what's up?

psyclero

there's a car show going on right now at slick's customs. goes until ten p.m. i've been to a couple of shows there, and they usually have a good turnout, and people i know.

just not feeling it today. still feeling like crap. and my face, though not puffed up like last week, hurts. ya, take that joke and run with it.

tomorrow is the belmont shore show. i've never been. kinda interested in going for a change, but being that my better half can't go, and lately, i'm always afraid i'm going to faint, i just don't want to go by myself.

there's a picnic at legg lake—that's closer, and easier for me. if i go out, i'll probably go there.

saw this bike a couple months ago now, at the viejitos show. i think it belonged to one of the vendors. really incredible engraving on the chrome.

btw, both of my brothers finally had to evacuate their homes in florida. they are safely out of the way, but one of them has a kid who decided to become a cop. guess who is required to stay behind? no worries, right. i feel for them.

evil mistress

saw this great bike the other day at the imperials show. might have belonged to one of the vendors, but so what. it was named the evil mistress.

lots of great details, with skulls and bones hidden here and there. airbrushed women in dia de los muertos face paint and fancy ostrich skin seat. a gun and an oversize bullet there too. i'll have to add a few detail shots when i have time. totally forgot, and i'm sitting at my desk typing before i'm on the clock at six. enjoying the air conditioning, ya know?

stumbled down the hall in the dark this morning, just before four, to take a shower. it was warm last night, so i was just wearing my underwear. figured my mother-in-law was asleep, so she wouldn't notice as i walked past her door, and i know my better half wouldn't have minded, had he been awake...he'd have been up... anyway covered my boobs with my hands, just on the off chance she woke up.

in the bathroom, shut the door, turn on the light, start the shower. have seat on the porcelain throne, cuz, ya know, my eyes are floatin'. on the floor in front of me, is a foot bath and a scale, both leaning up against the wall. my tired eyes see a momentary movement, something dark. not getting the total heebie jeebies, i figured it was just another cockroach, courtesy of our neighbors, but a mighty big one.

in a split second the damn thing ran toward me, along the baseboard, and literally ran over my foot, and behind the toilet. i made a stifled squeal, because, ick, and also i didn't want to wake everyone up.

but then the thing, ran out, and across to the towel cabinet, and back along the tub.

it wasn't a cockroach. it was a fricking big brown mouse. not a rat, didn't have the creepy tail. but still.

so i'm sitting there with my feet up, watching this thing do a few circuits around the room, before disappearing under the sink cabinet. finally put my feet down, wiped (yes, let's not forget to do that) and flushed, then out, closed the door. standing in my panties, topless, tapping my better half on the butt. he rolls over and says hi.

told him there's a mouse in the bathroom, be the man.

while he's waking up, i went back, peeked in the door. didn't see it, so jumped into the shower--i gotta go to work, and i've only so much time to get ready.

better half shows up with a broom and a dust pan. i guess his intent was to crush and carry. he poked all the corners, then looked where i'd last seen it.

there's a one-inch gap, with a void to under the cabinet, hidden behind the shower curtain. ya, that's where it went. no idea if it was still under there, or if it leads to a space between us and the neighbors', but that would explain one way for the roaches to get in.

anyway, that's my morning so far...

fortune teller

this car had a lot going on. so i took some shots of it.

the little pics show the airbrushed paintings under the hood and in the trunk. pretty nice. too bad all the chromed hydraulics and engine parts are reflecting so mightily onto the images. guess i would need a big black cloth to cover the chrome to get a proper picture, but this is good enough to give you the idea.

click on one of the pictures to go over to my flickr page to see some other details from the car if you want.

can you tell i got nothin' to talk about? too tired. thought about going to the broiler for a change, but i just didn't have the energy to sit in traffic for another forty-five minutes to get there.

just telling myself: two more days. two more days. then i can sleep in. pomona this weekend i think. same day as my son's birthday, so, thinking i can get up real early and go shoot some pictures before heading down to do something with him. no idea at all what to get him, and i hate shopping...i'm so bad.

a tad too much

i've seen this car a few times now. i do appreciate the detail and engraving. really, it can be impressive. the interior reflected this exterior, if you can imagine...apparently, i didn't take any pictures of it.

but like women and jewelry, ya gotta know when to stop. although, some women would probably argue with me on that point, but i'm not like them anyway, and i can do without the bling.

cadillac, in my head, as the advertisers have pummeled into it, envisions high living and good taste, perhaps a hint of extravagance...and i'll leave it at that.

ragtop

i shot this fury very early in the day. parked on one of the main paths of the park, i knew it would probably be surrounded by people later in the day.

the owner was still polishing it when i started to frame up the shot from the other side, but when some passerby asked him a question, he parked the rag on the roof, and went around to the other side.

so i moved to this corner and try to keep it low enough to not get so much extraneous crap in the shot. still managed to get the passerby, and the lovely rag the owner was using and dropped mid-wax-on – wax-off. mr. miyagi would be so proud.

he told me later, when i passed by with the rest of the crowds surrounding it, that it was mostly original. i thought it was pretty striking, at this location, with the paint combo, and the fact that there probably wasn't another one to found at the park that day.

