what's up?

where the naked ladies dance

spent a few days in france. i like the feel of it, can almost imagine living there, but then i don’t think i would. they do have large, beautiful open space parks, where you can really relax, listen to music, eat a croissant, and drink an expresso, if you are so inclined. i am not a coffee drinker, so coke works for me. and when they do not screw up and give me diet or zero, it is the same stuff we drink. they do not seem too big on using ice here though...have only had it in my drink once or twice in restaurants. really strange.

finding i do not have enough time or energy at the end of the day to get to writing here, but i am trying to post vacay pics on instagram, if you have any interest. not that person to foist them on unwilling viewers, and this space is just for my car shots anyway. i suppose i should be taking pics of their cars, but they just seem a little odd and nothing special, aside from their size.

have already been to venice, italy, and stayed in a very nice home, with far too many stairs. we’re airbnbing everywhere, btw. perhaps i should write about just the homes. common so far is the size. spacious, but economical in the use of the space. they have modernized the centuries-old buildings they are in, and have all moden conveniences, including wifi everywhere, hence i can post my pics.

we seem to me walking about ten miles a day, so i’ve gone from about a thousand a day to twenty-five thousand pretty quick. i’ve adjusted, with a lot expletives. the backpack doesn’t get any lighter, and though it really isn’t very heavy, i’m getting too old to be hauling stuff around on my back. i am using almost everthing i did pack, so i didn’t overpack.

sounds like others are waking up and/or back from a morning jog. i should have gone out for morning pics, but i hadn’t set an alarm.

hopefully i’ll find a moment to write about venice and florence before we move on...two more stops before going home.

stopped at a weekly monday evening show at sonic in anaheim a few months ago. surprisingly crowded, but i managed to find pockets of cars with no people milling about, even if it is next to a clothing bin. still a nice car.

paris

here in france for a few days, for the first part of this vacation. never been here, and finding it charming in an historic city way. not too difficult finding our way around, mostly because my kid and his wifey have been here before, and he is refering to maps on his phone to find routes to wherever. i did not take french in school, but seem to understand a lot of words, and can pick my way through the menu well enough.

lots of walking, and discovering neither of my broken in shoes ar very good to my feet for these miles long marches across the city and back. one pair is attacking my big toe, as it slides forward a bit, and the other pair jammed my little toe into the next, as well as having got some sand in it from crossing a park.

but ignoring that, have seen a lot in two days, and contemplating whether i want to watch sunset from the observation deck of some tall skyscraper. i may just skip that tonight. seems more tough to get four people to agree on what to eat and when to eat it. our time zones are scrambled, but i am ok, but the others snack often then do not seem interested in a meal.

taking lots of pictures, most will probably never be seen, but there are a few up in my instagram, for my mom and daughter to see.

not seeing any classic cars here so far, unless we’re talking citroen and puegot. three wheel motorcycles (two in front) and vespas abound.

so, i’ll put up this good old chevy to tide me over for a while. from pomona a while back. since i’m gonna miss it tomorrow. and dia de los muertos in uptown. and huffarama at san manuel. le sigh...

also, i have someone whose father was an original member of 13 gents car club, who recently passed away, looking for other original members that would talk with them. if you have any contacts, i would be happy to pass along info to them.

countdown

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.

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.

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.

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.”

do not enter

dad in the hospital again. mom and sister with him.

i'm exhausted but can't sleep. frequent updates help/don't help.

gotta photoshoot tomorrow at work--12 headshots. gotta put on a happy face and carry on. really hard for an introvert to get through more than a few, and this will be over two hours. oh well.

----

can't remember; did i already post this one? last month, local little barbeque. shiny, black cars are easy to shoot.

mfeo

my dad was happy to see me the other day.

middle of the night he was so sure that my sister had called to tell him that i’d been driving to whittier late at night with my daughter’s dog beast, and that i’d fallen asleep behind the wheel half way there. apparently i’d plowed into a divider at an off ramp, and both dog and me presumably died instantly.

he had the phone in his hand and was going to call her back to see if it was a joke. then decided maybe he was just imagining it.

my mom came upstairs to bed soon after, and was able to confirm it was just a really vivid dream. i guess a few days earlier it had been my sister’s turn, but i can’t remember how she met her fate.

he has been hallucinating lately, probably a side effect of one of his meds. doctor had him stop that med, so they are not happening as realistically anymore, hence he is able to stop and recognize it may just be all in his head.

but still. i don’t remember most of my dreams anymore, but when i do, a lot of them do happen. deja vu? so i sort of don’t like that he’d told me about it.

on the other hand, there is no reason i’d be driving up there with that dog, as he wouldn’t be allowed in the house. but i have driven southbound very sleepy before, and that isn’t good either.

