what's up?

¿donde esta el queso?

el queso esta aquí. on whittier boulevard. well, it was last month.

was here for the fundraiser, late, but better than not at all. was overheating by the time we got to this side of the street, so took a few quick shots.

i do love the back ends of these impalas.

sitting at home like a zombie. been on antibiotics for a couple of weeks for a surprise illness, side effects are drowsiness and stomach issues, and one says stay out of the sun. and haven’t driven in over a week. bland, boring diet for a week, so i’m starving, but haven’t lost any weight, so that sucks.

better half has been the bestest, taking me to appointments, and my mom’s, as necessary.

pretty much hosed any thought of going to chicano park today. big bummer.

sitting here, doing medical paperwork, so might as well post a pic.

too many plates in the air, so i haven’t been going anywhere, or doing anything interesting, if you don’t find medical tests interesting. really hate needles.

maybe i’ll feel better next weekend. i know there’s another fundraiser, and other shows. we shall see.

too soon

still haven’t fixed the camera yet. i don’t think my needle-nosed pliers are long enough to shove the spring back into the tabs at the bottom of the battery compartment. out of warranty, so i think i will make a few calls to repair shops. it works fine otherwise, i.e., i haven’t worn it out like my previous cameras.

with valentine’s coming up, my better half thought it was timely, and plunked down some recent overtime money on a new camera body for me. it’s an upgrade from the one i’ve been shooting, and of course the menu is totally different.

he wanted me to get out and test it, in case he needed to return it. he fully expects me to hate it, as i have every other camera he has handed me.

i happened to know of a few things going on this past weekend. could have gone to mooneyes show out in irwindale, but i’m still unsure how i would do at a big show, so decided to go to the fundraiser for betty, who had passed away recently, out in montebello park. it was also the eighteenth birthday for her son. she seemed seemed so young, and was definitely well-loved. kind of a bummer all the way around.

due to the meds the doctor has given me, i slept in until nine. they are supposed to relax my nerves, to help my head and arm heal. mostly, i can’t sleep until the middle of the night, then i am a zombie until late morning, and struggle to be functional on work days. thankfully, i don’t have to drive to an office, and can just roll out of bed to work.

whatever the reason, we didn’t arrive until elevenish, way later than i am used to. we were pleasantly surprised at the number of clubs that had shown up to support the family, and plenty of cars to test the camera out on.

parking lot was full, and we got lucky finding a parking space a block away.

the weather had done a one-eighty from rain and winter chill, to this almost perfect summer day in the eighties. good news for the fundraiser, bad news for me. i can’t tolerate the heat anymore. i’m so falling apart.

we walked to the front of the park, better half making his way over to find a donation box. i saw some people i hadn’t seen in a while, and caught up a little.

decided we would stop with betty’s car (above), and shoot down the block, then cross the street shooting back up that side, with intentions of going through the cars in the parking lot.

i haven’t really shot much since i fell in october. i’m out of practice, this camera is quite set the way i like it. handed to my better half to see if he could dial in the settings in the endless menus. couldn’t find one setting, and i finally just decided to look it up later, and do some shots.

this late in the day/early in the afternoon, there is more traffic zipping by in the background. so i prefer to try and time the shots with the traffic lights. this camera has settings that let me do a short delay to let the camera settle, so i don’t have to use my remote shutter. the first few pictures are slightly shaky, i jiggled the tripod, or just didn’t let it settle out of nervousness.

this one isn’t as sharp as later pics, but i like it anyway. the files are a hell of a lot bigger and take up more hard drive space. i’m going to need a new computer soon. lol. bottomless pit upgrading gear.

anyway, we continued down the street as planned. i do notice my arms are turning pink from the sun. i’m wearing my hat to keep the sun off my scar, but it’s also holding in the heat on my head. my the time we get to the other side, i am already starting to feel a bit wobbly, and my arm is a little achy.

