Torch song or neon no more?

When flame came up as a prompt, I high hopes of yet another night time neon sign shot. Those hopes were dashed when, taking the extra steps on the day, I found the sign unilluminated.

Good thing I opted to take a shot or two on the outbound part of my walk. It was an 8 mile walk day so I was a little/lot less than thrilled to find it dark.

The Flame is an iconic Hillcrest venue/bar/commercial purveyor of potable beverages.

Living near it (and near neighbor numbers) means you occasionally find half empty (or half full depending on your view) cocktail glasses on newspaper boxes, retaining walls and sidewalks.

You also get unscheduled entertainment from bar patrons' conversations coming and going from bar to home or parked cars. I try to think of it as a floor show without a cover charge although occasionally I wonder if I should worry about random bullets and the like.

Flame has been through quite a few changes in recent years and I gather it is very much in a transitional phase just now.  I guess that means that, for now at least, I can attribute any failure to follow through with respecting the neighbours to numbers not Flame.

It was mad overcast today but I banked some shots of the old cactus garden in Balboa Park and some misty images of the Cabrillo Bridge and California Tower/dome for eye candy on days that the photos are less than inspiring or nonexistent.

Given the fact that one of the other prompts on the day was red, perhaps a bonus shot or two of some vivid succulents is in order.