what's up?

asshole

mooneyes 1-887And9more.jpg

excuse the title, it’s not about this beautiful car, out at mooneyes open house in 2019. slammed to the ground. would win the dollar contest between the car and the ground. shiny as shit too. nice nice nice.

no, i’m still fuming about a neighbor who seems to think the open parking spots next to his condo are his personal spots. he came out to bully me after he saw my better half drive away. they’re first come, first serve. if unavailable, drive to the back of the complex, sir. a little walk might do him good.

said he was going to complain to the hoa. i told him i was going to complain about he and his wife always parking for hours in the fire lane next to the fire hydrant.

useless security company won’t come out except if they have a car in the area, and cops won’t come into the “private property, ” so what are we paying for exactly?

i’m sending a strongly worded email to the hoa contact. he won’t do anything, but at least i’ll have it documented in case the guy decides to do anything to our car. better half had been covering his, but thought someone might have pissed on it last night.

so mad. and now i have a headache. never had issues before, when i parked out on the street. newer cars now, one goes in the garage, one in the complex. space happens to be open, we’re going to park there, asshole.

it was an accident, i tell ya

the end of our journey down route 66 had us out at the wigwam motel in san bernardino. cute, but kinda crap part of town. homeless people hanging around just outside the fence, having to be chased out by management. small room, as expected inside a “teepee.”

just so happened to be less than ten minutes from huffarama, the day we check out. time crunch, as we have a rental car to return in the afternoon, but we still managed a few early hours after talking our way in.

this was one of the first pics i shot. the finish on that gold one…like buttah.


better half got boxed in on street parking xmas day. car in front of him right on his bumper, and in front of a fire hydrant.

he called the cops. they dispatched an officer. better half pleads his case. officer asks where he was going on xmas day? he says, i have family to go visit. officer seems perplexed. why would you want to do that?

officer finally just says he’s not giving writing a ticket on xmas day. even for parking in front of the fire hydrant.

these cops really just don’t want to enforce the laws here. too much paperwork.

better half misses whittier pd, at least they’d show up and tow cars for violations. and he would get his schadenfreude on.

road tripped out

route 66-3099And9more.jpg

quick post, as we’re just back from a two-week, five-thousand+ mile trip to there and back: up the coast, across the country and back on route 66. i may get into more details on the trip later, but keeping in mind that i only post cars on this here bloggy, here’s a quick story.

we were driving about three-hundred miles a day sometimes, and i was typically booking a hotel randomly about an hour or two before sunset, depending on how tired we were.

this was last saturday, and as we pull into springfield, missouri, on the main drag, the sun had already set, i thought i heard engines revving. turning onto the road leading up to the hotel, i spy a yellow thirty-four ford hot rod going the other direction. hmm. random, i thought.

passing a few hotel parking lots, i see several classic cars sitting in the dark. wth. then, as we turn into our hotel’s portico, i saw this beauty sitting off to the right of the hotel entrance.

we unloaded the rental car quickly, got checked in. better half settled in to look at pictures on his ipad, that he’d taken earlier in the day. told him i’d walk down the hill with my brother, to pick up some food from the steak ‘n shake i’d seen there. seeing that i’d grabbed my tripod and big camera, i’m sure he didn’t expect to get food any time soon. i was excited to see a bunch of classic cars here at a randomly selected hotel was a total surprise. i haven’t taken any pictures of old cars in months, and i didn’t realize how much i missed it.

i didn’t shoot everything i saw, but also thought they all might just drive away before i got them. a lot of what i initially saw on the way up the street did leave, but many remained. i was in a hurry to get to the food, so didn’t shoot as many as i would have liked.

we did finally get down the hill to the food place, only to find they’d closed the dining room ten minutes earlier. had to head back to the room, to get my better half to drive us down the hill and through the drive-thru for dinner.

