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 23, 202210:39 pm

No Christmas Cheer Here

One of the nearby assuredly festively-decorated houses isn’t this Christmas season. You can get a sense of what’s typical from the profile of Queenie, who joined my “Cats of University Heights” series in December 2021. Sadly, she vanished last month, and her owner assumes coyote.

Sad as that may seem, the family suffered another emotional assault a month earlier, when the homeowner came home to find that the four towering palms outside her house had been marked for removal (e.g. clearcutting). Reportedly, San Diego Gas and Electric ordered the curbside destruction.

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).

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 21, 20229:55 pm

The (Honorary) Cats of University Heights: Tula

Meet Tula, as she is called by her owner, who tried to name her Tulip. You can see how that worked out. I had seen the kitty a few times during the past few months […]

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 20, 20229:47 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Scamp

In the same yard where I first saw Thin and Slim, another black and white kitty appeared on Dec. 15, 2022. The trio are quite possibly from the same litter. However, this one was skittish rather than friendly. But, hey, doesn’t sibling personality often vary—vastly sometimes—even among humans?

I used iPhone 13 Pro to capture the Featured Image. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/99 sec, 77mm; 12:59 p.m. PST. Nickname: Scamp (for no particular reason).

Web by Joe WilcoxDec 19, 202211:45 pm

The Things That Waste Your Time

I am partway through a computing platform switch—two, actually—and ran into a minefield of problems with Adobe Creative Cloud and Lightroom apps, which for starters synched part of my massive photo library online. Ha! With warning storage is full and that I need to purchase more. In all the years using Lightroom, I have never stored photos on Adobe’s website. That is until, unknowingly, tonight.

If an option easily exists to turn off syncing, I can’t find it. Remedy for now, the process is paused. Nor do I see evidence online of this overflowing storage heap, which contents my fingers desperately want to delete with a single key stroke.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 18, 202210:43 pm

Great Galaxy!

I don’t believe in the multiverse, but let’s pretend for the sake of narrative. In one reality, my wife and I continue to use the iPhone 13 Pro pair purchased in early autumn 2021. In another, we upgraded to the 14 models released this year. Along another path, we bought Google Pixel 7 for her and Pro for me. But in this here and now, we are unexpected owners of Samsung Galaxy S22 and its, considerably larger, Ultra sibling.

The saga starts with an insane crisis beleaguering our daughter, where, because of incompetence and mischief, she got locked out of her iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Air—and iCloud account! About a month later, and many Apple support calls or Genius Bar visits, she has regained use of the handset and notebook; iCloud is irrevocably lost, or so seems situation as I write. Someone, and she doesn’t recall being that person, activated recovery key, which my daughter does not have. Without it, Apple Support agents continually say she cannot regain access to her iCloud identity. Ah, yeah.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 17, 20229:59 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Thin and Slim

I had hoped to get the real names of these two fine felines but must move along their sharing, because the Featured Image has nagged since Dec. 16, 2022 to share it.

The entire set comes from Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture manually set for all: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/30 sec; 2:23 p.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 16, 20228:50 pm

Last Walk with iPhone 13 Pro

I relished yet another Summer-like day—19 degrees Celsius (66 Fahrenheit)—and walked from my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights to Hillcrest for groceries. The jaunt also served as opportunity to take final photos with iPhone 13 Pro, which will be retired tonight.

This post also marks the last using my beloved 16.2-inch MacBook Pro—by far the most satisfying laptop ever to be in my possession. But, alas, after much discussion, my wife and I have decided to change computing platforms, which reasons will be explained on another day.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 15, 20229:26 pm

Candy Cane Critters

Please pardon yet more holiday motif—and, pitifully, almost none pertaining to the real spirit of the season (e.g. Christ’s birth). But a computing platform—well, two, if more accurately stated—switch is underway within the Wilcox household. Sudden. Unexpected. Long time brewing. I have been busy backing up and transferring data; not everything resides in the cloud and caution demands redundancy and meticulous review of data before devices are irrevocably wiped.

As such, posting priority is a bit back-burnered but shouldn’t be ignored. While quality is always first objective, quantity matters, too—seeing as I committed to sharing something each and every day of 2022, like last year. For now, please accept my apologies; you’ll read the story about the big transition soon enough.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 14, 20229:11 pm

Supermarket Santa

Warm weather returned to San Diego this fine Wednesday. While the temperature only reached 16 degrees Celsius (61 Fahrenheit), the experience was much milder; summer-like. Turkey was on super sale at the Ralph’s grocery in Hillcrest. Annie drove us over for the (hefty) bird, and I walked home.

I had to laugh when approaching the entrance and seeing the huge inflatable St. Nick rising above the doors. Say, isn’t that the character from stop-motion TV special “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer“? The juxtaposition of snowy Santa waving to tropical Cutie oranges demanded a photo.