Have you ever planted a tree and realized it will probably outlive you?
That thought occurred to me a couple days ago as I helped to plant a few young oak trees in Balboa Park.
Yesterday, as I sat gazing out at San Diego Bay, I recalled how the larger oak trees in the grove had seemed so very . . . old. How they were bent and cast dark, spidery shadows. And a bittersweet story came to me.
It’s titled Dale’s Tree. There aren’t many words. I published it here.
Would you like to read a short Christmas story?
It’s based loosely on a real experience. The story wrote itself today, while I was sitting out in the San Diego sunshine.
The title is A Christmas Secret.
Christmas is about generosity, compassion and good cheer. And that’s what this story is about, too.
To read it, click here!
We all have deep-seated desires that can never be fulfilled. It’s an essential part of being human.
There are horizons that cannot be reached, dreams that cannot be realized. But we keep moving forward through life, in that place where we find ourselves, and we never stop hoping.
I’ve published a short story concerning this. It’s titled A Distant Place.
Writing the story was painful. Those who are thoughtful might enjoy reading it.
You can read this short work of fiction by clicking here.
Back in Middle School, a bunch of classmates and I spent a summer weekend camping on Catalina Island. At the Parsons Landing primitive campground to be exact.
We hiked all over the north part of Catalina and saw bison, cliff dived into the ocean, sat around a campfire, and even went on an afternoon snipe hunt. (We saw bison? That’s correct! A small herd of bison was transported to this Southern California island by Hollywood for the filming of The Thundering Herd, a 1925 silent movie.)
The snipe hunt fascinated me. We headed up one of the trails above the campground searching right and left and occasionally beating a bush with a stick. Everyone knew from the start that the snipes weren’t real, but we all had fun “hunting” them anyway. At least for a little while. I think what made the snipe hunt fun was the shared joke, and the fact that we were heading up a trail that was new to us.
An idea for a short story came to me some time ago, based loosely on that snipe hunt experience. Of course, I changed many elements for my fictional story. It was necessary that I make the setting of the story a dark night.
You’ll see why when you read my new story, The Snipe Hunt, by clicking here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
To read a few thought-provoking stories I’ve written, click Short Stories by Richard.
Powerful witches and wizards have travelled from the world of Harry Potter to San Diego for Comic-Con 2022!
I saw the magical procession this morning and was astonished to discover so many J. K. Rowling characters present.
This awesome cosplay group has had their Comic-Con procession across from the San Diego Convention Center numerous times in the past. This year it appeared bigger and more amazing than ever!
How many characters do you recognize?
I see Snape and Dumbledore (two of them!) and McGonagall and Hagrid and Trelawney and Sprout and Tonks and Lupin and Fleur Delacour and Newt Scamander and Grindelwald and even a nascent Voldemort in the arms of that ratty Peter Pettigrew!
And Hermione! And Harry Potter himself!
And many others!
Enjoy some photos of this really great cosplay!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
An exhibit at San Diego’s Central Library, on display during 2022 Comic-Con, traces the history of dime novels, pulp fiction, comics and graphic novels.
The fascinating display can be enjoyed on the Central Library’s 9th floor, in the Rare Books room containing their Special Collections.
Some important and rare works are on view, and descriptions provide insight into the history of each popular medium.
If you happen to be passing by the Central Library with its lattice metal dome during Comic-Con, head up the elevator to the rooftop! And go through the door you see in the next photograph!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Check this out! Three big sand sculptures are being built right now in downtown San Diego for 2022 Comic-Con!
An area by Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade, just east of 1st Avenue, near the Convention Center trolley station, will be the site of the The Audible Beach, promoting Audible’s original new shows.
I was told by one artist compacting sand in one of those wooden frames that the sculptures will include Sherlock Holmes, from the Audible show Moriarty: The Devil’s Game!
I’ll definitely be photographing these sand sculptures over the next few days as they take shape!
UPDATE!
If you’d like to see how these sand sculptures turned out several days later (and they are AMAZING), click here!
If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Do you like ghost stories?
Do you like riding trains?
Answer yes to either question, and you might enjoy a new short story that I published this morning. It’s titled Backward Man.
Is it possible to see the future by looking backward? That seems like a reasonable assertion, right?
If a little strangeness and horror are your cup of tea, you can read the story by clicking here!
Do you daydream?
I suppose we all do.
What do you dream about?
I dreamed up a short story.
It’s titled The Weed.
It’s a fairy tale, and it isn’t.
It’s about life, growth, and forgetting.
The abrupt climax is sad, and perhaps not unexpected.
If you have an active imagination and a philosophical view of life, you might enjoy reading it here.
Have a great Sunday!
Richard
It appears Hogwarts isn’t the only school with a dangerous Whomping Willow. Because our own San Diego City College seems to have one of its own!
I was walking up Park Boulevard this morning, on my way from downtown San Diego to the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park, when I spied the fantastically twisted tree. A few of its gnarled. outstretched limbs had slammed against the nearby grass, sadly crushing goodness knows what.
I avoided the walking path that passes directly next to it, just to be safe.
That is a Whomping Willow, isn’t it?
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Cool San Diego Sights! 