1956 chevy bel air

thanks panera for that flavorless egg sandwich with the eggshell spice. and the salt shaker that drops a teaspoon of salt with just a light tap. and the orange juice that tastes a bit off, with a lid that popped right off without breaking the safety ring. my lip is tingling now...probably all in my head, right?

if my day is starting off this well, i wonder how work will go? xmas came early there; my week started with a brand new kick-ass computer, with a couple of big curved monitors.

at least most people have already left for their holidays or are working from home, so it should be pretty quiet. me, i'm in the office. new computer to play with, and a new employee to keep an eye on, getting acclimated to windows vs mac. not a new revelation that i'm a terrible supervisor/teacher...ask my better half about how i met him.

here's my chance to fill this blank canvas, to train him on procedures the way i want them done. i've done things for so long, i do them without thinking about it, and have already forgotten to tell him a bunch of stuff. but then, if i think back to times when i started a new job, or observations of others starting, you see eyes glazing over from the sheer amount of info hitting them the first few days. so i'll just mention stuff as days pass or the questions come up.

here's another of the tj friends cars i woke up to see for the xmas parade. it should have been at the end of the line, to carry the fat guy in the red suit, instead of whichever political hack or parade host got to sit in it.

1967 chevy impala

better half got me out of bed yesterday by saying there was a car show outside the window. i'd decided not to go to moon eyes the night before—long week, stressed and tired—probably would have cleared my head to have gone, but too late now.

saturday was the whittier uptown christmas parade. was hoping to be able to sleep in, and not be woken up by the gathering high school bands and cars and city trucks with their barricades disturbing me. they've moved the parade start time to ten the last few years, so it really hasn't been so bad.

better half seems to wake up at usual work hours weekend or no, so he was up when everything started showing up. i guess he heard, then saw a bunch of convertibles show up, and park right outside the house. he giggled, and came and woke me up a little before eight.

i was going to skip the festivities, and go see a movie. i've got no spirit left for this stuff, but i do for old cars and photography.

i peeked out the front curtain, but didn't see anything, and figured they must have moved further down the street. apparently, i looked the wrong way, and when he opened the curtain, and asked if i was sure there weren't any cars parked outside, i looked again.

my bad. there were like fifteen old chevies parked in a couple of rows down the street. there for the pretty pretty princesses and parade dignitaries, i suppose.

my car was parked up around the block, with my tripod in the trunk, so i had dust off the old one i used to use, or appropriated from my better half, once upon a time.

so we both got our shit together and out the front door in no time.

some cars are better than no cars, right? especially when they bring them to you.

shot up and down the two rows of cars. a few more showed up. mostly members of tjfriends club.

better half talked to a group of the guys, who said half their cars were convertibles, so here they were, working the parade. i thanked a few of the guys for bringing the carshow here.

there's my better half telling these guys the funny story of the morning. i've shot these cars at other shows, but he's never met them.

pretty sure the kid they had working hard polishing the car was the same kid that approached me at the veteranos show, to remind me that he'd seen me shooting their cars at a previous show. probably should have had him pose in front of the car, in his shades.

oh, btw, the creepy elf tree won the best tree in a window competition. mother-in-law wasn't even trying, since they'd told her she couldn't win yet another year. three in a row, then skipped one. i guess it was ok to win again. congrats, mom!

i had to shoot a few pictures of it to show my own mother, so here's a peek.

we ended up shooting all the cars, dropping the cameras in the house, and walking back up the street with our other cameras, to get some breakfast. parade got started while we were inside—i saw it through the window.

after, we walked to the theatre. i managed to run across during a break between a band, a float, and a group of karate kids, performing for judges. better half took my camera back home with him.

went to see fantastic beasts... got there early for the second showing. walked in with my bucket of popcorn and drink, and basically cock blocked a young couple making out in the top corner of the dark theatre. i guess i could have left and let them get it on, or alerted an usher, but then i thought, no, ewww, i sometimes sit up in the top row, in the corners. didn't want to think about what might have been left behind on the seat. and it's more of a kid movie, so what if one walked in?

instead of the top row, which i prefer, i went to the middle center of the theatre, and just didn't turn around, in case they decided to just keep on keeping on. never have felt more my age and like i'd just mommed them.

fortunately, other people started walking in, so i didn't feel so awkward and alone.

movie was not that great. i liked the creatures. the story was kind of lame. i suppose the next few movies will continue the story, and make it more interesting. otherwise, its just a call for more money from studios that can't come up with anything new.

when i got home, my better half giggledly told me that after the parade, his mother looked out the side window, and there were all the same club cars parked again, right outside the window where i work on my computer. better half took some pictures, but i haven't seen them yet. he just thought it was funny that they were back, and i was gone. as if i'd have gone back out and shoot them some more...of course i would have...

tweakedpixels

what's up?

bodes ill

transom of my mind

park it there