half-way down the other side, my better half is saying my face is getting red. he knows i’m stubborn about having to stop, but by the time we get to the true pride club tent, i tell him i don’t think i can continue. he says it’s about time i admitted it, and gets me across the street to some shade, and goes to find a bottle of water.

we sit a bit, pack up the bags. i have enough stubbornness to walk back to the car. past all the pretty cars i didn’t get to shoot. really sucks.

i don’t think he’ll be “letting me” go to any shows for a while, and not without him. “letting me,” is probably the wrong phrase, as, if i am determined, he can’t stop me, and he’d start packing his camera gear for the drive.

but i admit that i was kinda scared that i was so close to feeling like passing out, more than any other time before i was injured. more than that show in temecula, where it was over a hundred degrees out…that sucked too.

maybe the cold weather will come back. i’ll try again then.

back too soon, i guess. i’ll be dipping into my backup drives for a few more months, but at least i have plenty to keep me busy.

good to be home

got back from vegas yesterday morning. nice drive, though i hate waking up that early, but had a rental car to return by one o’clock.

briefly thought, i could briefly stop at one of a few shows on the way, in cucamonga, fontana, and places i would normally not get out to, but then thought better of it. the image of my better half on my shoulder saying, “no, kathy. you’ll never get back on time…” vs the devil on the other shoulder saying, “fuck it. work will pay for the additional hours overdue.” i didn’t, but wished i had anyway.

as it was, i stopped by the house and dropped off my bags, then had to go out and get some lunch for my mother-in-law. better half would have done it, but since his car doesn’t have a functioning air conditioner, except the roll-down kind, i thought i’d do him a favor. sort of felt like a hi and bye though.

brought the food back, and headed to drop off the car. got it back with about an hour to spare, so that part worked out fine. the guy there apologized again about calling me earlier in the week to search the car for the previous renter’s passport. turns out the guy had cleaned out a bag of trash when he dropped the car off. the other employee remembered seeing a bag in the trash can, which they checked, and found the passport after all that trouble. the guy was fortunate the trash hadn’t been picked up yet, and they overnighted to him, and they assume he was able to fly out, as he hadn’t called back.

then i called an uber to get a ride to the shop for my car. better half would have driven me, but i thought it was such a short distance from the rental place, it made no sense. took the drive about eight minutes to get there. watching the app, i knew he was hitting every red light on the way. he confirmed that was the case, and that his day was filled with red lights and closed freeway on-ramps that weren’t showing up on his phone. so my trip was a relatively easy one.

dropped me at the curb, and the guy i was supposed to deal with had the day off. they’d had my car all week, so the other guy basically said no charge, and had the car brought out. they even washed it, and had time to get the brake dust off the wheels. great. long overdue.

decided to drive to la habra to pick up some honeybaked ham for my mother-in-law. about ten minutes that direction, the check engine light came on again. fuck. called the shop back and was placed on eternal hold. got to the ham place, and finally hung up and got my order. figured i’d call again, and just start heading back to the shop while on hold.

finally got through to the same dipshit that gave me the car earlier and told him the light was back on. if they could just reaffirm that it was perfectly normal for it to come on for a period of time after a valve job, i’d be ok with that, but they don’t seem confident or competent enough to say that. i ask if i can again drop it off, and get a loaner car, as the other guy had offered, but this one said they didn’t have any. asked if the car was running ok, which it seemed to be. he asked if i could bring it in on monday or tuesday. i can’t, i have to have a car, i have to get to work and a doctor’s appointment, and at that point i gave up on being polite, and might have let some profanity hit his delicate ears.

so, monday, i’m going to drive it down to work, and if i get stuck on the freeway, will either have it towed all the way back or just take it to the closest shop AAA recommends and have them pay for the repair. fuckers. maybe i’ll head to my mom’s later, and take the surface streets. longer drive, but if i break down, less stressful for me.

an unreliable car, also means, i’m not going to a show today, though i saw only two days ago, a flyer for the legends car show by the sea, which i would have been interested in going to…you guys need to work on your advertising…i hope you got some cars to show up.

now my better half is making fun of me writing up my story for the day…”and there i was in vegas…”

fetch

long day of meetings. five and a half miles of walking. nbd. see if i can keep that going when i get home.

back from the mile to the ice machine in the other “wing” of the building. me and my little metal pail…la la. la la la. call me jill.

real creepy long halls, waiting for the kid on his pedal bike.

didn’t sleep well last night, only to wake up to no hot water. could be worse—another lady in the elevator had to switch rooms, as there was water leaking from the light fixtures in her bathroom ceiling.

keep running into people i see every couple of years for these meetings. kind of think we need a secret handshake or to yell nanu nanu.

