what's up?

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.

round trip

made a trip up to whittier today. had to pick up a few things. took my mom for a joy ride as well, since she hasn’t been out of the house much.

mom stayed in the car. better half greeted me at the door masked and gloved, and handed me a set to put on, while in the house. he takes this stuff seriously. only thing missing is gowns and hair covers and some sort of thing that would rain down disinfectant to kill the cooties on my hair and clothes at the door. i envision something more marilyn monroe over the grate for some reason.

i guess the neighbor across the street tested positive, and the other neighbor had gone in a car with that guy, so he is pretty sure he has it too. tried to bum some masks and gloves off the better half, but was told that since he already has it, he wasn’t going to waste a mask on him. that neighbor, well, both those guys, are usually assholes to my better half, so payback is a bitch, i guess.

i got on with collecting things quickly. kid texted that she was going out with her dad to watch movies or something, and the dog was home alone, doing who knows what. better half has some hard to get stuff, that we don’t really need right now, but took it just in case. i can always take it back.

before we left, my mom got out and went to mother-in-law’s window to wave hello. they were both happy to see each other, as it has been several years, though they couldn’t hear each other through the glass.

stopped at the in-n-out drive through near the freeway off valley view for a quick lunch via the drive through. watched the clouds moving in, as predicted. apparently rain moved north to south, as it started up there soon after we left, and is only just now sprinkling down in the oc.

also made a quick stop at the office for something i forgot—they had me go back in late last monday to collect my computer so i could start working from home. the building was closing the next day, then the following day, reopened, and by friday was closing down again.

always strange to be in the empty office. have never seen the elevators so clean before. they’ve hired people to scrub all the surfaces down, hey, they even cleaned my desktop. :)

the blast doors to the lobby were shut, so had to get in the area through a different door. curious to see if security says anything, since there are cameras watching your every move. hell, nobody said anything when i hauled a desktop computer and two big ass monitors out the door, so i see no reason to fret over some papers and a sweater.

was sad to learn that the doorman there had died earlier in the week. had seen him on monday at lunchtime. they did not disclose the cause, but guessing he was just old or a heart attack.

back home now. unloaded the car, mom has gone off to nap. i managed to walk the dog before the rain started. now i am bouncing around between three computers in the house.

tore down my dad’s computer, and set up my home computer there. only to find out the internet is not working up there. i have my work computer set up in the front room on two card tables—one for each monitor, and plugged into the router. am currently using my mom’s computer, as i’m not going let work watch what i type here. keeping their stuff separate; they can keep their spyware on their stuff to watch their stuff.

been a bit of finagling to get my pics from one computer to another, but i managed. hadn’t booted up my personal computer in a couple of weeks for more than just paying bills or seeing if it worked. have just been really busy. the on'/off button is on it’s last legs, so i may not even be able to get it started soon. better half may have to order one online and walk me through a replacement operation.

having to do my own laundry too…imagine that! better half usually does it, since he’s always home. i’d hauled a bunch of work clothes down here, and now i don’t need to get out of my pajamas. hell, i’m not going to wear a bra until this effing virus is gone. lol. that stuff is all washed and hung up, ready to go when it’s all over, or when it’s all over…

so, i think we’re set for a while. maybe i can work on pictures more often, if the dog will leave me be. he’s been very good while i’m on my work computer. i think, though, that he has an inner clock that knows i should be off work and available to scratch his ears and feed him and take him outside.

taking the opportunity to dig into old backup drives hidden around this house.

this is only a couple of years ago, but i liked it on a quick run through. summer blast 2018. my dad was still alive, this car taken a month before his birthday. <sigh> sorry, sitting in his chair, in his computer room had me thinking…

it was a good show. has been since the bomb club started doing shows at the track. the overcast kept the heat down until lunchtime, and i was there early to make the most of the day.

power on, garth

well that didn’t last long. power back on just under two hours. so much for my game. just posting to end the game. back to work on today’s pics if my files aren’t corrupted.

——-

bike from the bomb club show at santa anita in june. fortunately, i shot low enough, that you can’t see the little car that was parked a bit behind it.

trickery

at my mom’s tonight. she accused me of playing a trick on her. said there were several phone calls today that she didn’t answer. she screens her calls…so many robocalls come in.

these calls popped up with my dad’s name. calling from the house phone. sort of creepy to say the least. told her it was probably a spoof call.

for chuckles, i had the phone call it back, which got the “number has been disconnected” message…a “dead” line. lol.

told her it was dad, just playing a joke on her. wouldn’t put it past him if there was a way to do it from whatever/wherever you go after this life. welcome to the twight zone. dun dun dun.

you always wish to hear their voice again…but what would you do if you really did? don’t answer the phone mom…

——-

one of the bomb club’s own, front and center, er, off center, on the grass. pretty blue thirty-nine.

so many spindly palm trees though; if you don’t shoot up from down low, you get a lot of pictures with what appear to be random-looking lines in the background.

for the gentleman

another car from yesterday. owner was sitting on the far side of the field, under a pop-up tent. asked if i’d shot his car. had to point it out…”that one over there.”

hadn’t. shot the truck, but didn’t turn around for this one at the time. went back over before i forgot. liked this shot the best, i guess.