what's up?

sraining

it rained half the night, into morning here today. better have says i slur my words a lot, so i’d say it’s “sraining.” how very elvis of me. more rain coming tonight, and half of tomorrow. i love it. cold and gloomy.

stayed home most of the weekend, wrapping the eternal/infernal xmas tree with the usual ten thousand plus frigging lights. my hands and arms are scratched from the wire branches, and even my ankles have been shanked by the lower branches this year. maybe socks would help. thousands of little fruity lights. perhaps you might remember the tree just a block from uptown whitter. probably could have seen it from a plane.

anyway, it’s my gift to my better half, to get the thing wrapped with lights, since he’s been so busy with work lately. it makes him happy, to remember how much his mother loved xmas and that damn tree. so there you go. it will be up to him to decorate to whatever theme—did toy story again last year, so something else from storage and his mother’s ornament collection.

another car from the bomb club show. i hope you’re not tired of them yet. i have more to post. perhaps i should dip into the archives and post old ones?

nah, it was overcast that day, so it fits with my mood and the current weather, so that decides it.

nice car, and i managed to get no one moving thought the shot here, off to the side of the field.

i'm tired

i’m thinking that i need a new computer and more hard drive space. hoping to get to more shows in the future, and this camera pops out big files—but not as big as the files on my better half’s new camera. he’s already got himself a new gift for the holidays, and hopes to join me at some car shows.

he came with me to the bomb club show in october, and had a good time. was using his old camera with a lens he hadn’t used in a while.

we both shot this car. i just saw it over his shoulder, on his computer. he’s thinking about posting again on his website, which he’s ignored for far too long. not sure when or if he’ll share his version, but i like mine.

cars are moving in the background, and the owner is in the car, so this from the end of the show and drive out.

i’ve had a cold since thanksgiving. probably a bit earlier than that, when i complained to my doctor about my earache. earache, my eye. she said nothing was wrong then. nothing is ever wrong when i bother to go to a doctor’s office.

this thing moved from behind my eyes down to my throat and has pretty much stayed there. i’m coughing up a lung, even after two weeks, though i have no other symptoms. tested negative for covid at least four times now, so just a boring old cold, i guess.

i’m hoping to shake it off before the next vail headquarters car show in a couple of weeks. all the better reason to go out and see my grandkids there in temecula.

as you would expect, if you’ve read this blog for a few years, i’m not in the mood for xmas, and haven’t even looked at buying gifts yet, if at all. i’ve got some time off coming up, so maybe we’ll get out of the house, or help my mom put the decorations away after the holidays.

can’t believe my dad will have been gone four years come xmas eve.

sunshine

life can’t be all chevrolets and rainbows. sometimes i shoot the bikes, if they are more remarkable than off the shelf.

caught this one just before the gang were either getting ready to leave, or to just hang out by the bikes. had to change the angle of the shots to try to keep most of them out of the picture.

love the airbrushing and chrome. i hope they got it home before the rain started.

wildfire

last shot i promised to post. also the last shot of the night, from the field.

almost gave up, as a group of people kept milling around behind it. finally just said screw it, and shot a couple of sets of exposures. people walking through the shots come out as blurred figures, but at least they were behind the car.

the owner had originally been in the driver’s seat, getting the car started, to get in line to exit the park. seeing me set up my tripod, and basically stand there waiting on the exposures for several minutes, got him to turn on the lights, and out of the car.

he spent the time chatting with my better half, who always seems to explain what i’m doing. most people are happy to give me some minutes to shoot. my better half is more chatty than i, and better at it, anyway.

i like the glow, hence the game of thrones reference. better than “pyromancer’s piss.”

cool burn

i’m just going to post up a few pics that i’d promised from the bomb club show, then sift through others that i liked.

here’s the third one we had a chat with before we left. i should write these stories down within the day of the event, as the details start eluding me rather quickly.

what i think she said was that they’d just gotten this truck back from either getting the paint job and / or other body work, and that otherwise, they only take it out for car shows. i believe it wasn’t a daily driver; better half thinks she said it was a daily driver. looking at that paint, i’m more sure it isn’t.

beautiful flame paint. driving it would put too many chips in it, i would think.

in the kitchen with dyna

1938 buick roadmaster

1938 buick roadmaster speedometer

1938 buick roadmaster steering wheel

1938 buick roadmaster interior

1938 buick roadmaster dynaflash 8

another from the bomb club show. the owner told us he’d won a prize. said it was mostly original, except for the record player he’d installed, though he said it was of the same period, and played forty-fives.

he popped the hood to show my better half the engine. i don’t usually bother shooting under the hood, but it was pretty clean, and he was taking to time to chat, so why not?

he was very proud of the car. congrats to you.

on the home front, still no car for me. sort of a stalemate until it passes smog and light tests. pretty sure it has a bad bulb or socket. the shop has found a couple of things so far. hoping there is nothing further to at least get it back on the road. i know there are a few other issues to deal with, expected with an older car.

been borrowing mom’s van or my better half has been driving me to lunch and/or getting me to and from my mom’s if she isn’t doing the same.

took the opportunity to donate a couple of van loads full of junk from storage, and rearrange things, to get rid of one of my storage units. yay. one less thing to pay for.