——-

here’s a sideview of an increasingly well-known chevy, distinguished by it’s wood paneling. it was on a very busy whittier boulevard, so sort of difficult to shoot it from the other side. that, and i was pretty tired by the time i got to it.

on a cloudy day

hiding in the house today. except for the couple of hours i went to the mall to buy a few things that i’ve been talking about buying for months. i really hate shopping that much. and traffic near the mall…let’s just say some people don’t drive very well.

took a turn around the mall, might as well make use of the nice air conditioning to get some exercise. not to mention it smelled like the cinnabon in the middle of the place…no worries…i resisted. though i really wanted one.

got home and didn’t feel very good, so going to just sit here on my ass and play with my pictures for a bit.

i’ve seen this lincoln several times in the past, and just recently at mooneyes. maybe i’ll even post that one some time. but it really looks like the same shot some of the other photographers have posted, so it isn’t really that important to post it.

i am partial to a cloudy sky. reminds me of growing up back east, with a thunderstorm rolling in. this one was from the street coverage bbq in montebello park in 2018.

get baked

doing a lot of baking lately. stuff my dad would’ve liked. apparently, everyone at work is on a New Year’s resolution not to eat sweets. so then I’m stuck with this stuff and what to do with it.

Not going to sell it like the guy across the street, who says he doesn’t run a business from his house cooking stuff in his garage. going to ignore all the people that double park and pay him for something he’s not selling. he might be full of shit.

Better half is exhausted by the weekend and I always end up washing a load of dishes by hand in the sink, using gloves that fit his gigantor banana hands, but on me, feel like NASA space gloves. there are no fine motor movements going on here...i can hardly hold the sponge without it flying into the soapy water.

the thin womens’ gloves i usually use tore last time i used one to open a bottle cap—the rubber gives a better grip. (that’s what she said. ) i just haven’t gotten around to buying a new pair.

womens gloves are like one-thirty-second of an inch thick vs the one-sixteenth of stuff on his gloves. pretty sure he bought them at the hardware store and they are for like mixing cement or working with electrical cables.

—————-

also had the weirdest whirlwind of a cold or flu over the weekend. had to leave the office early on friday cuz i felt like i was on a boat on rough seas, and i was listing to the right when i walked. fever jumped to not quite one-hundred and three that evening and for the next two days.

stayed home today with a lower fever in morning and a cough.

went to the doctor, who gave me cough med that will stop the cough but make me too sleepy to drive, maybe. plus, i’m still walking on a tipsy boat. see how things are in the morning. maybe i’ll show up to be shunned at work.

hey, i wasn’t patient zero this year…

do i still want to get a flu shot? no, never.

———

missing my computer. here’s an old pic from last year at montebello park.

shadowy and windy. maybe it’s on the tipsy boat with me.

one more week

is it a good vacation when you can’t remember what day it is? good thing cell phones keep track of the day and time shift or we’d be screwed.

it’s saturday here in positano, italy, and i’m taking a day off to do laundry and rest. sooooo tired, and i have an earache. everyone else went back down the hill, which is really all this place is, to the beach to rent a boat for a couple of hours. kid never drove a boat before, but doesn’t plan on going out very far, just far enough to jump in the ocean, and knowing him, he’ll probably pee in it.