after a look around on the internet, i found out it was the aftermath of the mid-america street rod nationals at ozark empire fairgrounds. the two-day show was over, and these were just people too tired to drive home, and had booked up hotels, and were doing some cruising on the main street.

i guess my better half is right, that i can stumble across a car show anywhere. sorry, d.

for those of you interested in a more thoughtful daily post of our random trip, please check out my better half’s blog. i was mostly just along for the ride anyway.

waiting/stressing

1951 mercury

1951 mercury

why is it repairmen and plumbers always give you a two-hour window for their visit, knowing they will always be there in the last five minutes of said window? i know they are padding their time from the previous appointment, or are they expecting you to be the one running late?

i’m punctual. i’m on time. hell of a day going at work, and i had to get home to facilitate their schedule. dude has another forty-five minutes, then i’m just going to wait some more. 

i will have to go back to the office to make up time, then probably stay later working on some hard deadlines.

the only bright spot in the day is that i knew about the staying late part.  i brought my cameras, so i could possibly, actually make it out to the orange county cruise night at sonic in anaheim. i may be on my way back to whittier during show hours. hoping there may be a few cars to shoot anyway.

——— 

here’s a merc i saw at pomona a few months’ ago. i liked the color. the fisheye distortion is a little much, but it just makes it look like it’s smiling.  

tyson

1951 mercury

1951 mercury

shiny back ends from pomona a couple of months ago. pretty sure my better half was with me that morning, so this must be from march, actually. before his sister took off, and didn't come back to help with their mom. seems to be how we tell time around here...days blur together anymore.


queue the long, poorly told tale of yesterday evening—in case you want to opt out, and continue to some other post. i'm pretty tired.

took me an hour and a half, at least, to get home yesterday. i left work at three on a friday. just my daily hell.

ordered some dinner from one of the uptown restaurants. fuck cooking. didn't even want to walk over to pick it up...drove over to get it, and the order was just being brought out when i walked in the door, five minutes before it was expected to be ready. sometimes things just work out as they should.

then my daughter sends me a picture of my mom.

she had just gotten home from work. she walked into the kitchen, where my mom was apparently behind the doors of the pantry, trying to figure out dinner herself. 

kid calls out to her, and my mom peeks out from around the door. she has a black eye. 

daughter is like, "wtf." my mom said she'd gone for a nap around four, just fine. apparently, she woke up like that. slept on that side.

i previously mentioned that my mom had fallen backwards on the driveway. so that can't be a good sign, right?

thinking something bad was going to happen, kid sent me the picture. she tried talking her into going to the hospital to get checked out, since she'd refused the day she fell.

she wasn't having any of it, very, "it's nothing." really didn't want to go to the hospital.

i, of course sent the pics off to my brother and sister. other bro is off on vacay somewhere or other.

sister got on the phone to her before i could. brother responds with a comment about maori warriors. i say mike tyson.

i call my kid, who says gramma is on the phone with aunty. i can hear in the background, that my sister is having no luck convincing her into going. my dad, is meanwhile, upstairs sleeping and unaware.

finally, she's off the phone, so bye kid, calling gramma now. my turn goes better. point out that she may be bleeding into her head, and the pressure is building, she may have a concussion, she could lose her eye, she could have a stroke, and any other outcome i have seen on all the medical shows i've ever watched.

she was still saying no, that it will be too busy on a friday night, but i just said that i was coming down there, so she might as well get ready, make a list of her meds. i was going to be there to check her myself. she relented for whatever reason, and agreed to go then.

notified bro and sister that i'd gotten her to agree to go to the emergency room. back on the road south within about five minutes. sister calls about twenty minutes later saying she was going to meet up at the house and go with us.

blah blah blah. cutting to the chase, because i assume everyone knows the drill at a hospital. she'd fallen, so that called for x-rays, blood work, ct scan.

