drove up to a small fundraiser by the vintage ladies last week, memorial for jerry shepard.

added to the donation box, sorry for their loss. could have had the food they were serving in exchange, but we had come for the cars.

better half bought himself a camera online, and wanted to see if it worked. told him about the show, and decided to head up. got there about eleven.

he was having fun shooting cars, trying to avoid getting in my shots, mostly failing, as it was just a small lot, and he was usually on the car next to what i was working on.

in between, he was chatting with folks and handing out my cards, as he hasn’t gotten around to printing up more of his own.

i stopped to wait for my better half to finish shooting the car next to this pontiac—that’s his tripod sticking out behind the kids.

i had a conversation with the owner, seeing that he was taking pictures as well. asked if he’d gotten any good shots. he said something to the effect that he wouldn’t know a good shot if it bit him. i handed him one of my cards, if he was interested in seeing my pictures. then he asked me to take a picture of his kids in front of his car.

i knew this wouldn’t be the best shot of my life.

kids don’t like to pose for strangers, and i’m most strange.
i wasn’t really set up to shoot a portrait.
avoiding my better half’s shot, here i am on the wrong side of the car, shooting into the big fireball in the sky, hence that big ass lens flare on the tire.
did not shoot the same picture with and without the kids in it, to fix any mistakes in exposure.
i should have waited and moved them to the other side of the car, but then they’d be squinting into the sun and have my shadow on them. or just plant them in front of the car, but i’m kinda partial the three-quarter view. and i love pontiac indian hoodies.

it’s an ok picture of a moment in time, of brothers, who seemed already bored to be there, especially the younger two.

like the little dude’s avenger shoes, with iron man on them.

been working ten to twelve hour days this past week. deadlines piling up. it’s not sustainable, but there are others that can help me out. they’ll make it up to me with a day off at some point, but probably not until next month.

so i’m a little bit slow posting pics from last week, or any other week for that matter. patience, grasshopper. never is enough time.

saw this chevy at the latin gents toy drive the other day. I think it belongs to the vintage ladies car club, if i remember correctly. the lady’s husband caught me on the way back to my car, to ask if i’d shot it, so yes, i guess i did.

better half has been doing so many extra hours lately. he’d expected to work all weekend, and had gone out and done his shopping super early in the morning on saturday. found himself five cans of lysol or some type of cleaning thing, which somehow makes him feel like the king of the world. he got his car washed. he called about cars without permits on our block and watched the tickets get put on the windshields.

when he logged on to start work and checked his mail about six a.m., he saw that the sob had been cancelled; stop all work. almost immediately, his body was telling him to sleep. he called me first, at my mother’s, where i’d spent the night.

he was telling me the thing had been cancelled, he was getting paid for half a day anyway, his weekend was free, he planned to relax. i half jokingly asked where should we go? then he was all about it. he started looking for hotel deals while i wrapped up whatever it was i was doing at my mom’s.

he calls back and says there are great deals in san diego, but covid is rampant there. same goes for san fran, and really he only has one night to get out of town. we finally settled on solvang, since i’d gone there the weekend his mother passed, looking for a getaway that wouldn’t be crowded with people like a big city. he hadn’t been there in years.

our favorite hotel was sold out. other hotels were too run down or had bad ratings. he finally found one that was recently renovated.

i got home an hour later, threw a change of clothes in a bag, and we were on our way. for the two and a half hour drive from whittier, we never turned the radio on. we talked the whole way there. anything and everything. we haven’t had a lot of time just us, no work, no distractions. it was nice.

solvang was busier than i’d expected, but you can still avoid the people if you want to. after checking into our hotel, the sun starting to go down, we headed over to tower pizza. we hadn’t had it since the last time we’d been there together, as it was already closed when i passed through town months ago.

we took it back to the room, as we didn’t want to sit outside. i was wearing a long sleeve jacket, but also the shorts i’d been wearing that morning, and the temp was dropping quickly down to the lower forties pretty quickly. the pizza was so good. better than i remembered it.

we thought about going out for a walk around town, but decided it would be too cold.

he fell asleep, i sat in the big bath tub of hot water for an hour and watched tv until i got tired.

in the morning, we took that walk around the town. he wanted to shop for xmas gifts for the little kids in our life. my sister wanted some handmade chocolate stuff, and after waiting for the store to open, to be told it was already sold out, was kind of a bummer. guess i need to go back. that and he has a cuckoo clock that needs repairing from the store where he bought it. if you have to, you have to… ; )

we stopped at in-n-out on whittier boulevard before we got home. spied a group of classic cars at a rite aid parking lot. better half wanted to turn around. no cameras, what’s the point. looked like a meeting anyway.

sitting in my car in the ino parking lot twenty minutes later, enjoying our food and watching the traffic on the boulevard, we see lots of classic cars driving by. those same group of cars too. at least one was from the bomb club. i guess that there is something going on at montebello park, which is not far away. better half says we might as well go look, but i say no, i don’t have my cameras.

i joked about going back after we got home, but as it was almost four in the afternoon, and i was tired from driving, i didn’t. but i saw you guys, so i was happy.

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