what's up?

boy next door

i went to this cars for a cause show near my mom’s house last summer. she specifically wanted me to take a picture of this banged up panel truck.

that’s her neighbor. one of those project car guys. he has a couple of other cars in his garage that are in better shape than this, but he chose to bring this beater to this show.

i’m not sure he recognized me, as he seemed to be staring quizzically at me and my setup. would have preferred the hood closed, and him out of sight. but, he and his wife pulled up and instantly popped the hood and placed the bear on a chair out front.

shoot them as i find them, and if he thinks that’s a good look, well…

finally got around to looking at the cars from this show, since my mom has been bugging me about it, yet again.

in her neighborhood, cars are mostly hot rodded up, and i admire them, but don’t really care for them. they have no soul. they’ve lost their mojo.

best cars at this small event were an old impala and a chevy nomad. i guess i’ll have to decide if i care enough to post those.

at this moment, i’m feeling like chopping my hair off. just out of the shower, and it’s getting to be such a hassle to deal with.

i think it’s the longest i’ve had it, down to my lower back, but just barely. it’s getting really thrashed on the ends, and just makes my head feel hot all the time. constantly tearing up the left side in the seat belt.

i do like being able to tie it up and get it out of my way though, mostly in the house. it is tempting to just shave my head and grow it out again. maybe just to my chin. i’m kinda afraid that my stupid fine hair cut that short will just look like a messy karen cut. that’s not me.

better half does like it as is, so there’s that.

month gone

been a month since dad passed. empty space in the house. he’s there, on the shelf, but it just not quite the same.

swear he ‘visited’ the other night while i was at the house. a warm, heavy weight on the bed, across my legs. i guess it could have been a dog, but i prefer to think it was him. said, “i love you dad,” and whatever/whoever it was went away. door was closed, btw, no one walked in, no dog in the house that day. i’ve seen a ghost before, so i’ll just go with it being my dad.

former coworker’s dad was in the hospital during the same time mine was; her dad passed last week. sorry to welcome her to the club.

we have since set my mom up with one of those systems for when you’ve “fallen and can’t get up” situations. came with various ways to communicate with the alert people: a one button necklace; a wrist watch looking thing; a pager thing; a big round button for the wall or desktop; and a ‘hub’ with the two-way speaker system.

my sister tested it briefly the day it arrived. she tested the pieces some more the other day.

i guess the point of the necklace and/or watch is not only to give you a button to push, should you be unable to reach the hub, they also detect the motion of a fall, in case you hit the floor and are unconscious.

so my sister was testing them by dropping them on the floor. that gets followed up by the alarm people calling the hub, expecting something happening, asking if there is an emergency, disappointed to be told they were only testing the things out.

well, later that evening, i was in whittier, my sister wherever it is she lives. we both separately get automated phone calls stating, “they’d received multiple medical alarms and the authorities have been dispatched…” wtf.

at the same time, my mom is getting the same automated message coming out of the hub, and receiving a call on the house phone, same message. they all give a number to call for more info, but it is already too late to stop the emergency dispatch.

mom hadn’t done anything. was just sitting and reading. so, realizing what was about to happen, she headed to the front door. slowly, mind you, she has trouble getting out of a chair.

she opened the front door just as four big muscley fireboys were running up the sidewalk. first guy waves off the others as she says she’s fine, false alarm. she’s so embarrassed, and explains. they say it happens, and they weren’t busy anyway.

she closes the door. she’s furious. hates the system. gets on the phone with my sister and yells that she wants it returned. apparently, my mom is cursing…which she doesn’t do…so you know she really is mad. she is approaching my level of cussing. i’m texting my sister at the same time, asking wtf, so i’m getting the play by play.

mom calls me a bit later to share the experience, but without the cussing. i would have enjoyed that bit. i wonder if the light on the various bits had flashed red before the message came in. she hadn’t noticed. sister-in-law, who ordered the system, was supposed to call the company to see what happened. i haven’t heard where the breakdown was, if it was the robot noticing the earlier testing calls, or that the human on duty had walked away from the phone bank and the terminator had taken over.