if you’ve seen my pics on instagram, we’re in an airbnb halfway up this mountain. great view. hell of a walk and too many stairs. couple of days ago, we climbed both the duomo and the bell tower of an old church. four-hundred plus stairs in each, i really was only psyched up for the dome, and just couldn’t quite make the top level in the bell tower. better view in the duomo anyway. tight stairs to climb in both, as they were never meant to be open to the public.

so, my legs are not really wanting to climb up or down this hill very far today. fortunately, there is a breakfast place just down around a bend, and pizza not far up for later. a few shops if i want to venture out, but i’ll probably just take a nap.

not posting a lot from here, since we are limited to one gig of wifi data a day between the four of us. not sure what we are doing tomorrow. i think the kid mentioned capri and a grotto. hopefully i’m up for that...we’ll see.

another pontiac ornament. i don’t post enough hoodies, and pontiacs are a fav.

different

i’m in a mood today. so many things going on at work and home, and can only be in one place, dealing with one thing at a time. and there’s not enough time.

several deadlines today, yet i’m sitting here, waiting at the doctor’s office. for me.

my mom fell yesterday; probably should have made her go to get an xray on her butt, arm and noggin—everything she landed on, hitting the driveway. she seemed ok and of course said she was fine.

——-

don’t usually shoot or show these types of cars, but like i said, i’m in a mood. maybe something different can correct my attitude.

interesting paint job, no?

bbq

better half went to the market yesterday evening, while i stayed home with his mom.

got a call from him about an hour later—his van wouldn’t start, called aaa, but had frozen food, etc., melting in the back. so i had to make sure his mom was ok to leave alone for about ten minutes, with her pain pills, a phone, and wheelchair nearby the bed.

start to worry that i’m going to get in an accident, then he couldn’t get home, and she’d be stuck in bed for days...cuz his sister still isn’t back...and probably will never be...

i got there and we threw all the groceries in my trunk and back seat. just finished when the aaa guy showed up to check the battery. i took off, and was back at the house within about ten minutes, unloaded the car and got the cold stuff where it needed to be within another ten minutes.

better half calls and says battery is fine, driver thinks its a fly wheel or some other original part that has worn down. repair shop closed for the day, and they’re getting a tow truck to haul it home.

they show up and he wants it put in the street, in case i need to go anywhere, as parking is hard to come by. neighbor shows up, and wants the same spot, and the tow truck is blocking the driveway. she takes off pissed. roommate does the same minutes later. whatever.

so, didn’t make it out to a fundraiser in covina after all.

this morning, he had the van towed to the repair shop, only to be told there were no service people in on sundays anymore. so he left it there, and called me for a ride back. i guess he could have ubered, but it wasn’t that far. same deal—meds, phone, chair, and on my way. we’re back in twenty minutes. she didn’t miss us, just watched tv.

i decided to drive over to montebello park to see if anyone showed up to this first annual barbeque on an overcast mother’s day...because that’s just where mothers want to be on mother’s day, right? well, i do, and it’s my favorite weather for pictures, overcast and cool, but the parking lot was mostly empty, and the few cars that were there parked mostly around the edge of the park and across the street. oh well, at least there were some. shot the ones i liked, or were interesting, and had to head back.

as usual, as soon as i packed my bag, more cars started to show up. driving down whittier boulevard, saw several very nice cars going the other way. damn, i wanted to go back, but had other things and people to worry about. but it was nice to shoot for about an hour.

i’ve seen this rumberos car elsewhere. i kind of like this shot of the profile. looking at it again, i think i need to tone it down a little; too rough looking i think. maybe i’ll remember to fix it when i get back to my computer.

down at my mom’s for the night—my kids took me out for dinner—and now i’m done for the night.

leafy

back in whittier after a week. haven't decided if i'll go to a show tomorrow or not. my arm would probably be ok. i don't think it will rain either, and probably there will still be some kick ass clouds.

i think the first time i used a camera to shoot classic cars seven or eight years ago, it was a cloudy, march day. those are still some of my favorite pictures.

pomona swap meet is tomorrow. hmm. hmm. maybe.

all those leaves on the ground, i should have checked inside the car, to see if it was full of leaves too.