Tag: San Diego

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 7, 20229:35 pm

Please Remind Me, Whose Birthday Do We Celebrate?

As my wife and I were about to leave Fashion Valley Mall today, she pointed out something odd, which you can see in the Featured Image and companion. Santa’s house in the lower center court is extremely non-sectarian.

From one perspective, since St. Nick is a secular invention, I can understand. But from another—and vastly more penetrating—viewpoint, “Merry & Bright” defies the spirit of the season and the birth for which it celebrates. Wouldn’t “Merry Christmas” be resoundingly more appropriate? Or did I miss something about the holiday’s name including that of he whose birthday we commemorate with gift-giving? (And mass consumerism.)

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 6, 20229:43 pm

Let’s Go for a Ride

Back in August 2021, when SARS-CoV-2(severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 still stirred fear in some hearts (not mine), I came across a handsome G400c motorcycle. The manufacturer, Genuine, is better known for scooters—one of which I passed today parked along Adams Avenue in San Diego neighborhood University Heights.

Iconic best describes two-tone Pamplona (color) Buddy 170i that is subject of the Featured Image. Don’t you want to climb on and ride? I sure do. Top speed is 55+ MPH—and I have to wonder what is the upper limit of that plus. With gasoline still caviar costly, 100 miles to the gallon appeals; if accurate, a full tank will get you another 50.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 5, 20228:35 pm

Not Salsa

On an errand to the Target in North Park today, I passed by a sign seen, and photographed, about three weeks ago. I would have taken a fresh pic but a workman had opened the red pipes to the right, and he clearly didn’t want any interference. Besides, I already had the Featured Image.

This lonely street shot comes from Leica Q2 on Nov. 17, 2022. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/1000 sec, 28mm; 12:13 p.m. PST. During post-production, I pumped up the dehaze setting to emphasize the clouds, which led to also adjusting contrast and shadows.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 4, 20227:45 pm

Bring Your Own Phone

Consider the Featured Image as companion to the one shared on Sept. 13, 2021. The difference is the actual payphone in the other. Here you got an empty space and loads of graffiti. Welcome to North Park, where my wife and I visited on this sunny Sunday.

Not long before we passed the thing, while walking along University Ave., I snarked to Annie about how rundown is an area with reputation for being desirable and trendy. No doubt, some of the homeless camped out on the sidewalks feel that way. The place is relatively clean and spacious compared to the tent cities popping up around San Diego.

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 3, 20229:41 pm

Drug Culture

Our many attempts to cut the cord finally succeeded when we disconnected AT&T U-verse and switched to wireless Internet and content streaming. Six months in, we’re satisfied with the freedom from channel surfing and the ability to choose what content from which services we want to watch.

Besides streaming, we grab over-the-air-channels using the Antop HD Smart Bar HDTV & FM Amplified Antenna, which I highly recommend. Occasionally, my wife or I will let some broadcast station fill the living room with sound and even entertain the cats. Surprising: How outrageously often commercial breaks fill with pharmaceutical ads. Their number is seemingly endless. I will walk by, roll my eyes, and wonder: Is America really such a drug culture?

Photo by Joe WilcoxDec 1, 202210:13 pm

Christmas Bird

To celebrate the new month, and last one of the year, we turn back the clock to Dec.5, 2020, when I used Leica Q2 to capture the Featured Image. For the previously unpublished shot, I take some risk now; the Christmas bird blends too well into the tree’s foliage. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 28mm; 3:22 p.m. PST.

I don’t recall seeing the decoration in 2021 and I must watch for it this year. Perhaps its owners flew off to another state—as so many other folks did—during the SARS-CoV-2(severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2)/COVID-19 lockdowns.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 28, 20229:57 pm

Take Your Mutt Elsewhere

My daughter is vacating the room she was renting—and, of course, duty fell on me to haul her there to collect the remaining possessions and transport them to her storage unit. She owns too much stuff (my polite phrasing), and I insisted that lugging everything to the car was her responsibility.

Naturally, for me, that meant much sitting inside or walking around our hatchback. When they issue the award for being slowest packer and mover, she could win.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 26, 20227:54 pm

Elf Tree Peace

Typically, homeless hang out on the sidewalks along the walls outside Sprouts supermarket, located at the intersection of Georgia and Howard in San Diego neighborhood University Heights. As such I wouldn’t have seen—or been able to take the Featured Image of—the tree-hanging lucky charm, whether he be leprechaun or Santa’s elf (you tell me which). But yesterday, the space was uncharacteristically unoccupied.

What a difference 24 hours makes. This afternoon, when I strolled by: One gent lay sleeping, wrapped in a brown blanket. Someone else huddled under a makeshift habitat, of which bicycle hubs were part of the structure. Another fellow crumpled cans collected from recycle bins; he worked from garbage bags carried in, and hanging from, a shopping cart. I couldn’t see the tree, or what was on it.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 25, 20228:42 pm

The Loner

Why are you looking at a couple of lonely leaves? Because their grapevine is something of an obsession; I am enthralled by the growing location—on a grassy patch between sidewalk and street somewhere in my San Diego neighborhood of University Heights.

Last year, I chronicled the grapes’ progression from green to mixed color to richly ripe. Walking by today, I saw that the branches had been clipped, as they are every autumn, but something remained—making me intriguingly sentimental enough to stop with Leica Q2 and capture the Featured Image. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/2.8, ISO 100, 1/1250 sec, 28mm; 11:45 a.m. PST.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 24, 202210:38 pm

Are They a Rare Set?

One of my sisters is avid about golf. My interest almost reaches enthusiasm for root canals. Ah, the things siblings don’t share in common, eh? She was already on my mind, because of Thanksgiving Day, when I passed by a set of discarded clubs this morning; more so after I chuckled over them, thinking: How appropriate. Perhaps the previous owner and I share similar sentiments about the, ah, sport. Yuh. Let’s turn the TV channel to curling—another fine slow-moving competition.

Knowing absolutely nothing about golf, or the accruements necessary to play, maybe I missed a magnanimous moment of opportunity—like the yard sale buyer who snags a rare painting or Leica camera that turns out to be worth tens of thousands of dollars—even millions. What if the clubs are a rare set, put out by another non-golfer who is emptying the apartment of some aged relative recently passed away? Sometimes that which looks old and crusty is valuable. Are these clubs? I presume no more than any others in similar condition. But why not speculate?

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 22, 202210:27 pm

The Cats of University Heights: Jet

Early afternoon, Oct. 23, 2022, I came across two shorthairs that quite literally played cat and mouse in the yard where once lived Pee-Pee. Among the first several shots, the black looks away. The Featured Image is the last portrait taken, after the beastie turned my way and settled down to await what you can’t see: Nutmeg, who is supremely camouflaged behind the growth along the wall.

I used iPhone 13 Pro for this one, which vitals are: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/214 sec, 77mm; 12:10 p.m. PDT. Nickname: Jet.

Photo by Joe WilcoxNov 17, 20229:16 pm

Sonic Boom of Behavioral Change

Around lunchtime today, when walking home from Von’s supermarket with cheap canned cat food, I got a hankering for a Sonic burger. We rarely eat out and the fast-food place was one of my father-in-law’s favorites. I thought to simultaneously see how the take-out experience has changed and to venture down memory lane. Surprise doesn’t enough express what I found or—stated differently—didn’t.

I stepped inside the restaurant to see chairs stacked on tables in fashion to cordon off most of the dining room. The menu screens were dark, as was the overall ambience. I could enter because roller-skating servers (e.g. carhops) exit through the same doors to deliver meals to parked vehicles. I vamoosed.