while she's off doing her thing, kid sends another picture. dad this time. he's got his own issues. he'd also fallen down earlier in the week, but hadn't told anyone until the day before. without going into specifics on him, he's got some bleeding going on somewhere, and it looks worse then ever. so we're off showing the pictures to nurses, asking their opinion on if we should make him come in. nurses do not want to give legal advice or opinions, but would say that is not normal.

we're on the phone with him, saying we'll come pick him up and bring him in, there isn't much waiting, and we could have both parents in the hospital together. we know how to rock a friday night. he refuses, saying he has doctor appointments lined up already for the week, and it can wait. he says no, it's a no. men. pfft.

meanwhile, mom is returned to us in the waiting room.

she'd landed on her ass, so that's bruised and sore. she walks slowly, and refuses to really be pushed around in a wheel chair. she'd also bumped her head on the cement. under her queen of england helmet hairstyle, she's got quite a pointy bump growing as well. i think she's going to be a unicorn if she doesn't get some ice on that.

only really waited about an hour to get an exam room. doctor comes in, with his dictation lackey behind him, typing up everything being said.

tests are not showing anything that would cause the bleeding. he keeps saying it looks like old blood, and that it will probably look worse before it looks better. says had i brought her in the first day, he'd have kept her overnight for observation because of the meds she takes, but now that it was several days later, he could see what's going on easier.

all in all, unless she feels worse, starts throwing up, feeling dizzy, vision problems, she should be ok. rest, and ice packs advised, and we're sent home within two and a half hours.

it's after midnight. kid has been up, keeping an eye on grampa, waiting for us to come home. he's had a late, late dinner, and is going to bed, not the hospital.

that late, i'm staying there, knowing my plans to go to one of six or seven car shows is blown. funny how easily it is to know what and where is more important to be, and how often lately i have had to skip anticipated car shows. next year, they will always come around again. parents, are on a limited clock now, so priorities.

this morning, i was awakened around eight by my kid's dog, who is barking out the window of the next room. kid has left for work already.

figured he needed to go outside, and/or eat his food. i slipped on the top stair, but luckily had my hands on the rails for a change. i totally would have fallen on my ass, and broke something otherwise. must be a ghost tripping people in the house, right?

i intended to wait until my dad got up, see how he was doing before making a decision on heading home. better half needed/wanted to get out of the house and to the market.

dad came down the stairs on his little mobile stairs chair thing around noon. made him a deal: mom would call his doctor's office, tell them what's going on, and if they said he needed to go to the emergency room, he would go. he agreed, just said he wasn't going to make the call.

his doc is out of town for the weekend, so she talked to the other guy. had to tell the whole story all over again. both times i hear her just throw in at the end of the story that he'd fallen, might that have anything to do with this bleeding?

they end up agreeing to see the doctor on monday, since he is otherwise not having any other symptoms or pain. like moving a mountain. at least he'd agreed to go if they'd said to.

i was free to go. day half over. stop for lunch. freeway traffic sucks. made it home at almost four o'clock.


better half is out driving around somewhere. i'd suggested he hit up the santa fe springs swap meet, see if anyone is playing a concert. he seemed more inclined into going to fry's or guitar center. will probably end up at in-n-out, since it's open late. or, for all i know, he's just in the back of his car sleeping.

i don't know how tomorrow will go. it's already almost eleven pm. i want to go to a car show in the morning. there are several. i'm tired. pretty sure i will just go to the closest—up the street at the high school fundraiser.

better half needs to do some overtime for work, so i will also probably have to get to the supermarkets. hate shopping. oh well. priorities.

twiddling my thumbs

cinco de mayo 1-4539And9morehdr.jpg

i’ve been waiting fifteen minutes for this windows update to finish, here at work. i actually have stuff to do, so this is slightly inconvenient....

ah, there it goes. only had to start a post on my phone to make it complete...blog blocker.

well, here’s a nice merc from last weekend at the park. interesting ghost flames in the paint. 

thinking

thinking of which show to go to tomorrow.

                                                                  ...probably both.

thinking of what to do for vacation.

