what's up?

lost my nerve

here’s another shot of el abuelo’s plymouth from a couple of summers ago. i just liked the picture and the location.

hotter than hell, and on my way to a heat stroke about this time.

i rather prefer his pontiac, but it wasn’t at vail hq that day. maybe he’ll bring it to chicano park day this year. really hoping to go, but i don’t know. not as healthy or up to going out anymore. better half is suggesting that we try another show before then; in between rainstorms on weekends…we’ll see.

been busy. lots going on.

better half has been talking about retiring for a few months.

made a decision a couple of thursdays ago, and told the bosses the next day he was done, and that was it. something about he couldn’t sell his company stock if he was employed, so he took care of that part of the equation.

he still gets up way too early, then spends each morning before the sun comes up, sitting in the jacuzzi, watching the stars, surprisingly not missing the job at all. lol.

now the pressure for me to retire, but i hadn’t thought about it, and i’m not old enough or ready, i guess.

he’s been keeping himself busy with a long list of things he hasn’t been able to do because work always took up so much of his time.

i think the same day he was busy deciding to retire, i went to the dentist. i mentioned a tooth that was bothering me, and the next monday, i was getting a root canal.

never had one before, and had always heard horror stories. for me, it seemed like a more intense cavity filling. took about an hour, a lot of steps, too many shots in the cheek nerves and gums, but otherwise was pretty easy. i guess i complained early enough, it wasn’t infected or whatever makes it worse.

they had a neat little machine that featured an attachment that fit over the drilled out top of the tooth and basically did a little pressure car wash in the empty root space. cleaning and disinfectant.

so i lost my nerve, and i’m ok with it.

now if i can just convince myself to go to a car show and remember how to take a decent picture.

rats

saw this interesting rat rod in one of the parking lots surrounding the race track, er, the streets of downtown riverside. seems to be a work in progress.

lots of little details to find here and there.

bullets, guns, rats, chains, skulls…it’s just a fun car to look at.

owner was a nice enough guy, and was happy to point things out to us.

11,579

so much walking around here, i’ve done just under five miles, or 11,579 steps.

was just stepping into my meeting, when my phone rings. had to step out to take the call. it was the guy from the rental car agency asking a favor. he was wondering if i might go to the car and check to see if there happened to be a passport in the glovebox, left by the previous renter of the car. the renter was in tears, going crazy since he needed it for his travels. told him i’d look later. he asked how far away i was, in case i did find it, and coincidently, the weepy guy is also here in vegas, in case it was in the car.

so about halfway through my meeting, during a break, i had to go back to my room, get the keys from the safe, and hike out to the car. hot furnace blast of hot air heading outside to the parking garage. hundred and six this afternoon, so quite a shock, coming out of this air-conditioned haven. up the elevator, too early for parking sharks, past some dude sitting in his car smoking some devil’s weed.

i get the rental guy on the phone and check the glovebox, center console, under the seats, and in the trunk. no luck. feel sorry for the guy.

late, i rushed back to my meeting, now overheating, to find they have continued without me. no big, they didn’t notice.

anyway, back in my room, watching the weather channel, thinking about sleep.

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here’s a hot rod from mooneyes, for something different.

not all those who wander are lost

santa fe springs rotary-7531And9morehdr.jpg

my alarm went off before four am today. had hoped to go to pomona, but my body disagreed with me, so i went back to bed.

when i woke up again, i decided to drive over to santa fe springs, to see what might be at the rotary club show. not too far away, and could turn around if i started feeling hinky. either way, was going to leave when it got too hot. my eyes seem to be sensitive to the bright light lately. i just hate to shoot with sunglasses on; makes it hard to focus, and i end up lifting them or looking over them anyway.

well, the rotary show was pretty small. not a very big parking lot. a mix of everything. lots of hoods up, so that made my stay a bit shorter than it would have been otherwise.

i saw this car last week, uptown at the dia de los muertos show, but it was tight between other cars.

here, it was on the end of the row, a little more room to see it better. has some interesting little details, as well as some painted on messages. the title of this post was painted over the rear driver side wheel; "don't fuckin' die" was painted above the steering wheel.

hellbound

i must say, life keeps on keeping on. car shows come and gone, and i missed them, and it doesn't matter. got other things on my mind, and there's always another show, another year.

mother-in-law in, then out, then in the hospital again. supposed to get out later today. guess that's how it's gonna be for a while. that's what we all have to look forward to, if we're lucky enough to live that long. my dad is up to bat next, just needs to get that scheduled.

myself, got stuck for lab tests today. annual physical coming up anyway, and to see if there's something i might be allergic to, though that has never been an issue, like, ever. [say it like a teenage girrrrl]

anyway, things may be going to hell in a handbasket, but i got my hairs done red again. kept that appointment; if anything happens, it doesn't matter if i was there or not.

so i'm gonna look good for about twenty-four hours, then i'll just go back to shabby old me, but with red hair. sometimes i wish i was good at girling...make-up and hair...but i just can't. i'll just keep looking like a pudgy long-haired version of my brother.

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hoping to head back to whittier tonight, and post more pictures. that i can do.