leadrag

i've seen this one many times. i thought i'd posted it at some point, but i'm not finding it right now. well, i know i have other shots, but not very satisfying ones.

this is the first time i've seen it with the top up. i suppose because it's next to those trees, those lovely, drippy, sappy trees. and the birds.

i'm not saying it's my favorite car, but i do just like the challenge of trying to get a good shot of cars i see far too often. usually solved by a change in location. like this one; they killed off the fuddrucker's show in el toro...all that construction had pushed it too far from the main drag, and no one knew it was there. here it is at chik-fil-a, where you are separated from the main street by a few feet of concrete, dirt, trees and flowers.

they all head south for the winter

so, i'll get back to riverside in a couple of days, but i wanted to put one of this beauty up before i forget. my better half talked the owner into closing it up later that afternoon.

i basically stare at cars with their hoods open if i really want to shoot it, and hope the owner notices and offers to close it. i've only asked owners to close it a couple of times because it was too good not to get it, and most typically will just walk past a few times and hope to see it again some day.

of course, i took advantage of the hood closed, and took several more shots. but i thought i'd share this one, just to show that i sometimes break my own rule. i think my better half mentioned that it's rare to see one in such immaculate condition, but if memory serves, d, there was about five of them in a row down at chicano park, each just as delicious as this one. but i did skip most of those, since they had one side up and one side down.

ok, this one had a nice engine, so i guess that was part of the reason i went ahead and took this shot. my better half liked this one better than the others i did, so maybe that's why i'll share it with you.

out of town tomorrow, so riversiders, hold your breath until wednesday. unless i go to big boy...

buy a print here

jesse’s girl

while wandering around the show, we passed through this group of cars. i was shooting the pinstripes on the back of this one, when the owner came over and asked what we do with the photos. so, since he seemed really interested, i took a few shots of his car, while he pointed out the finer points of the monte carlo next to it.

i liked his car. a pale yellow, with tan pinstriping, just a touch on the hood, and a little on the back end. not too much, not too little. he says their club mostly goes to the bigger shows, in several states. mentioned one coming up in laughlin, nevada next month. says it's a good show, lots of cars. i'm trying to remember how hot it gets in nevada in may. already thinking about going to vegas in september and it is usually smoldering then.

normally, i wouldn't shoot the monte carlo, but it was the details that really blew us away. etched metal on all the chromed surfaces, custom leather interior, airbrushing and pinstriping. really impressive. here are a few of the details:

back porch

talk about hauling ass...could almost build a house for your mother-in-law out back...almost. or at least hold a tailgate party...the whole party.

found this out at garden grove. rarely go there, cause i'm usually disappointed by the turnout. but there are usually at least one or two worth shooting at any show. the whole car was pretty interesting, but baby got back, so i'm posting it here.

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as for my foot, not broken. but it does have some sort of strained tendon; enough that the doc had to pop me in the foot with cortisone. yippee ki yay. and i have to wear this lovely boot thing for i don't know how long yet, to help it heal. not exactly the lace up kind of boots my better half might have envisioned for me...

so, he probably will do his best to keep me from going to too many shows in the near future. and definitely will be a while before i do a lot of low angles. at least without him around to help me get back up. so over-protective, but i guess that's a good thing, right?

and to top that off, i got a cold, but not a cold, that i've been fighting all weekend. finally went to the doctor to check that it wasn't turning into bronchitis or pneumonia. they thought it best to give me some sort of antibiotic, just in case. probably to keep me from coughing up a lung or two, and to spare my co-workers' eardrums.

winter

winter is a time of desolation and cold. a time of sleep and anticipation. less sunlight.

pfft. it was in the 80s yesterday. tomorrow maybe 65°, followed by rain tuesday and wednesday. california is just a confusing place. seasons are all screwy here. but i don't think i could ever go back east to live anymore, though it might be fun for one year.

but then, i wouldn't have so many choices of car shows to visit anywhere else either. i would truly have to hoard up cars for the winter if i lived anywhere else.

well, i'm no squirrel, though i may be nuts, and i already have so many cars to choose from in my digital garage, i sometimes wonder why i keep looking for more.

i saw this one pulling in last weekend in lakewood as i was packing up to leave. the primer covered ghost. i hadn't gotten a shot of it then. i figure that many of the cars i see at the smaller shows i frequent, eventually will be back. or i will find it at another show. or i will be haunted by them, as i drive down city streets, and often see stuff driving the other way. here it is a week later, at the hooters show in anaheim. glad to have given this show another try. there were plenty of cars to look at, a plethora if you'd prefer.

i imagine in the spring and summer, this location is a bitch to get to and/or park at, being in the backyard of anaheim stadium and down the street from the pond/honda center.

not sure if it is any one particular model of car, or chopped up pieces of things. i kinda think its something of a '48 chevy or so. i guess i could have asked the owner, who was hovering around nearby (not literally, or he would be the ghost). he never said a word, and eventually went somewhere else. this was my favorite of the shots i took. no people walking through, no posts sticking out randomly. the bare, stripped down trees, behind the bare, stripped down car. makes me look forward to the spring, and seeing this car again, as they continue to work it up, to a spring of its own. i suspect it may take a bit longer than it will for the trees.