wow, time flies. saw this car back in twenty-three, out at the riverside show n go. used to be an all-weekend show, but has shrunk to a friday evening and all-day saturday, run of downtown riverside, with cars parked all along the streets, cruising as they please. great opportunity to shoot both night and day shots, sunrise and sunset. stay at a hotel there, come and go to the show as needed.
actually was looking through old hard drives, and realized i had only posted a couple of pics from this show, got busy, and forgot about the more than three-hundred other photos i took that weekend. must not have been terribly hot, or there wouldn’t have been so many pics taken.
true, i get too busy to post anything, but not very often do i forget to go back and look through what was a full day and evening of shooting. as always, i started tagging pictures to post when i get time, but i probably have thousands at this point, so what’s a girl to do?
anyway, on a quick glance, there were a dozen that caught my eye, but this one suited my mood for the time being.
probably should get a taller tripod, or step back a bit more to avoid the little hint of distortion from the camera lens, but i thought this was still a decent shot of this car.
went to a memorial service for my younger brother today. i can’t believe he’s been gone not quite four months already. it still just feels like he just hasn’t come to visit my mom in a while.
early-on, i took a picture of the crowd—his wife said more than two-hundred people had rsvp’d, but when i took the shot, it was still closer to a hundred.
he would have loved it. people we grew up with, people he went to college with, his navy buddies, former co-workers all gathered to reminisce, as well as to enjoy seeing old friends. so many stories being told.
a couple of the guys that lived across the street, that i hadn’t seen since we were in high school showed up. i hadn’t recognized them as they walked past, but i guess they recognized me, and called after me. said they recognized my eyes. we’d all gotten older, and i would have never known it was them. so that was nice.
our mother, just turned ninety, was constantly surrounded by people sharing their memories, and i think that made her happy.
a table was set with things from his life: one of his flight helmets from his helicopter days; medals from his military sevice, and folded flag; pictures of his family, souveneirs from his career as an fbi agent [say it like keanu reeves] at lax; a letter to the family, signed by president biden; and more. his favorite drink was mountain dew, and favorite breakfast was kids cereals, so cans of the dew were included, and several containers of fruit loops and lucky charms were sat between the serious memorabilia.
a slideshow ran on a large screen off to the side. catered tables of sandwiches, cheeses, and cookies were visited by the crowd.
both his kids got up to speak. i don’t know how they got through reading their thoughts out loud, but they did. he would have been, and was, very proud of them, and in the scheme of things, they were his biggest accomplishments.
several people, from different parts of his life, got up to speak about him, as you do at these events. they all ultimately said the same things, he was the most kind, professional, funny, compassionate, great friend, social butterfly, and loving person they’d ever hope to meet.
my better half says he was the type of person that you’re all the better for knowing, or something to that effect.
and now there’s another empty chair at our holiday table, and a lot less laughter.
i miss him. and that’s all i want to say about that.