Tag: San Diego

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 28, 202410:37 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Peep

Well, turns out Buchi isn’t the last photo from Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra after all. You get one more. While we walked after sunset on Jan. 26, 2024, my wife spotted a kitty looking out a second floor window onto an alley somewhere separating Alabama and Mississippi. UPS delivered S24 Ultra earlier that day, but I hadn’t yet time to set up the newer smartphone.

I turned the S23 Ultra skyward and used the 10x optical zoom lens for the Featured Image. My longstanding gripe: focal length undermines the utility of the telephoto in low light, as is so clearly demonstrated here. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 4000, 1/30 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 5:36 p.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 25, 202410:08 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Diana

Address undisclosed, I spotted this fine feline, seemingly somewhat forlorn. Perhaps its owner stepped out for awhile. The cat tree is more typically unoccupied whenever I walk by, so finding a resident was quite the treat, today.

The Featured Image could be the last photo taken with Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Its successor is scheduled for delivery tomorrow. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 125, 1/60 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 4:30 p.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 23, 20249:25 pm

Distant Rainbow

I shot the Featured Image on this date seven years ago, using iPhone 7 Plus. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 20, 1/1250 sec, 28mm (film equivalent); 3:37 p.m. PST, Jan. 23, 2017. Composed as captured. Presumably, I sought the faint rainbow in the distance.

The view—looking East towards Cleveland Ave. along Monroe in University Heights—could easily be current. Heavy rains pelted San Diego County, yesterday. In response to widespread, destructive flooding, today, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 22, 20249:59 pm

Rain Day!

Storm showers pelted San Diego on this mid-month Monday. My unofficial estimate here in University Heights is 7.6 cm (3 inches). Elsewhere, according to the National Weather Service through 3 p.m. PST: Point Loma, 11.04 cm (4.49 inches); Airport, 8.36 cm (3.29 inches); Fashion Valley, 7.32 cm (2.88 inches); Montgomery Field, 6.6 cm (2.58 inches).

In the Mountain View neighborhood, Interstate I-15 flooded out at 32nd Street. TV news footage showed city crews wadding through waste-deep water, trying to free up drains and release the unexpected river crossing the highway. Similarly, rising waters closed businesses along the main thoroughfare through Mission Beach.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 21, 20249:04 pm

Seriously Spiked

Nothing about the Featured Image really works. Depth of field is too shallow. Overall quality is too noisy. Composition is cluttered. Light and shadows contrast too much.

But busyness also shows off Southern California climate and diversity: The funny spiked thing, maple leaves, palm trees, sunny skies and wide street—on Dec. 17, 2023. The photo also reminds that even a premiere full-frame camera, Leica Q2, will produce a shot someone might presume comes from a smartphone’s small sensor.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 20, 20249:10 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Puff

We have a winner—or would if there was a contest for the neighborhood’s most gorgeous kitty. My wife and I walk along Mississippi less than other streets, which explains why we hadn’t seen this beauty—unless she is a newcomer, which is possible. For fluffy fur, Puff is our nickname.

The Featured Image marks the first sighting, on Nov. 19, 2023. All the portraits come from Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Vitals: f/4.9, ISO 64, 1/60 sec, 230mm (film equivalent); 9:55 a.m. PDT.

Living by Joe WilcoxJan 18, 202410:26 pm

When Comic-Con was Fun

San Diego Comic-Con is still six months away (July 25-28). Late last year, I missed the first chance for a 2024 pass and skipped the second opportunity. My attendance days long ago ended when the convention chose not to renew my press credentials (and when I was still a working journalist). Subsequently, I wasn’t (supposedly) randomly chosen to purchase a pass.

On this fine Thursday evening, for no particular reason, let’s peek at what was SDCC before the culturally woke put to sleep my interests in participating. The Con is gone, or at least as I remember it.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 15, 202410:29 pm

In Another Universe…

I like to reminisce and imagine that someone rescued an injured cat, nursed him to health, and kept him—slightly disabled—indoors. If such alternate-universe scenario were true, we wouldn’t know. Kuma wasn’t microchipped, an oversight I have long regretted. He disappeared on this date 12 years ago.

While we lived in the apartment that was Kuma’s home, I looked for him long after city workers found his collar in a nearby canyon, strongly suggesting that a coyote snatched him. When we moved to another part of the neighborhood, in October 2017, I stopped searching and started dreaming of his escape and rescue.

Photo by Joe WilcoxJan 14, 20249:52 pm

‘Talkin’ ’bout a Revolution’

These posters suddenly are all about my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights. Ah, do these people not know the killing machine that is communism? I did some quick Googling this evening seeking an answer.

Marking a century since the 1917 revolution, Wall Street Journal published, on Nov. 6, 2017: “100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead“. Dek: “The Bolshevik plague that began in Russia was the greatest catastrophe in human history”. Same year, October 28, from Cato Institute: “100 Years of Communism: Death and Deprivation“.

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 8, 202410:25 pm

The Vine Wall

Several properties in my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights are undergoing or have undergone major renovations lasting years. Some started before or during SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns. Post-pandemic, construction delays, increased building costs, and lingering supply shortages could explain why these projects take so long.

Today, I stopped to gawk at a magnificently striking overgrown wall that had previously gone unnoticed. The main house and front lawn area have been a noisy construction zone for so long that I either walked by briskly or on the other side of the street. What an overlooked visual treat! Neither the Featured Image, nor the companion photo, adequately capture the scene.

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?