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.

why the hell not?

pomona swap meet, last year.

wondering if indians used to live on these grounds. swear to big guy there’s a ghostly face of an indian in that driver’s seat on the full size image. i suppose i should add that here too, but i’ve already shut down my computer. otherwise, there were no other people hanging around this time of a cold morning.

don’t care much for hot rods, but i took a shot of this one for some reason. might as well post one once in a while.

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have not done a whole lot today. i’m losing track of time working from home. apparently i thought thursday was wednesday all day. no idea where i lost a day. and have the work computer sitting here makes it too easy to just try and get projects done that are always pushed aside for the immediate rush jobs.

today, i power washed bits of the carpeting that the dog beast barfed on a week ago, when he ate some bad food.

one more week of work, then i have a week off. no where to go. previously scheduled vacation i never bothered to cancel the work time off. i’m tired. why not?

11,579

so much walking around here, i’ve done just under five miles, or 11,579 steps.

was just stepping into my meeting, when my phone rings. had to step out to take the call. it was the guy from the rental car agency asking a favor. he was wondering if i might go to the car and check to see if there happened to be a passport in the glovebox, left by the previous renter of the car. the renter was in tears, going crazy since he needed it for his travels. told him i’d look later. he asked how far away i was, in case i did find it, and coincidently, the weepy guy is also here in vegas, in case it was in the car.

so about halfway through my meeting, during a break, i had to go back to my room, get the keys from the safe, and hike out to the car. hot furnace blast of hot air heading outside to the parking garage. hundred and six this afternoon, so quite a shock, coming out of this air-conditioned haven. up the elevator, too early for parking sharks, past some dude sitting in his car smoking some devil’s weed.

i get the rental guy on the phone and check the glovebox, center console, under the seats, and in the trunk. no luck. feel sorry for the guy.

late, i rushed back to my meeting, now overheating, to find they have continued without me. no big, they didn’t notice.

anyway, back in my room, watching the weather channel, thinking about sleep.

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here’s a hot rod from mooneyes, for something different.

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

nice pipes

1935 ford pickup

this is a random post. at my mom's and this is the only picture i have lurking on here for a rainy day--i've been that busy.

you know a few posts ago, when i said the big project was done and things should slow down a bit? well, what kind of idiot goes to a weekly status meeting and says ya, it seems quieter? that's just a cry to the great beyond to slap down your ass with a shit-ton more work. so yes, i jinxed myself, and the great beyond shat upon my desk.

i mean i have a steady stream of work every day. every day. every day. but then you become suddenly inundated with overlapping deadlines, and juggling priorities, and no desire to put in extra hours cuz you're still trying to recover from the big project. the hamster wheel speeds up.

and then, the drive home, and that cursed (say it curse-sed) five freeway, that road to hell and back. fuck that drive.

so i've been a bit too tired to post fresh tasty pics this week. sorry. responsibility is a heavy responsibility, as my better half says.

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i first saw this hot rod, about a year ago, parked by its lonesome, at a here unnamed center of commerce and debauchery. i was walking to lunch, and i've got a pretty good eye for spotting uncommon cars. i saw it from two blocks away, and wondered if it would still be sitting there, and alone, by the time i reached it. remarkably, it was. i only had my cell phone on me at the time, so use what you have.

have since seen it a few times on the streets behind the orange curtain. i've seen pics of it frequently hanging at a certain cars and coffee show. i went to that show once, near an apartment i used to live in, when i used to hit up a car show every day in the summer, two or three on weekends. ya, ninety-nine percent muscle cars, pns cars, and old white guy hot rods. so not what i like. and i certainly didn't remember seeing this one at the time, so maybe it hadn't been built yet.

blah blah. getting sleepy now; i think i only had four hours last night...its so hot...

anyway, getting to the point: this guy was a long way from home, when i saw him zoom by at mooneyes' open house. actually, it makes a lot of sense, since hot rods are what they're about, right?

so i finally got a few shots of the thing with my big kid camera. i actually like the other shot of it better, but this one shows that it actually has four chrome chimneys to play beer pong with, vs two, which is how it seems in the other shots.

nuff said. back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. g'night.

countdown

ford hot rod

saw a couple of these hot rods down the street earlier. the lady directing staging made them move before i could set up a shot, then they moved again.

found them here on my way back up the street. not my typical car to shoot, but sometimes, i just do. maybe it was just the light.

do you think this looks ok? i think the last few pictures might need to be reworked. i've been experimenting with my process, and they've been a little too dark for my taste. pushed this one more toward what i used to do, and i like it a bit better.

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less than an hour until game of thrones...eeeeee!

i wandered uptown to get lunch. figured if i got too out of it, i could just uber back the few blocks to the house. i was ok. hardly coughed at all. sun came out on the way back, so had to take off my jacket.

figured i'd get the work out before i play. got something ready for work, washed some laundry. watched some videos...educational, and youtube...wasting time. better half and his mom got home.

better half treating me like i'm deathly ill, but i feel fine, just sound like i'm possessed just a tad. now i'm slathered with icky sticky vicks goo. smells great, but it makes you chilly, like a cool breeze blowing across my chest, and my shirt is stuck to me. so gross.

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.

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.