what's up?

2012 | SHARP

supposed to get some furniture delivered this weekend. we’ve been using better half’s mother’s mattress and mountain of pillows as a sofa for the past few weeks. would rather it was in her room, with her still sitting on it, watching her tv, but…

he has declined my offer to get a kitchen table and chairs from my storage unit, as we will only have to move it again in a year. so, tray tables and a desk, if i want to get fancy. but i am still going to be using her good silverware. so, another empty room for the time being. maybe i’ll bring my trampoline back here and put it where the dining table had been.

a little less busy at work, but only minutely so. i’ve done a few projects that will get some notice around the offices and online, but then, i could say that about most things i work on. seems like all the jobs are becoming more of a competition, or at least, team efforts lately. it’s a good thing. spreads the stress around, divide and conquer. learn from others.

better half used to look forward to me asking, “why the hell are you doing it that way?,” when i used to work with him, as i would glance at what was on his screen. he’d also tell you that was my way of saying “i like you” to him, or some other nonsense.

looks like the earliest i’ll be back at the office will be sometime before year-end. have been there several times this past couple of weeks, and it is pretty much a ghost town. it did make it ideal for a photo shoot i had to do of a bike, with no interruptions, and no issue getting the room i wanted to shoot in. only problem was the key to where we store our lighting equipment was at home with another designer, who had shot some video the week prior. fortunately, the receptionist had a spare.

i’d rather be shooting a car…

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my niece finally went home, so i was able to get to my computer the other day. only had a couple of hard drives there, so pulled up some old files, shot with my old cameras and better half’s lens. he’d say he lent it to me, and never got it back until i’d worn out the parts in it.

pretty sure i posted a similar shot of reine’s cadillac, but i haven’t seen it for a while, and it was in the first bunch of pics i saw on the hard drive, from 2012. back when the whittier uptown show was packed with cars waiting in staging areas for several blocks, before the sun came up. it was my favorite car for the longest time. such pointy back fins, and ghost flames on glittery paint.

his cadillac was one of the first i shot, in the early 2010, over at the broiler in downey. that place used to be where i’d be every wednesday evening for a for at least a year. good times.

all the time

really nothing of interest to share here. still kickin’. still so very extraordinarily busy at work. sort of hating it right now.

landlords slightly freaking out as they have been told that we will probably be moving within a year. then there was a rented trailer outside the house. saw the landlord drive by a few times, but we’re not leaving yet; just relatives taking away some furniture and such.

from the street, the place seems pretty empty tho. lol. we just haven’t caught them on the porch, peeking in the window. yet.

————

here’s a shot from last year’s chicano park day. cute lil special deluxe just down the street from the blue majestics’ house, waiting in line to get in. there are several colorful murals down that way, and this one just looks out over the cars and the park.

i don’t recall things being as hectic as usual. maybe it was better organized than previous years?

get on with it

hoping the bomb club show at santa anita won’t have to be postponed again. [edit — as of 7/29 this show has been cancelled] october usually means travel, celebrating our anniversary. lucky number thirteen coming up.

at least the weather then can be so unpredictable, and hopefully not so summer hellish hot.

this topless babe is from a couple of years ago, early morning overcast. i do love that.

—————

my mother-in-law died a month ago. she was a month shy of ninety-three.

a long time coming, it happened too fast, after all.

the house is quiet.

better half was directed to not “dawdle,” and take care of her personal effects quickly. going through papers, boxes, and items stored in the garage. a lifetime of living doesn’t disappear fast enough.

the xmas tree finally had to come down; won’t be able to get her furniture out the front door otherwise. ten thousand lights took five evenings to unwind off the branches. how will we be able to navigate the streets, without that fruity beacon in the dark?

now we are free to travel, yet we cannot go anywhere. every day is exhausting. there is a piece missing.

we each hear her call to us in the middle of the night, as she used to; better half gets down the hall to her doorway, only to realize the room is empty of the life that was his constant companion these past few years, these past half dozen decades.

so you might say we’ve been a bit preoccupied. you’d think there would not be enough water inside yourself, to produce all of the tears. they are less sad, and more the happy memory variety now, but those have been hard won. just have to let them have their way with you, and get on with it.

goodbye, enedina. you were well loved, and sorely missed…

once upon a time…

hi. my name is kathy. i used to photograph classic cars.

then the world went to hell.

i have not used my cameras in so long, the internal batteries are dead. i wonder if i will remember what to do, like riding a bike. i don’t turn on my personal computer much. i work so much overtime, followed by time spent with family and an attention seeking dog beast, i just don’t have the energy.

i think i’m burned out. i know i am at work. i’m. just. tired.

so i’m on a short road trip. to clear my head. on my own.

better half is taking care of things at home. and whether i am there or not, he knows i am thinking about him.

i have one camera with me, the one i hate. i probably won’t even go outside, and rather sit in a hot bath, and next to a big fireplace. if i can figure out how to work a fireplace without filling the room with carbon monoxide. he usually takes care of that.

