what's up?

rumble on

quick post, as my eyes are burning from staring at computer screens and staying awake too long today.

thought i’d have lots of time to work on pictures, being stuck here at my mom’s house. but nooooo. if i’m not putting in eight hours or more of actual paid work, i’m walking a dog, digging up weeds, sifting through dad’s stuff, thinking about listing said stuff online, laundry, shopping, etc. then after all that, my kid always wants someone to watch netflix with her. right now, she wants me to watch community, which i managed to miss when it was originally on. turns out it was quite funny. each episode seems to be prefaced by, “this is my favorite…”

told her no tonight, wanted to play with my pictures. she was fine with that, as she does her own art, but she has the luxury of no set schedule, no job, and stays up all night, sleeps half the day. especially today. she celebrated four-twenty a bit too happily, and at least she’s been in a good mood all day.

aside from that, being back full-time in a house i’d lived in since we moved here in the seventies is both comforting and weird. it makes strange noises. not just a settling creaking. the front rooms rumble intermittently throughout the day. sometimes the living room, but lately, mostly the garage.

i have to go out to the garage to get dog food, some random thing from a shelf or the fridge. rumble rumble. i joke that godzilla is in the attic, but manage not to be curious enough to climb the stairs out there. at the very least there are spiders up there. maybe it’s shelob, and i have no sword to face it, unless the mini sting letter opener counts.

what creeps me out, is going out there late in the evening. as you approach the door, you hear the crickets creak creaking happily. once you step foot out, and turn on the light they momentarily stop, but then get going chirping again. but often, they stop again, completely. total silence. the way animals go silent in the forest in movies, when something bad is about to happen to the hapless human among them. my mind goes to the alien queen is about to drop from the eaves in the ceiling, or the dilophosorus that bursts from my mom’s vehicle and spits slime into my eyes, blinding me and chomping on my guts whilst that dog beasts sits down the hall because he wasn’t an idiot, and stayed inside. so mad dash to get back inside the house and lock the door. lol.

seriously, though, something is rumbling the house. ex says hot water heater, which is old. but that damn thing shouldn’t rumble the whole house like that. he doesn’t seem worried enough to come check it out, and i haven’t been able to record it, as it happens on no particular schedule.

i’d like to know if the house is about to blow, since my mom’s room is the closest to the garage. maybe we’re on an unknown fault line.

the furnace is inside the house, so doubt it’s that. hopefully, we’re all still alive when this pandemic is over and rodan hatches and bursts through the roof.

here’s another car pulled from the past. 2012, original mike’s in santa ana. back when i’d be crazy enough to hit up two or three smaller shows in one day.

turns out to be a bridgetown oldie, a bit far from home, if you ask me.

uptown

so while i haven't had the energy to get out to any shows lately, i did walk uptown today for lunch. pretty fortunate that whittier is a popular place for low riders, and i can pretty much count on at least one car cruising by the house on the daily.

usually post walkabout cars i spot on my instagram, since all i have on me at most times is my phone. not much lately, since i've been out of town a lot, but posted a fifty-six bel air today. i drove past a thirty eight chevy out on whittier blvd, i didn't shoot it. being in a moving vehicle kinda makes it a bit difficult, though i have been known to pull over and walk back once in a rare moment.

anyway, this here car is from uptown, but on purpose. once upon a time, there was the low down in uptown store on the corner, and a couple of times they invited their friends to town for a little car show action. usually until the cops showed up and mentioned the fact they hadn't pulled permits or the neighboring businesses didn't appreciate the type of crowd or just the crowd that came with the cars.

if this is the car i'm thinking of, i believe it's sailed off across the ocean, to japan or australia or some other far away place. shame. it was such an interesting car.

adult beverages

i was heading back to the house when i noticed the bridgetown guys parked over on bailey street, near the barber shop, the one with the motorcycle in the window. it was getting pretty warm by then, so i was taking a break in the shade, leaning on the wall.

couple of the guys noticed, and offered me an adult beverage. no thanks, don't drink. another guy offered water, but i was ok, almost home, so declined.

asked if they were going to pomona the next day, as i know from experience, they are usually the first club there by the grandstands every time.

they laughed, and said that some of the guys would be there, but doubted they themselves would make it, at least first thing. by then, one of the guys seemed to recognize me, another asked for a card.

anyway, thanks for offering the drink(s); if i was going to keep going, i would have taken you up on it.

pretty sure i've shot this fleetmaster elsewhere, but thank you sir, may i have another?

not going to miss my shot

i think this was the car, that the owner lamented, that no one ever takes a picture, and jumped out of my way when i set my tripod down. (apologies to my high school english teacher for that butchered phrasing.) pretty sure i've shot it before elsewhere, but i can't see the plates on it, so can't be sure.

perfectly fine car, so i don't know why he would think no one shoots it. perhaps, it had to do with being parked next to the pontiac i posted yesterday. sort of like the plain jane out and about with her much hotter friend, who gets all the attention.

is this a forty-seven or forty-eight? anyone? anyone?

looks like it was getting ready to rain again at this point, so got this one image of it, and a few more nearby cars, before the time stamps on my pictures stops for some time, while i went back to the overhang to wait it out.

water dance

i arrived way early for the anniversary show at friscos, hoping to catch whichever club was there to set things up. sprinkled the whole way there from whittier.

