woulda

studebaker

i wanted to go to pomona yesterday.

my morning on saturday had been good, until a little back and forth texting with my daughter turned my day dark. really pissed me off. started innocent enough, but as it seems i never say the right thing to her, her mood switches gears. i can almost hear the click of the attitude shift, and there’s no reeling it back.

so now i’m blocked from her phone and social media.*

i spent an hour aggressively cleaning things that i’d easily managed to ignore for some time. burnt out some of the fury with cleaning, and expletives under my breath that i needed to get out.

better half stayed downstairs, with headphones on, watching some movie on the tv screen.

then, i’d decided i’d like to try going to shoot some cars. test out my arm, and see how dizzy i might get walking around with my camera bag. i haven’t kept up with what shows were happening in a while, but i knew that pomona would be open on sunday. not a small show, and a long walk to the show area.

at least it wouldn’t be hot.

saturday night, i got my batteries charged up. set my alarm for some ridiculous time, like three-thirty a.m., so we’d have plenty of time to be at the gates when they opened at five. no way my better half was going to let me go there by myself.

i really haven’t used my cameras much since october, when i fell. i figured the cameras would be totally dead, and would need the time and date stamps updated, at the very least.

had one hinky battery that was not charging. the knock-off batteries don’t seem to last as long as the genuine sonys do. so chucked that one, and borrowed one from my better half.

put a battery in my newer camera, and it wouldn’t turn on. weird. maybe the camera got too cold in the closet? my older cameras would be a little dodgy when i’d be out shooting in colder weather.

if i put some pressure on the lens, and changed the setting to program mode, it would start up for a second, then, black screen. popped the battery out and tried another.

same. and i don’t use program mode, so would have been terribly upset if it was the only one that had worked.

better half took a look. the spring in the battery compartment had come loose, and so the camera wouldn’t stay on. couldn’t see how to fix it, but thought maybe it could slip back into the slot. didn’t seem to be broken off. didn’t have the tools, and i thought it might still be under warranty anyway.

great. wanted to cry—fuck that, i didn’t—and went upstairs to look for the receipt, and check online to see what i’d need to do to get it repaired. what a stupid and confusing website they have, i must say.

online, the estimate was a ridiculous three-figure amount, just for them to look at it. doesn’t mean final cost, and there were no live humans to chat with, because, weekend, and holiday weekend at that.

so we didn’t go.

thought about using my old camera, but better half thought maybe i should not push my luck for the time being.

so flipping through old pics, from old cameras, on old external drives, and found this studebaker i’d seen at pomona back in 2017.

no idea why it caught my eye, then, or today. it just looked like it was saying “cheese,” for the camera.

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*she did send another message later in the evening, sort of apologizing, but still not wanting to talk to me for a while. better than not at all.

countdown

1951 studebaker

i’m officially on vacation time, but still in town. already had a call from work yesterday, after one coworker realized i was still around. last minute edit to a poster needed yesterday evening. i was busy at the time, and had no access to work files, so got her to contact another designer, who lives closer to the office anyway. problem was solved, tragedy avoided. lol.

really, though, a few more days, and i’m gone, and really on vacation. i’ll be enjoying france and italy, while my better half stays behind with his mother. sucks. at least his niece and nephew will be coming down one weekend, to give him a short break from the monotony.

and for the new readers, no, i’m not planning trips without my better half; i sort of fell into it, taking the place of someone who cancelled on my kid. pretty sure i explained in some other post.

not sure what my connectivity will be over there, so i may not post anything until next month, not like i’m posting daily anymore anyway. i guess i really do need a reason to slow down and sniff the roses right now.

my dad has been in the hospital now, for two weeks, and about to get released to a nursing home for another week or two. pretty sure he will be mostly bedridden for the rest of his life, if he doesn’t partake of physical therapy this time, and really try to get off his ass more. hoping he’s around when i get back from vacation. mom has already said if something happens, it happens, no rush to get back. really.

