rats

ford rat rod

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.

weekend in riverside

here’s a brief selection of images from the riverside show and go last weekend. started with friday evening cruising around several blocks of downtown riverside, followed by more of the same and competitions on saturday. i have a few more pics, i or my better half promised to upload…as soon as i can get the time.

compared to the last time i went, this show had more than expected. lots of cars that i was interested in, to balance out the newer cars and hot rods that i could care less about. saturday’s cars overflowed the streets. i think they may have actually sold out, with six hundred cars cruising and parked along the route.

since we stayed at a local hotel, we were able to come and go as we wanted. it also allowed me to skip the sunrise shooting i’d typically want to get, since we’d gotten the sunset pics the night before.

better half ended up staying in the hotel on saturday while i went out, as he’d hurt his back. he literally couldn’t move without searing pain. figured it was best to just let me go and get my ya yas out, before it got too hot. he waited for the ibuprofen to kick in, but it really didn’t help. think he has a slipped disc.

we took it easy for the afternoon, when it really got too hot for me to deal with at the show.

got up early on sunday, and out of the parking garage, just before the gate guard got there…free parking for the weekend! yippee. and off to see a doctor…

not all those who wander are lost

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. 

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.

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

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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

junk

i sometimes take pics of these rat rods. canabalized old cars frankensteined into something more interesting, usually feature fun, unfinished textures.

there weren't too many at the super cruise, at least during the few hours i was there. this one happened to park across from the dukes' cars i was shooting, so when people stepped away from it, i took a quick detour to it. only took a couple of shots. liked this one best.

dodge

so just running virus scans and doing copyright filing, looking through old pictures. i kinda like this one. not the whole car, which was kinda frankencar, just the front here.

some thing

found this thing parked between two semi-trucks. just random. so i randomly shot a picture of it. no hood ornament, so otherwise, i don't know why i did.

i do like the sunrise light.

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just back from a weekend in san diego. probably will be down there a few more times this year.

sunday morning, we hopped the little red train down to barrio logan to get some breakfast at the market. was fun watching my better half ordering from the lady at the register, who didn't seem to speak english.

his mom was born in and grew up in new mexico, of mexican parents, but refused to teach his sister and him to speak spanish—figured they were in america, they should speak english. still, he knew enough words to get the order right. i took years of spanish in school, was married to a mexican, and still can't speak it at all, so good for him.

after we ate, we walked around chicano park a bit. never went there when it hasn't been full of cars. mostly empty, with some sketchy people hanging around the edges and under the overpass. they must move them out of there at car show time.

duck, i'll shoot

hood ornaments. love'em. what can i say?

this duck has teeth. wtf?

when pigs fly

love hood ornaments. non-standard ones are often more fun. found this one on some random rat rod.

maybe i'll collect them some day, but not now, as i really don't have a shelf to put them on. maybe on my desk at work, next to to giant fox tail hanging there already.