——-

here’s one of the older pics i have sitting in the draft queue. from a show in la palma. decent turnout for a high school fundraiser.

i liked the paint color, and the car within a car, with that reflection.

autobahn

somehow managed to have to drive up to whittier and back two days in a row. had yesterday as a scheduled day off from work that never got cancelled. would have been on my way back from a weekend in san diego, with a camera full of snaps from chicano park day, but noooo. thanks corona virus, and fuck you too.

i did get up for an important conference call, and intended to go back to sleep. unfortunately, the dog woke up, did his thing and ate, but didn’t go back up as usual to sleep a few more hours.

so i took him out to a local bark park, where it was just him and one other dog in a big enclosed space. was quite nice and cool out at seven a.m. tired him out, so he was settling in on the couch expecting me to work, when i decided to go to costco to gas up my mom’s car. expected it to be a wait at the pump, and as long as i was there, to get inside.

so wrong. on a monday morning after eight, there was no lines at the pumps. rolled right up and got some relatively cheap gas. doubt it will ever get down below a dollar a gallon, not like the eighties.

expected a line to get in and shop, and would have not bothered in that case. temp was to hit ninety by noon. but there was no one—no old people special time waiting, no waiting at all. the place was empty compared to the last time i went, which was probably november.

cool cool cool.

called the better half to ask if they needed anything, since he doesn’t get out much, and complains some foods are hard to get in los angeles right now. he was set for tp, but did want kleenex for his mom. all that stuff has been relocated to the very back, and it seemed to be the travel destination. workers must get tired of the same damn questions of, “when do you expect to get more…,” as there where no flushable paper goods to be had.

i picked up most of the other items on his list, and a few things for my mom. walked straight up to the register to check out, so essentially the best shopping day there in what is usually a hell hole.

drove back to mom’s, where the dog had been moping about my disappearance. he will suffer most when things go back to something resembling normal.

transferred stuff to my car. chilled some refrigerated stuff for a bit and took a break.

headed to whittier with his shopping.

i had noticed as far back as january, that there were more muscle cars revving down the streets. weekend warriors had satisfied mid-life crises, and were now racing to see who had the biggest penises…they are all dicks, btw. and they say women can’t drive; i’d say right now, these idiots take the cake. too often almost taking off my fenders, cutting so close on lane changes.

now, with freeways empty, rich dudes are bringing out their ferraris, lambos, mazzerattis, etcetera, and driving like they are on an autobahn. same dickheads, nicer cars. douchebags.

anyway, better half seems exhausted as usual, working full-time on both work and caring for his mom on his own. got him some lunch from in-n-out, as the local places seem to just be totally closed.

————

had my computer on, to do some scanning for my kid, so worked on a picture. missing the classics. if i do see any around here, they are fifty-five / -six bel aires, pimped out to hot rods <yawn>, though the neighbor did have a visitor in a fifty-eight ford fairlane a couple days ago.

yummy fleetline from the veteranos’ cruise night in west covina, january i think. should have gone to more shows, but who would have known we were all going into lockdown?

rumble on

quick post, as my eyes are burning from staring at computer screens and staying awake too long today.

thought i’d have lots of time to work on pictures, being stuck here at my mom’s house. but nooooo. if i’m not putting in eight hours or more of actual paid work, i’m walking a dog, digging up weeds, sifting through dad’s stuff, thinking about listing said stuff online, laundry, shopping, etc. then after all that, my kid always wants someone to watch netflix with her. right now, she wants me to watch community, which i managed to miss when it was originally on. turns out it was quite funny. each episode seems to be prefaced by, “this is my favorite…”

told her no tonight, wanted to play with my pictures. she was fine with that, as she does her own art, but she has the luxury of no set schedule, no job, and stays up all night, sleeps half the day. especially today. she celebrated four-twenty a bit too happily, and at least she’s been in a good mood all day.

aside from that, being back full-time in a house i’d lived in since we moved here in the seventies is both comforting and weird. it makes strange noises. not just a settling creaking. the front rooms rumble intermittently throughout the day. sometimes the living room, but lately, mostly the garage.

i have to go out to the garage to get dog food, some random thing from a shelf or the fridge. rumble rumble. i joke that godzilla is in the attic, but manage not to be curious enough to climb the stairs out there. at the very least there are spiders up there. maybe it’s shelob, and i have no sword to face it, unless the mini sting letter opener counts.