she’s calmed down now. my older brother has talked her into keeping the thing. one caveat though, she won’t wear the necklace or watch. they’re just strategically placed around the house. negates the point of them. better than nothing.

better half bets that i would have enjoyed the beefy firefighters as much as i did that one time they showed up at in-n-out for an older woman with chest pains. hot. except for that one guy. he’d be the one i’d get stuck with to give me resuscitation, undoubtedly.

sun came up quickly at pomona. at that point, you just have to start shooting whichever car you are near, to catch that sun hitting just so. i walked quickly among a handful of cars. liked this shot the best.

piece by piece

so i went out to this show last weekend, after not having been out anywhere for a month. it was good, i had fun. i also did something to my knee.

don't think it's a sprain, more of a strain. i felt it when it happened...not a snap, more like a slip of something, when i was standing back up from a crouch on a low shot. i can still walk and stuff, but if i bend it too far, or have to get on the floor to look in a low cabinet or what have you, oh that does not feel good.

hoping to get to two local shows this weekend, one being just up the street. perhaps it means no low angles, but as long as it doesn't get in the way of pulling my gear. not even going to think about my arms and their inexplicable soreness. maybe i'm getting arthritis, but happening suddenly, over the last few weeks, i doubt it.

saw this car, just as the sun was trying to burn through the clouds. no idea if it was found this way, or was 'aged' for advertising purposes. still sort of cool as it is.

hot hot hot

1948 chevy stylemaster

engraved wiper thingyi think this was the last shot of the morning, before the sun officially became a pain in the ass at the imperials' show.

simple chevy, with just the slightest embellishment on the wiper blade arms.

do they consider this a panel truck, or just a wagon. i'm not sure.

it's sticky out there. sticky in here too. no air conditioning and fans blowing hot air around sucks. just want to walk around nekked, but i can't. don't think my mother-in-law would appreciate it as much as my better half undoubtedly would.

at least the big job at work is out the door, and best of luck with that, so i can get back to fiddling with my pictures.

hoping to go to san fernando tomorrow, but it's gotta be way way early, since it's going to be hot out there. i hope, i hope they will let me in early, its a bit of a drive. but i would turn around if they say no. i'll either get busy shooting, or i get busy driving. gonna be too hot to wait around. all depends on who is minding the gate.

trippin'

1948 chevrolet stylemaster panel truck

saw this chevy panel truck at the duke's display at relay for life. this was one i shot fairly early after arriving.

i passed by later, and the owner lowered it down, and leveled it out, but there were more cars, pop ups and people to contend with, so those. shots are just ok, but not my favorites.

so we're finally taking one of those elusive/dreaded things--a vacation. and of course, it's all been a little bit off since it started yesterday.

been busy all month at work, leading up to it. worked late on thursday, trying to get the big stuff mostly done, to spare coworkers a lot of pain. that forced me to stay down at my mom's for the night, instead of packing, etc., as i had planned. then worked at the office in the morning, and raced home at lunch time to work four more hours from there, to finish out the clock, and miss friday traffic. did my time, and got packing.

better half worked at home all day, and had also been working like crazy before the trip. he didn't pack or get the supermarket shopping done in advance of the horde of family coming down to keep his mother company while we're gone. also means we don't get to see the two babies of the family, who are both now walking. it's a trade off.

after much running around, i got us going out the door just before eight p.m., to catch a red eye. he thought it was a bit early, but it turned out to be a good thing. traffic around lax for last mile before our exit was terrible. we had to drop off the car and catch one of the shuttles to our terminal. the shuttle took it's sweet time getting to the garage, but we still ended up with the recommended couple of hours to spare.

enjoyed the airline pilot on the shuttle ride from the garage to his flight, entertaining the captive audience with historical knowledge, as well as hitting on a random travel agent headed to new york.

