Tag: California Living

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 27, 202310:07 pm

‘Feed Me! Please?’

The fine family that owns ginger cat Daniel Tiger also keeps three chickens. Typically, a jar of feed is placed in a caddy on the fence so that neighbors can greet and treat the birds. But, today, when my wife and I walked by, the glass wasn’t half full, so to speak, but empty. We had nothing to share, and, oh, did the hens want some.

When we slipped out of the apartment between loads of washed and drying laundry, I left behind Leica Q2. To capture the moment, I relied on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, choosing the Portrait mode that creates bokeh—or the illusion of blurred background.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMay 12, 20239:29 pm

Where the Crane Flies

Remember this: “The Teardown“, from February 2022? Where was a home and a few trendy shops, another multi-unit monument to more unaffordable housing rises along Park Blvd between Howard and Polk. By the strictest map boundaries, the location is in the community of University Heights. But because of zip code, someone will claim San Diego’s Hillcrest.

Vantage for the Featured Image is parallel street Georgia. I count four stories and rising. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 50, 1/8800 sec, 70mm; 2:22 p.m. PDT, today; Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 23, 20238:07 pm

Just Fountain Around

Before taking stealth shots of a pair of content creators, I turned Leica Q2 Monochrom onto a skateboarder going around Bea Evenson Fountain in San Diego’s Balboa Park. Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra‘s 10x zoom lenses—that’s 230mm film equivalent—let me close the distance on the two women but the photo is muddy rather than sharp.

By contrast, the captures from the camera are richly detailed with great dynamic range, even close-cropped. The smartphone’s small sensor cannot compete with the Leica’s full frame. High IQ, meaning image quality, lets me crop in and get much the same benefit of the Samsung’s zoom caapability. That said, 230mm is huge reach and not to be easily dismissed because of its overall utility on a device carried in the pocket.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 18, 20239:20 pm

Bike Boxes?

In the category of meaningless, but intriguing, you get the bicycle storage lockers that I happened upon today. Bikes are among the most stolen items in and around San Diego; homeless gangs grab the two-wheelers—and with no punishment or other consequence. The bicycle equivalent of a chop shop pops up suddenly; frames are stripped and equipment recombined.

Because thieves are less likely to take what they can’t see, the lockers offer some protection from prying eyes and grubby fingers. Are these boxes a novelty? An archaic solution? Progressive response to preventing bicycle theft? You tell me.

Photo by Joe WilcoxApr 16, 202310:12 pm

Men @Work

During any typical weekday, between the hours of about 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., I am likely to see more men (and some women) wearing hard hats and yellow vests than I do encounter local residents. That’s a brash statement, considering constant movement of folks walking dogs.

Welcome to the whiles of living in a close-in San Diego neighborhood, where the mantra is more bike lanes, fewer parking spaces, and increase of population destiny (by way of replacing single-family homes, lush green spaces, or commercial properties with multi-unit residential buildings).

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 26, 20239:24 pm

‘How Does This Neighborhood Exist?’

The title of this post is the question I kept asking myself while walking along the streets nearby the hospital where our daughter recuperates. Charming. Quaint. Throwback. All are appropriate. Many of the houses are older, with bountiful yards teaming with plants, trees, and wildlife (mostly birds and butterflies). The smells and sounds are so idyllic.

I saw nothing but single-family homes, at a time when across San Diego County so-called Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) pop up in backyards faster than and as abundantly as mushrooms after the rain. Buildings are leveled to make way for multi-resident housing. Renovations turn homes with character into caricatures.

Photo by Joe WilcoxMar 2, 20238:35 pm

Stoneman Says ‘Break Out Your Winter Weather Gear’

Because of a family emergency, I post briefly and quickly. I used Leica Q2 to capture the Featured Image on Dec. 14, 2022. What is stone snowman’s relevance in March 2023? The literal mountains of snow coming down in California.

Let this excerpt from a Sacramento Bee news story—dateline today—give glimpse: “Mammoth snow totals fell in the greater Lake Tahoe area between Monday and Wednesday…In those three days, between 5 and 8 feet of snow was recorded in parts of the mountains, including 92 inches at the Palisades Tahoe ski resort, according to the weather service”.

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 25, 20238:24 pm

Mother Nature’s Remedy

Crazy best describes the year’s winter weather across California—so much rain has fallen that the drought is effectively over. Snow blanketed Los Angeles today. There is a (gasp) blizzard warning, too, that remains in effect. You won’t see many, if any, scantily-clad roller skaters this weekend.

The white stuff piles up across the more mountainous areas here in San Diego County, such as Julian. Closer to the coast, rain is Mother Nature’s prescription for an area that had been sick with drought. Thank you!

Photo by Joe WilcoxFeb 2, 20238:53 pm

Once a Home

The relentless renovation and multi-unit expansion claims another residence, and surely more must follow. The Featured Image is the boarded up house on which porch I photographed 20-year-old kitty Rosie. She joined my “Cats of University Heights” series in early April 2022.

A few days before the profile posted, my wife and I met the calico’s owner, as she returned from walking a dog, which was one way she earned money. Business had picked up some from the worst of the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdown period, when people stuck at home could care for their own mutts. Still, she fretted about being evicted when the moratorium on such action expired in a few months. Reason: renovation—or better stated, renovicition.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 15, 20238:58 pm

‘He Didn’t Make It’

Surely you recall hearing or reading the title of this post somewhere. “He didn’t make it” is such an overly used movie or television trope (books, too). The statement also aptly describes the fate of the fallen Grinch who is subject of the Featured Image. He survived immediate decoration take-down following end of the Christmas holidays, but he was no match for the series of torrential rainstorms buffeting California.

Flooding. Mudslides. Power outages. Record snowfall in the mountains. Sinkholes. Hey, but no wildfires; too wet for that. But, don’t you fret; all that water will soon be forgotten. Sun will dry the place, pretty quickly, and the body politick will want to resume fear-mongering about drought conditions caused (presumably) by Climate Change.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 14, 20239:22 pm

Soon to be as Popular as Grand Ole Opry?

Today, I did an In-N-Out drive-by while other cars were ridiculously stuck in the drive-thru. What’s up with all this vehicular laziness? Park. Go inside and order. Your food will come faster. Shall we time it so you can see, or is your butt so planted you would never consider the freedom and ease found at the counter?

But I digress. The Featured Image, quickly taken from inside my Honda using Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, is shared solely to illustrate this post—and opportunity to snark vomit all over the fast-foodery’s homeland. This week, In-N-Out announced plans to open its farthest east location(s). In Tennessee. Why the Volunteer State, you might ask. The company doesn’t really answer, but you don’t need more sense than the drive-thru nutters to rightly reason. That’s where the customers are—meaning California expats and refugees. And you thought they all flocked to Idaho and Texas (yes, where many did flee).

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.