better late than never

after being at work for a week, following a two week vacation, i decided to sleep in. my better half was up and running early, as he usually is, and had already been out for a walk, before i got out of bed. he was then off to do some shopping as i sat and read flipboard, emails, and tried to wake up.

better half got back a little after noon. i decided i wanted to go to a car show. i’d known that huffarama and the bomb club show were both going on.

having moved away from whittier has makes it more difficult to get out to as many shows as we’d used to go. ultimately decided to go to the bomb club show at santa anita, as it was closer, and it was already early afternoon.

he said he’d like to join me, so we both got about preparing our gear. fortunately, there was still juice in the camera batteries from vacation, though one of the cameras needed the date and time reset, from disuse.

after taking the quickest route, per the gps, we arrived close to two in the afternoon. had run into traffic, and it seemed to have taken forever.

i guess he hadn’t gone with me last time, during one of the summer blasts, so he was happily surprised at the location and turnout. i really loved that it was overcast and cold. it gets so hot in the summer, that i usually am out the door by noon, before i melt in the heat. was only sad that we hadn’t gone earlier.

we ended up not leaving until close to seven in the evening, when cars were driving out through the tunnel. we made one more turn around the grounds. better half was playing with a couple of lenses he hadn’t used in a while, so was enjoying shooting the cars, lights, and people.

saw this chevy sitting with his lights on, waiting for his friends to join the line to get out.

we recently took a two week vacation back east; a few days in chicago; a few days in dc. weather was perfect, and rain only came to both cities, the days we were leaving. overall, it was a much needed break, and was great. we only got short changed with our feet giving out much too soon each day, from so much walking.

i’d returned to find that some asshole had stolen the catalytic converter from my car, which i’d parked in front of my mother’s house. the neighbor has cameras, and found they’d done it during the first week we’d been gone, about five-thirty in the morning. needless to say, many expletives later, i’d had triple-a confirm my opinion, then began with the insurance company.

so, i’ve been busily getting estimates for the repair all week, only to have the insurance company declare it a total loss, and mark the title a salvage. a week of arguing with them about an otherwise perfectly functional car with new tires, has made me very tired. i’ve decided to get it fixed, for a settlement lower than i would have to just scrap it. i should have just fixed it in the first place and saved all the headache insurance has cost me.

the car show was a lovely diversion.

new beginning

i’m in a mood. things on my mind. gloomy outside. change is in the air.

starting with a new camera and lens. the brownie points program at work has informed us that we were going to have to use it or lose it, as it’s being revamped. they use this instead of just handing out cash when you get commended for working hard.

well, i’d saved up quite a large number of points, and wasn’t about to get screwed over that way, so finally was forced to get something. most of the stuff up for offer is crap, but they do have some slightly out of date camera gear. so i picked up a sony a7r iii body. really not my fave, but sony seems to be moving to this smaller size thing.

then, my birthday was a week ago, so my better half got me a new wide angle lens.

took this set up out for a test drive this past friday, out to ruby’s, since the season has started.

the main feature i hate is the screen doesn’t flip and twist like my old cameras. so when i set it up high on my tripod, i really need to stand on tip toes or a curb to see the screen somewhat. or just shoot blind.

still not too sure about the lens. going to have to shoot some more, and get a bit more pissed at it. at least, my better half says that’s what happens every time i get new equipment.

i think i need to tweak the settings as well. some images came out fairly in focus, and others just missed it. makes me want to bust out the other camera i have in the bag, but i need to break this thing in, while i can still return it.

and the files are so big, i’m going to need a bigger boat, err, hard drive/more back up drives.

i dunno. it didn’t seem to like being pointed into the sunset, as you can see. the lens distorts a bit, so will have to go find a lens profile for it.

next up, in the summer of fun, will be finishing packing, and moving soon. not too far.

one thing at a time. one thing at a time.

get on with it

hoping the bomb club show at santa anita won’t have to be postponed again. [edit — as of 7/29 this show has been cancelled] october usually means travel, celebrating our anniversary. lucky number thirteen coming up.

at least the weather then can be so unpredictable, and hopefully not so summer hellish hot.

this topless babe is from a couple of years ago, early morning overcast. i do love that.

—————

my mother-in-law died a month ago. she was a month shy of ninety-three.

a long time coming, it happened too fast, after all.

the house is quiet.

better half was directed to not “dawdle,” and take care of her personal effects quickly. going through papers, boxes, and items stored in the garage. a lifetime of living doesn’t disappear fast enough.

the xmas tree finally had to come down; won’t be able to get her furniture out the front door otherwise. ten thousand lights took five evenings to unwind off the branches. how will we be able to navigate the streets, without that fruity beacon in the dark?

now we are free to travel, yet we cannot go anywhere. every day is exhausting. there is a piece missing.

we each hear her call to us in the middle of the night, as she used to; better half gets down the hall to her doorway, only to realize the room is empty of the life that was his constant companion these past few years, these past half dozen decades.

so you might say we’ve been a bit preoccupied. you’d think there would not be enough water inside yourself, to produce all of the tears. they are less sad, and more the happy memory variety now, but those have been hard won. just have to let them have their way with you, and get on with it.

goodbye, enedina. you were well loved, and sorely missed…

another extra

shame to leave this behind, sitting in the queue.