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here's a shot of something different from my usual. need to clear my head. fugly, but interesting at the same time, these beaters are distinctly unique [redundant?], and can be slightly challenging to frame up or find which point to focus interest on.

bucket

another one the owner hoped to see.

i had arrived early, parked in the designated lot, on the gift shop side of the mission. did not see any old cars. did not know where they were going to park them. sat in my car, listening to the radio.

then a big truck with a trailer pulls up in front of me, with this car on the trailer. i watched him unload it, and watched where he went with it, down an alley or was it a street?

shortly after, the los angeles bomb club cars drove in the lot, behind my car, and went down the alley as well.

i figured they must be between the buildings, but i didn't want to walk down the alley and around. so i wandered over to the church building, and down a small walkway past the cemetery. came up to what was a locked gate dead end, but a janitor had propped it open with a broom.

through that, around another building, and found the cars.

not a whole lot there early. the owner had parked his ford and was sitting with a guy who had brought in a military jeep.

i'd seen him watching me shoot some fleetlines, just out of the picture here. as i turned around and walked toward the green truck, he came over and inquired. told him i'd post a shot, so there you go...

uptown show

went out at five-thirty am today, up the street to the car show. better half walked me uptown, and pulled my camera bag around for a while. sun was already coming up.

noticed a bunch of classic cars in the rite-aid parking lot. went to shoot them, but they soon started to move over to the main street—they were there to volunteer to help set the show up and direct move-in, in exchange for prime parking.

strangely, as compared to prior years, they weren't starting move in until eight-thirty. we're used to a zillion cars lined up down the street waiting. nope, not much there.

spent time shooting the cars that were there. then noticed cars showing up further down, and went off to get those.

really love to shoot at this time of day, prior to move-in. fewer people, cool, overcast, everyone happy with anticipation. i really took the majority of my pictures waiting for eight-thirty.

then the time came, and it went very slowly. not sure what was going on, but it seemed to take forever to get cars moving. i took the opportunity to get some bfast.

i'm starting off, not with my favorite, best pics, but with the cars of people who talked with me, or asked about what i'm doing with the pics, as usual.

this nova was owned by the first guy that really chatted us up, mainly my better half, of course.

he popped the hood to show us what was hiding there, in spite of me wearing my infamous hat. whatever. here's a shot of the engine. dare a cop to try to catch up with it.

exhausted

quick post; i've been up and running since four am. not unusual for me on a weekday, but weekends, i prefer to sleep in. and i've been so busy at work, doing extra hours to meet deadlines—i hate tradeshow season.

anyway, made it out to garden grove and the hillco annual super cruise before the big game. was somewhat disappointed this year in that the turn out at five thirty in the morning wasn't what it's been the last few years that we've gone. add that it was overcast and really a nothing sunrise, with a hint of drizzle, i suppose that could be the reason. loved the overcast though, the big softbox in the sky. kept it way cooler than the average year at this show.

i'll write more on my next post, on another day. supposed to rain the next couple of days, so i will probably stay down at my mom's, away from the computer.

owner of this rat was curious, but only barely. asked if he would be able to search for a picture of it on the net. he could, but that would take way more time than just looking me up. tossed one of my cards through the roof hole...lol.

this shot shows a more overall view of the thing, but i kinda like the profile picture, which maybe i'll put up another day.

off to bed now...

ready to go

hot rod

saw this car at moon eyes. it was a bit different, a piece of art in progress. i just liked the headlights for some reason, so old timey.

happy birthday to my sister. really should see her more than just at thanksgiving and xmas, when she just lives out by the beach.

san diego has been nice for a week, but i think we're ready to go home. back to the grind, gotta pay for this trip and save up for another in six months.

spent the day in balboa park. tried to visit museums that we'd never been in, so bought a one day pass to up to five. i think we made it to about four, with a cannibal exhibit as an add-on charge at the museum of man. they also offered a climb to the viewing deck of the bell tower, which had been closed to the public for about eighty years, and recently opened to visitors in small groups. they said it will close again soon for additional "renovations."

in the tower, you climb about four flights of stairs, about one-hundred twenty-five steps. each landing, they give you a break and talk about some historical facts, and the carillion. there are open windows that allow fresh air to blow through.

the final level to the viewing level is an old spiral staircase, one person at a time. we were with a dad with three kids and another group, with a couple of women and a guy.

one of the women happened to be wearing a short, floral dress, so she was not only having to deal with climbing steep stairs, but having to hold the dress firmly around her thighs to keep the wind from blowing it up.

on the viewing level, there are four open windows, to four different views of balboa park. out one, if you squint very hard, you can spot a mexican flag in the distance, which is the border crossing. another looks over the old globe theatre and toward the zoo. each of the other two looked either way up and down the street of museums, and out to the city and waterfront.

we were all taking pictures, or using a pair of binoculars they had up there to see what you could see out the windows.

better half said at one point, he turned around, holding up his camera, ready to take a shot, when one of our escorts started shouting and waving her hands to stop him. apparently, short dress woman's dress had at that same moment, caught more than a breeze, and he got quite a show. but no picture.

needless to say, they let her climb down the spiral staircase first, when our time was up.

hot rod

hood ornament

no number given

1965 ford falcon

on a normal day, i would not have taken this shot. but random white guy, with a muscle car at a viejitos show, bounds up and starts chattering away, so i can't not take it.

he seemed really nice, and really enthused. sort of that surfer dude attitude.

said he'd grown up in cerritos. had been at some other show, where i think he said raynbow had told him abou this show, so he figured he'd come on down. mentioned that he'd seen himself driving his car in someone's video on youtube. told him i'd seen myself in someone's video on youtube...my backside, because i was busy taking pictures of cars as the videographer went by...seems to be typical.

got kinda wierd when he asked what i was doing later. i said playing with my pictures, but i don't think that was the answer he thought i'd give.

i took a few shots of his car. and when he yelled, asking if i wanted his phone number...ya no. told him i didn't think my better half would be cool with that, showing up with some random guy's number and no reason to have it. the guys nearby giggled a bit, but no offense was intended.