                                                                  ...home, north, south, east?

thinking of how to get through the next two weeks until vacation.

                                                                  ...no fuckin' idea. just will.

just finished sorting and stacking pics i shot on friday evening at a couple of shows i haven't been to in a long time. had my cameras with me, so i stopped on the way home. now it's late, and i should get to bed if i'm actually going to get up and go to a show in the morning. and it's so tempting to just keep the blinds closed and hide from the world for one more day.

guess i should have gone to manny loco's today...i've seen some excellent pictures on insta, but i didn't so i won't dwell on it.

i suppose i'm just burned out from work, and need to recharge. just gotta make it two more weeks...


not sure if this is a mercury. can someone tell me? here i'll show you the sideview, with the suicide door. does it help?

no pressure or nothin’

chopped mercury

a while back i mentioned that they asked me at work, if i would be able to consult or maybe even shoot portraits of management types at the office. and then it never happened. next big event, they hired the outside guy to shoot it. fine by me; didn't want to deal with that many big cheeses from all over the states, in one setting, much less one after another. that would be dealing with a lot of people and my little introverted circuits would be overloaded pretty quickly. and i shoot cars, not people.

well, i guess the usual guy that shoots quick and dirty stuff is out of the office this week. says he has an ulcer. that didn't take long; he's only been there a year or two. j/k. sucks.

so the public relations girl asks if i might be able to take a picture of someone who is visiting the office tomorrow, if i could bring in my camera...not sure where the company camera is, but most likely its a canon or nikon, and i'd be pretty dumb using it, not knowing my way around either one. her existing picture is fuzzy/blurry. i have a kick-ass hundred millimeter macro, so i think i can do better.

i've had to go back and review all the class notes and the book i studied on doing portraits, and did a crash sitting with my better half being my test subject. i think it'll be ok. only thing to worry about really is that the room they'll have me shoot in has windows on two sides and an obnoxious orange wall on the other. hoping they know where the green screen might be hiding.

i could take her outside, in natural light. just pretend she's a car, and aim for her headlights, i mean her eyes, not her hooters.


speaking of green, this car was pretty bright. i wonder if i could use it to strip in other backgrounds, like the memes have been doing with the queen elizabeth birthday pictures and that bright green suit she was wearing.

i thought the shot straight from the camera was pretty clean, so i only kicked the pixels a little bit.

father and son

1951 mercury and 1950 ford

1951 mercury

putting up a few shots of these two cars, since the kid asked. well, he asked my better half, and then i got the email.

i like the idea of the nose to nose shot, but i'm not so sure my wide angle lens does them justice. just couldn't get up high enough. maybe next time i should climb on top of another car or truck.

not sure if these are works in progress or if this is it. better half said the headlights are really meant for motorcycles is what i think they told him. whatever they are, the headlights on the black one had small red lights around them and they made the grille glow red.

black one belongs to the dad, the other to the kid. nice to share the same interest, and to pass your knowledge on to the next generation.

long way to go

1940 mercury

i've seen this car before. probably at chicano park.

i was chatting with a car owner when i spied this car drive by at the end of the lane. he off-handedly mentioned that the merc owner had driven up to city of industry from san diego. that'd be about a three hour drive on a good day. but on a friday, it must have been hellish.

gave me more hope that this frisco's show was worth the effort to get here. having the previous show shut down before it had barely got off the ground, definitely was a good sign.

but what if this guy drove all the way the eff up here, just to have to leave?

i guess it was a gamble he was willing to make. i did not hear that the authorities shut it down after we left, so he lucked out.

i bet he has plenty of friends to hang out with as a back up anyway. nice car, no problem meeting people, i suppose.


rained a bit today. predictions put it at eighty percent chance of rain all day saturday and sunday, so i guess my weekend outings are off. shows may be on, rain or shine, but my lenses don't like rain that much. maybe i'll actually pack up my camera that crapped out on me last summer, and send it in for repair. does me no good as a paperweight.