tree can be assembled in numerous configurations. According to the company: “Each block is made from over 200 sheets of heavy-duty paperboard and can withstand more than 300 pounds of weight”. The upper layer is ready for paw scratching. For such value, we purchased three more sets.

Few days ago, I considered buying more—that is until seeing how shockingly higher is the selling price: $395.95, which is a 65 percent increase over our first Katris kit; 97 percent more than the second (July 2017); 90 percent increase over the third (October 2017); and 72 percent more than the fourth (December 2018). How’s that for an indicator of inflationary pricing?

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 12, 202310:11 pm

One Last Goodbye

If the Featured Image gives you a bit of vertigo, good. You see the last remnants of my favorite home office ever before I surrendered the space to our daughter, who moved into our apartment yesterday. She is fresh from a rehabilitation facility specializing in brain injuries. Tomorrow she undergoes intake evaluation at another institution that may treat her on an outpatient basis.

We moved into our current residence in October 2017. The massive second bedroom window provided great view of the street, and neighborhood westward. I shared the vantage with our cats Cali and Neko, whose attention belonged to birds, squirrels, and other felines.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 11, 202310:33 pm

Miracle Molly

Today, an in-patient rehabilitation institute released our daughter into home care and continued treatment on an outpatient basis. We are not sure yet where she will go. The facility that the recovery physician recommends can’t do intake assessment until mid-May. Another brain injury hospital could take her this month, but there is an insurance hang up to get by. Assessment is scheduled for later this week.

She did suffer brain damage from the incident, which I won’t yet discuss specifically. While her cognitive capabilities are seemingly quite recovered, a neuropsychologist told me that she nevertheless shows deficiencies in the five categories assessed for measuring brain function. For example, the double stroke caused memory loss, diminished reasoning and spatial capabilities, affected some motor functions, and left behind lingering pain in one foot.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 10, 202310:26 pm

Pretty in Pink

Who doesn’t get gleefully wry when seeing graffiti gracing one of the many (un)affordable housing projects that ruin an area’s character? This monster-block high-rise is located along Park Blvd between Meade and El Cajon, where once was a church. Someday soon, I will present pictures to prove it.

But for this evening, our topic is the pink dog, which looks across the street to the outfield of Alice Birney Elementary, where locals are permitted to run their mutts when school isn’t in session and there are no recreational or sports activities planned. So yeah, graffiti fido fits in nicely.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 9, 202310:27 pm

Canyon Zooming Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

While walking along the Vermont Street Bridge, which separates San Diego neighborhoods Hillcrest and University Heights, I caught a flash of blue in the canyon below. Someone, presumably homeless, trudged through the foliage—lush and tall from heavy rains—towards a more protected space. Through the trees, I could make out red color that could be from a tent.

I whipped out Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and captured the Featured Image using the smartphone’s amazing 10X optical zoom capability. The companion pic is 3X, which I chose after seeing that 1X, which is 23mm film equivalent, would barely show the subject. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 50, 1/120 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 10:15 a.m. PDT, today. The other: f/2.4, ISO 50, 1/522 sec, 70mm (film equivalent); 10:15 a.m.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 8, 202310:18 pm

Bob Dines Korean

I remember this meal. My father-in-law wanted to eat someplace different. We ended up at a Korean restaurant somewhere along Convoy Street in one of San Diego’s commercial Asian areas. But I don’t recall why we were thereabouts, being far from the places closer to his apartment and where he preferred to eat. Good guess: Tax preparation with his financial advisor, which office is located a short driving distance from where he ate.

The Featured Image—from Motorola-made, Google-branded Nexus 6—catches Bob as he looks up at some distraction. Seconds earlier, he was engrossed in the bowl’s contents. Vitals: f/2, ISO 310, 1/17 sec, 26.6mm (film equivalent); 2:54 p.m. PDT.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 7, 202310:32 pm

For the Survivors

While driving through Escondido, Calif., I came upon the most unusual sight: A vast garden of kids’ windmills—pinwheels, if you prefer—planted upon a grassy enclave. Later, I walked over to the intersection, where they were: Citracado Parkway and Autopark Way.

What were they for? I wondered. The answer is on the sign that is more readable in the second photo: “April is child abuse prevention & sexual assault awareness month. These pinwheels represent each survivor Palomar Health served last year”.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 6, 20239:47 pm

The (Honorary) Cats of University Heights: Oliver, Too

Today, while walking in the neighborhood of Hillcrest, along University Avenue, not far from Eli’s, I came upon a tabby wearing a GPS collar. He moved with assurance, not bothered by my following and unsuccessfully taking a good photo (I got plenty of his back). As he moseyed into a parking lot, someone called “Oliver” to him and said “That’s my cat” to me.

His owner had one of those meshy cat carriers that are often worn on the back. She is former military, from Portland, Ore., and lives here—having once been stationed in San Diego. The thirty-nine-year old was refreshingly friendly, particularly considering current American society’s stereotypes of animosity and division: Woman of color and aging white male are supposed to be enemies of gender and race.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 5, 202310:33 pm

What are These Things?

I don’t know what to make of another odd alley find. Are they games? Toys? Something else? You tell me. My wife and I came across the pair between Mississippi and Louisiana in San Diego […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 4, 202311:25 pm

A Musical Parting

The Korg Concert 4000 that I purchased used in August 2014 is gone. Today, I listed the piano on Nextdoor and had a taker within minutes. A dad with five kids got the musical instrument for his two daughters.

I let the keyboard go as we make room for our daughter to move in to our somewhat cramped apartment. She hasn’t lived with us for more than a couple months since going off to college a decade ago—nothing more than occasional visits for more than five years. But she needs a safe place to stay when released from in-patient rehabilitation and entering an outpatient program. Both facilities specialize in recovery from brain injuries or stroke.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 3, 20239:38 pm

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Near and Far

The immense amount of precipitation pummeling California this year makes for uncharacteristically lush landscape—as can be seen from the Cleveland Avenue overlook in San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. During our more than 15 years living here, I have never seen so much green growth.

Some Spring seasons, heavy rains mean crane flies cling to exterior walls of the apartment building outside the laundry room. Our cats, Cali and Neko, love to chase (and eat) them. I really should start looking evenings for the insects, which often are mistaken for mosquitos.