what creeps me out, is going out there late in the evening. as you approach the door, you hear the crickets creak creaking happily. once you step foot out, and turn on the light they momentarily stop, but then get going chirping again. but often, they stop again, completely. total silence. the way animals go silent in the forest in movies, when something bad is about to happen to the hapless human among them. my mind goes to the alien queen is about to drop from the eaves in the ceiling, or the dilophosorus that bursts from my mom’s vehicle and spits slime into my eyes, blinding me and chomping on my guts whilst that dog beasts sits down the hall because he wasn’t an idiot, and stayed inside. so mad dash to get back inside the house and lock the door. lol.

seriously, though, something is rumbling the house. ex says hot water heater, which is old. but that damn thing shouldn’t rumble the whole house like that. he doesn’t seem worried enough to come check it out, and i haven’t been able to record it, as it happens on no particular schedule.

i’d like to know if the house is about to blow, since my mom’s room is the closest to the garage. maybe we’re on an unknown fault line.

the furnace is inside the house, so doubt it’s that. hopefully, we’re all still alive when this pandemic is over and rodan hatches and bursts through the roof.

here’s another car pulled from the past. 2012, original mike’s in santa ana. back when i’d be crazy enough to hit up two or three smaller shows in one day.

turns out to be a bridgetown oldie, a bit far from home, if you ask me.

break in radio silence

been some time since i bothered to boot my computer. just haven’t much to say. you’d think with the world going to hell, i’d be bursting to chat. chatty kathy, that’s not me. i’m happily sequestered at my mom’s house. happy hermit introvert.

my condo is almost totally renovated, and i’m almost tempted to go hide out there, except there’s no wifi, and i do have to work.

been spending time sorting through some of my dad’s stuff. rearranging the computer set up for my mom, dismantling his computer room. i guess there’s some stuff i could sell online, if there are people looking for older computer parts.

i have been stymied by one of his external hard drives, with a password on it. one that isn’t on a basic list he left behind. i’m imagining a porn collection. it’s encrypted, and i can’t reformat it for other use, even if i wanted to. i’ll continue to snoop around, but the secret code may have been tossed a couple of years ago already.

so this past weekend, i dug out one of my older backup drives i had hidden here, and booted my system. this one had pics from when i started doing this thing of mine, back in 2009/2010. turns out, my carefully tended and keyworded lightroom catalogs are so out of date, as to be unreadable by the current version. so, fuck.

ended up creating a new catalog, and importing the pictures again. those are fine. just not tagged anymore. gdi. oh well.

randomly selected this one from 2010. bob’s big boy broiler in downey on a random wednesday. anyone remember those days, when the lot would be full to the back lot? back when i’d go out there every wednesday for months, and my better half probably got so sick of it, but he’d go anyway.

old camera, old lens. my rusty eye taking the shots. i dunno. it was a learning curve. used to shoot them all low on the ground, pushed up close. wishing i’d shot a few more showing more of the side, but i was still learning about the camera and lens then.

the sky in the evening would sometimes turn out more red than blue or black, only hinted at in the bits of sky here.

wonder if this show finally just died out, along with the older guys that used to be there. no one there now, of course.

why the hell not?

pomona swap meet, last year.

wondering if indians used to live on these grounds. swear to big guy there’s a ghostly face of an indian in that driver’s seat on the full size image. i suppose i should add that here too, but i’ve already shut down my computer. otherwise, there were no other people hanging around this time of a cold morning.

don’t care much for hot rods, but i took a shot of this one for some reason. might as well post one once in a while.

have not done a whole lot today. i’m losing track of time working from home. apparently i thought thursday was wednesday all day. no idea where i lost a day. and have the work computer sitting here makes it too easy to just try and get projects done that are always pushed aside for the immediate rush jobs.

today, i power washed bits of the carpeting that the dog beast barfed on a week ago, when he ate some bad food.

one more week of work, then i have a week off. no where to go. previously scheduled vacation i never bothered to cancel the work time off. i’m tired. why not?

back it up

anyone else miss the super show at hillco fasteners? always the morning of the big game, over in time for pre-game stuff. new landlords put the kibosh on it for “safety” reasons.

a variety of cars would drive through, cruise the complex, spend some time, then head out.

don’t see too many of these, and the back end is the best part for me.

when the lights go down in the city...

long exposures, streaky freaky lights. that’s what happens.

some you can fix, mostly, why bother. they are kinda cool sometimes.

down low, trying to hide the people or some other odd thing behind the car. it is what it is.