checked the bags, got through security fairly quickly. didn't even have to remove our shoes, which is a plus, because i don't even want to think about what the sticky stuff on that linoleum is every other time we've had to go through security. just no.

had about an hour until boarding, and started noticing delay times dominoeing through flights ahead of ours. our crew was on a delayed flight coming from san fran. ultimately, we were listed as the last flight out, leaving at one a.m.

then came the announcement that the flight had been cancelled, due to the crew being timed out on their shift or one of them not feeling well...depends on who you wanted to believe. that was followed by the mad rush to the counter for rebooking. briefly thought of just heading home, but then they put us up in a hotel, to get a few hours' sleep--it was two-fifteen a.m. by then--before we had to be back at seven.

we'd settled on a one-stop trip, instead of the direct to the east coast, which would have meant just sleeping in the terminal. so i'm sitting here in san fran typing away, waiting for our connecting flight, while my better half is getting his ya-yas out, geeking out watching planes and shooting a time lapse of the runway and the really awesome clouds.

plain and simple

rather like when cars don't get all the bells and whistles that muck up the lines of the car.

last shot before i left the old memories show. sun was high and i was melting.

it is quite nice when the car is buffed to a fine shine. just don't like how it always captures my reflection as well as the lovely tripod.

sweet pickle

totally rained on the parade today. but they did it anyway. doesn't start as early as it did a few years ago, and it is also not as good. and the few cars that were in it, sucked. my better half says there are probably different people organizing it than there were a few years ago. same can be said for the uptown car show, but that's a different post.

anyway, i took some stupid pictures. the camera body is waterproof, but the lens isn't, so i couldn't get out and get shots i would have liked. then, duh, i went inside and grabbed a longer lens. but still, didn't get what i wanted. you can see some of them over at my flickr page.

and wouldn't you know it, the rain stopped after the parade. made my day. and then i didn't want to go out to the car shows. the house was too warm, and it was too cold outside. so i missed moon eyes again. and the latin gents show. and something over in lakewood. ya, i totally would have done them all not too long ago. i'm just out of it.

there are a couple of shows i'm thinking about tomorrow, but i don't know. toy drives bring out some great cars, but rain drives them away, so we'll see...we have to be somewhere in the evening. also hear there's the parts show out in pomona, but gonna miss that one too.

this is one of the old memories cars from last week. hard to believe it was pushing 80 last week, and this week, maybe 60. the lady selling the blankets would have sold so much more now.

wax on, wax off

got home in only an hour today. did everyone call in sick today? recovering from the drive home in holiday traffic? i don't know, but i can only hope it continues being a relatively shorter and easier commute in the afternoon. though there were still those a--holes that feel the need to weave through the lanes at the fastest speed possible. idiots. go pull your head out, you won't get where you're going any faster, unless you are looking for the pearly gates...or maybe the fiery stank below, which is where i like to mutter at you as you whizz by.

blah blah blah. weird day. and i'm tired anyway. so i'll keep it short.

i'm not sure of the year of this beauty, but that's no surprise. anyone care to help a lady out, and let me know, so i can make a note of it?

i like how the sun is glinting on the squiggles left by the buffer and of the last vestiges of wax on the hood. otherwise polished to perfection. liking the honey tones here. more frequently see these all in one color, so nice for a change.

i'm thinking the blanket vendor behind the car there didn't sell as much as she had hoped, being that it was so hot outside. no worries. cold weather is coming.

motivation

saw this one at the legends show at point fermin. the owner wasn't around, but a guy who said he did the restoration on it was there. said it only took about seven or eight months to fully rework it, since the owner had the cash to get it done quickly. otherwise, he said it typically takes several years.

he did a pretty good job, i think. guess money changes everything, no?

at the helm

here's one of the tribe's cars. guy next to it said it was of helms bakery fame. i didn't grow up out here, so i had no clue what he was talking about, but my better half knew all about it. guess they used to drive these vans around and sell donuts out of the back. can only imagine they put a stop to that because of health codes.