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another story i heard at work the other day:

coworkers were sitting outside at tables, eating their lunch. some guy, with an armload of packages, trips on the sidewalk in front of them. boxes pop open, contents fly everywhere.

turns out it was food.

the guy spends ten minutes scooping stuff back into the boxes with his bare hands, cleaning things up. he goes quickly back to his car with the boxes.

they go back to eating their lunch.

they see him again, this time carrying one of those food service delivery bags on his shoulder. hmm. they say.

he continues into the building. a few minutes later, they see the guy head back to the car with an empty bag, who gets in his car, and drives away.

a few ticks later, the male coworker, thinks, “hmm, did he just make a food delivery? of that food he just dropped?? OMG!!!”

they inquired at the receptionist of our company, when lunch was over, if there had been a delivery, and told the story of what they suspected happened. no one in our office. there are several businesses in our building, so security made some calls.

i think they figured out where it went, and security has footage of the whole food scooping incident, since he tripped right in front of one of the security cameras.

i’m gone from the office now, so won’t learn the rest of the story until i get back, if i even do then, since it was another company. hoping the people in that meeting noticed the extra grit in their meal and stopped eating it.

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here’s a studebaker i saw about a month ago at ruby’s on a friday evening. i think i’ve only been there twice this season, and this particular evening was a piss-poor turnout. compared to previous years, there was hardly anything. don’t think there was a holiday, so i don’t know what was going on.

the front of these cars always look like they are smiling, so that’s the way i like to shoot them.

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gotta get packing. i don’t know italian. i don’t know french. to quote my better half, who probably stole it from a movie, “i don’t speak french, i only kiss that way.”

star spangled

ahem. memorial day. simply, a big thank you to all who served our country, including my sister-in-law, my brothers, my uncles, my grandfather, and in particular, my dad.

go navy.

i shot the sheriff

i went to ruby's for about an hour this evening. wasn't really in to it, but went anyway. needed to stretch my legs, after another busy day at work and 10 hours of sitting on my ass.

was bright and sunny when i arrived, but the sky got gloomier to match my mood. if it had started raining, it would have been so much better. not that many cars this evening.

spotted the guys from the tribe, saw his car, but didn't see the ring leader, and by then didn't want to get voted off the island, so i didn't interrupt their party.

this was the last car i shot. teenager inside was told to make the siren blare a couple of times while i was close by, so thanks for that. a guy said it belonged to his friend, and asked about my pictures, so he wins the prize and gets it posted tonight.

one little indian boy

i saw this hot rod several times at the pep boys show before they put an end to it. it was always parked too close to other cars and often the owners were all sitting around in front of it, so i never really got a shot i liked of it. i did get an ok shot of the hood ornament once.

found it this time over at the buena park elks lodge. i think the show only started a few weeks ago. i'd never been there, so i pulled into the lot and parked near the entrance in an unmarked spot. there were the typical reserved spots at an elks lodge, like one for "knights" and such.

i got out of my car, opened the trunk and started getting my camera set up. loading batteries and cards, cleaning the lenses. finally pulled my bag and tripod out, closed the trunk and was ready to go.

then from across the lot, one of the grand poobahs asked, "are you an elk?" took all that i had not to come back with a "do i look like an elk?" type answer. i told him no, and then he advised that the parking lot was for elks only, i'd have to move to the street. would help if they'd put up a sign at the driveway. way to roll out the welcome mat, oh holy moly one. might as well have told me to piss off.

so, i heaved all my gear back into my trunk and moved the car. almost considered giving this show the finger, but figured i'd already wasted time and gas finding it, so i might as well take a quick turn around the lot. fortunately, i got there early enough, there was plenty of space right across the street. unfortunately, i got there early enough, there wasn't much to see. kinda disappointing. several cars that used to go to the garden grove main street show, a couple i see at cypress, and only a few i've never seen. one guy i spoke to did say they usually get about 60 or 70 cars. i've heard that before, and i'll believe it when i see it.

i didn't stay long, as i was heading to ruby's halloween show right after.

wtf is an elk anyway, and why would anyone want to be one? do they wear the big hats with horns like fred flinstone and barney rubble? secret handshakes? what's with the silly names for the exulted leaders? guess i'm not old enough to want to be part of that club anyway. i'll stop now before i get into trouble.