what's up?

power out again

same game as last week, posting one an hour until i’m out of the pics in my draft mode. power only seems to be out on this block and not uptown. just back from lunch. it’s hot.

left clothes to dry while i was gone; wonder if they finished. trying to cool off first, but no fan…guess a cold shower will work just as well.

——-

shot this several months ago in diamond bar. nice and overcast. decent turnout. kinda liked the matte blue color for no reason at all.

——

setting my timer for one hour….

short and sweet

SONY DSC

late. gotta get to bed but wanted to get something posted from the azalea festival car show.

used to be packed at this show, with cars parked in the lot in the dark waiting for the gates to open.

this year and last year, not so much. just me, a cop car and the groundsmen sitting out there before sunrise. then some little kid baseball/softball people started arriving. briefly thought about taking pictures of them practicing, for old times sake, but my kid is all grown up and i didn’t want to be the creepy stranger with a camera.

at least i got my car parked in the lot and not down the street.

a few show cars arrived a little after seven. a few impalas and some year suburban.

then this veteranos’ car shows up and alls well. getting to know the owners more, since i’ve chatted with them at several shows now. not the first time i’ve posted the car here, and not the last.

since it was a bit away from the other cars, i had a little room to play. they just recently had some pinstriping added too.

had to use my better half’s cameras. he loaned me three different wide-angle lenses to use, since mine wasn’t meant for a full frame camera.

his were all prime lenses, so i needed room to move, since there was no zoom at all with them. i took a few shots with the one he said was best, then tried the one he said was similar to mine. never did try the third lens. didn’t want to get dust on the sensor anyway.

whole point of getting there early is to catch that low light, but since it was already over an hour into sunrise, best i could do was work with where the sun was at the time. got a lot of pictures with sun flares testing these lenses. sharp, but flares are octogons instead of circles.

this one came out ok. i have others from when it was parked on the grass later, but this was pretty satisfying.

stylish

sitting in my car here, way too early, but i did beat the rain getting to work this morning. it’s just now started falling on the roof, at a pretty steady pace. i still need to get gas over at costco soon—no lines at five-thirty in the morning.

relatives coming this weekend; i’ll probably avoid them...don’t want to trade cooties with the little kid.

but the best news is two days to go, until a two-week vacay for me. nothing fun, but it does involve a flight, a rental truck, and lots of scenic driving. and not working. so yay. wish my better half could go, but he’s busy taking care of his mom. someday his sister will come back to help, but for the near future, it’s just him/us. wonder if medicare would provide someone to help? dunno.

——-

second time, at least this car is up here. this time at workman high show. one of the few older chevys there. first car i shot that day, being the first one there in the corner. one of the veteranos club members, they reminded me about their car show coming up this weekend, in covina. hopefully, the rain stops by then.

hit-a-thon

woke up today at eight a.m., thinking someone had called my name. no one had. really wanted to roll over and go back to sleep—it was so cold in the room, and the bed was so warm.

but i got up. was too late to head out for a sunrise car show, but knew about this one out at jfk high school. i'd gone last year, on a much rainier, cloudier day. today was boringly, clear, blue skies, and warmish.

was practically noon, by the time i arrived, which i hate. the full on sun, harsh shadows, just aren't my favorite. but i'm just out, getting back into a groove, and it isn't a broiling summer day, so i'll take it.

saw several guys/clubs that i know from past shows, many i haven't seen for a while, and made a few new acquaintances. also saw a few cars i recognized, but didn't see the owners. oh well. a familiar place, with familiar faces, i was ok without my better half. sent him a text not to worry. he does that sometimes. well, most every time.

i have a few pictures i told people i'd post, so i'll start with this one. owner asked for a picture, because, you know, cell phone pictures just aren't that great. told him i'd post one, to see if it was any better. so what do you think?

stylish

this car has an interesting color combo; it really stands out. hope the judges came round to the back lot to inspect all of the cars hiding back here.

i really have nothing to say just now. or rather, i could, but you don't want to hear it.

took a quick walk uptown with my better half and his mother...she actually wanted to get out of the house today. so uptown in her wheelchair she goes, with us tagging along behind her.

stopped in the little old bookstore, or whatever they call it now—they're moving out of town in a week, books are on sale; they both spent half an hour looking through the books. i got tired and sat down.

then they kept rolling further uptown, but didn't get very far. she wanted to go into the not ninety-nine cent store to look around. i was feeling a bit off and knew that was going to take a while...she has to look at every little thing...so took my better half's keys and went home. he'll call when they need to get in the house.

they're still not back. my head hurts, so i'm glad i left. i'm happy she's out and about though, and her back is currently not hurting. weather is perfect, and life is short. enjoy it.

goals

appropriate signage, no? i'll add this to my annual review goals: work hard and get me a stylish old chevy. think they'd go for it? nah. but they might be interested in this picture if the little in-house photo competition actually happens, unless they make me be a judge. then i couldn't participate, right?

i'm kinda thinking i got better shots out in the parking lot than inside on the grass. mostly because i got the early morning light here versus later, harsher light. pfft. it happens. i say i got lucky; better half says the more i shoot, the luckier i get.

i've shot this car elsewhere, but i do kinda like this one now. and if i shoot it again in the future, i'll probably like that one better too.

limping my way through two more weeks until vacation. though the time off i have scheduled this month for vacation and business trips will make me miss a few of my favorite annual car shows. that part sucks, that and traveling without my better half; hoping to spend some time with my brothers, so i guess that will make up for things somewhat.

how romantic

beat my better half home from work. today is valentine's day, so he got stuck in traffic, and ended up just going to costco, since he was near one.

switched my hours at work, and so far, it takes me just over an hour now to get home. i guess that's better than over two, and there's no way i want to start at five in the morning, so it is good enough.

i was just going to walk uptown for a slice of pizza for dinner, since my better half decided to just have something at home, but then he didn't want me to go out in the dark alone. ended up that he needed to go to home depot, so i drove, with the intention of going to pollo loco.

upon arriving at that fine dining establishment, we were assaulted by some overpowering, lovely aroma from the "rest" room hallway. figuring how the sense of smell plays into the sense of taste, we decided to find sustenance elsewhere. wasn't quite as awful as the taco bell a couple of weeks ago, but the reek was just starting to permeate the dining area.

my head was swimming, so i just ended up at del taco in the home depot parking lot. meh. not quite ruths chris, but filled the empty space gnawing at my insides.

saw this car drive into the lot. better half says the driver was waving maniacally at me/us, but i didn't notice the driver, just the car, noting the club. i've seen it before.

gotta be just a blem tire, but that suspicious bulge makes me nervous as it did the first time i noticed it a year or two ago.

maybe i'll spy another suspicious bulge later...

end of days?

1947 chevrolet stylemaster

to listen to celebrities, you would think the world ends today--inauguration day. it's just another day. overpaid self-important idiots. just shut up already. drown your sorrows, go buy another ferrarri or something.

rainy friday. haven't been home since tuesday. maybe later, after traffic dies down.

meanwhile, here's a chevy that's been waiting in the wings a few weeks. an interesting color combo. don't recall the owner being around, so no story or drama to share. just a pretty picture.

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.