got there about nine-forty-five. absolutely nothing and nobody. fine. killed almost an hour wandering around in home depot. looked at the crap flooring and carpeting options. looked at doors and locks. out to the garden area, to peek through the fence for any cars arriving. nope.

wandered the back wall, found an air filter that i needed for my house, and then had something to carry around, so as not to look so conspicuous. traveled to the other end, the wood pile. cut cedar wafted about, i thought of xmas trees.

finally paid for my little filter, and headed out to the car.

happily, people had arrived, and were setting up. my car had been made inside the bounds of the show tapes. chucked the filter in the trunk, and moved my car further down the parking lot.

first club there was the los angeles bombs. so i shot a bunch of pics of those cars. then it started to sprinkle. so i headed to the overhang by a closed store, and hung out with the guys. had a nice chat with a guy about his son and photography.

finally, more cars showed up, in spite of the light rain, which eventually let up.

repeated the taking of pictures and the retreat to the overhang quite a few times. camera body is water-resistant, but not my lens, and i can't afford to replace them, so priorities.

anyway, i did take many pictures that i really like. so closed my eyes, and threw a theoretical dart at the screen, and here is a pontiac. guessing it's a thirty-nine. i've seen one other, but not in green.

pretty, isn't it?

butts

supposed to rain again tonight. guess i'll head to my mom's house for a couple of days. also, my daughter will be flying in mid-week. i'm already overloaded with work for the next couple of weeks, so i should be insane by next weekend.

posting one from the fairgrounds, since i didn't go to the swap meet today. true, it was raining at five in the morning, but it cleared up by lunchtime.

just love the curves on the back ends of fleetlines. bridgetown is always found here, along the bleachers. like they must always be first in line at the gates, at five in the morning. actually earlier. i get there at five and they're already in place, at least a few, staking out the row.

bullet

we go uptown a lot. there are lots of flyers posted on shop windows, so when we pass one that's advertising a car show, we make a note of it.

saw several posted in various places for the usuals' "chinga las vegas" get together over at legg lake. knowing the kind of cars in the club, i knew the kind of cars that would show up.

my better half was waiting for a call to go into the office, so i didn't think he'd be able to go. when i finally got moving and decided to head over, he decided he would go with, as long as i could bring him back home if he got called. i was also thinking i could just drop him off and keep on going over to the latin gents show.

we stayed at the show for a couple of hours, then had lunch. by the time we got home, we decided to stay put. if we'd headed to westminster, there would have been only about an hour left of the other show, so maybe next month.

apparently, the show was unsanctioned, or they didn't pull a permit, and the cops were keeping a close eye, and sometimes just harassing the guys. were being picky about how some cars were parked, and not others.

-----

saw this beater drive through the show, as we were heading back to the car. noticed it had a bunch of real bullet holes in the trunk, not those stupid stickers.

my better half got the story from the owner. so second-hand, and knowing he isn't going to post his pics any time soon, i'll put mine up.

owner told him he'd seen it from the freeway, in someone's yard. i guess he somehow convinced them to sell it to him. it wasn't running, so he'd had to rebuild some parts of the engine. he'd only had it out and driveable last week. he said he was intending to fix it up, but that everyone is telling him it's too cool and that he should leave it alone. i sort of agree.

did not get the story of the bullet holes, so just make up a story.

i don't know whether he'll continue to work on it, but it is really cool right now.

requested

wondering around pomona last weekend, early in the morning. sun coming up. his hood down. wishing the guy next to him had done the same, but really liked this fleetline. this car is blue on blue, but the sun hitting it, is making it look green.

apparently, my better half wandered by the same car at some point, and chatted with the owner. he mentioned that he'd seen me shoot this car in san pedro as well, and was interested in seeing any shots i had of the car. ya, he did want to see my better half's shots, but my better half hardly posts anymore, so told the guy he'd have better luck asking me.

so both the owner and his wife emailed me separately inquiring about it. he parks it in with the bridgetown club, but i'm not clear that he is part of the club.

found at least three shots of it. two of my favs were from pomona, several months apart. i did find the one shot from san pedro, but it's kinda weak, more from the front.

here's the other one from pomona.

still not early enough

got my ass out of bed at 5ish last sunday, so i could head out to the pomona fairgrounds for the car show and swap meet before the day heated up. by the time i drove over, sat in the line of cars heading up the hill, parked out in the plural zed alpha of the parking lot and walked over to the show cars by the grandstands, it was already 7:30am. sheesh.

but damn. so many cars. i got going quickly and shot a bunch before i had to take a break from the sun and have breakfast. and cold water. trying to cut back on the coca-cola. and oh how i want to have one. like all the time. probably why i'm so tired all the time now.

anyway, aside from working too much, i spent the other day just sorting through my shots. i got a lot of nice ones, which is both good and bad. i have so many i like, i can't decide what to post.

this fleetline was actually my first shot of the day. used my old wide angle lens to start with, then switched later in the day to the new one. i think this is one of the bridge town oldies sgv cars, but i could be wrong. they were parked at this end of the grandstand, but there were a few that weren't showing any club affiliation mixed in.

i do love a nice fleetline.

gotta get there earlier next time...what's that, get up at like 3 in the morning...errrr.