———-

anyway, la patina and his friend here, parked in the lot behind the whittier cinemas a few months ago at the uptown car show. they seem to be made for each other, studies in rust, perseverence, and restoration.

though old, they get around easily, so probably didn’t need to park in handicap spot.

if i’m there, i’m there

story of my life lately. gone are the days of three or four shows in one day. lucky if i get to one a week.

last weekend there were a few bigger shows that would have been good, but timing didn’t work out. i did manage to get out to reality car club’s cruise at manny’s el loco.

me, and not even a dozen classic cars. pretty much shot them all. several times. no randoms going through the shots. even took time/stalled and went inside to eat.

i don’t blame people for not showing up, especially if they’d already been roasting under a hot sun all day. one person inquired online…seemed he didn’t even know about it. that might be the club’s fault.

anyway, made the best of the situation. these first two were my first two. a few more showed up afterwards. owners were hanging out behind them, out of the shot. seemed friendly enough. asked for cards, but sounded familiar with my m.o.

beautiful cars, that were there.

old is a bitch

my dad. my dad. he’s eighty-four or -five...can’t remember exactly just now.

he seems to have given up on living, and just wants to sleep all day, hardly eats. apparently vision is not so good and sense of taste is off. no energy. mom finally says he doesn’t drive anymore, so there’s that.

he doesn’t want a hobby or exercise, and doesn’t watch tv or turn on his computer anymore. they gave him antidepressants, but he doesn’t want to take them. talks about himself in past tense.

could be his diabetes, or, i’m arguing he had a stroke or two, but no one completely agrees. he could also be a touch demented now, or it could also be meds or again, a stroke.

i think he’s going to another doc on monday.

it’s hell to watch him deteriorate so fast. and i’ll worry about whether i’ll see him again when i go on my trip. wouldn’t be anything i could do anyway.

bro says there is still one gun hidden somewhere in the house. really hoping he doesn’t choose to use it. maybe he forgot about it.

dread when the phone rings late at night.

anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

----

meanwhile, this lincoln helps to distract from aforementioned thoughts.

from bomb club car show at santa anita two years ago.

slightly different than the typical black or white usually seen, with that "dash" of color. sort of like when my mom used to tell me to put on lipstick for a pop of color as i headed out the door. me and makeup don't get along, though i can manage lipstick when the mood strikes me.

-----

planning on hitting up a show early tomorrow. better half bought two new memory cards for the cameras that he wants me to "test out." if he insists...

dark water

started my day off by walking into a spider web. nothing like doing the heebee jeebee dance at five in the morning, imagining a giant [1/2”] spider with a big bulbous ass is somewhere on you, pissed that you ruined his masterpiece and his breakfast.

days are flying by, and my poor pictures and blog are being neglected. stuff happens, and i gotta pick my priorities. these fall pretty low lately.

only have time now because my kid’s doberman is currently occupying the bed at my mom’s house, and i haven’t taken the time to move him off. my hair needs to dry anyway.

i’ve been spending the last few days here, cleaning my mom’s carpets with our carpet cleaning machine. third day, and my back is feeling all the carrying of the water and the clean up. moving furniture is fun too. not. they have too much stuff. gonna need help moving the couch and other big stuff, but she seemed more concerned with the main paths through the rooms.

i thought her carpet in the front room was brown, but it’s really a ninteen-seventies orange on the deeper side. yep, original stuff. and never cleaned, only vacuumed. let me tell you, the water tanks on the machine are pretty black when i dump the water out of the machine.

did a patch in the back room today. lime green carpet. lovely.

other than that, i’ve got too much going on at work, and an unplanned vacation to prep for. totally, just now realizing that i’m gonna be out of the country for several of my favorite car shows, my eleven-year anniversary, and my kid’s birthday. go me. not my fault. i’m just along for the ride on someone else’s trip.

anyway, gotta get some sleep. looking back, found this picture of a car from the viejitos’ carshow a couple of years’ ago now.

thought it was a pretty car, and parked off out of the way for a bit, so got a few shots while there was the opportunity.

one show

for a holiday weekend, i only hit up one show, err, barbeque. was meant to be a quick stop and shoot, as my better half had to get out and get some stuff done, and i was meant to watch his mother while he was out.

it was overcast in the morning, so worked for me, keeping the heat at bay, though it seemed humid, but that could totally just have been me.

as it was, she had a heart thing happen while i was out, so i cut my visit short, missing out on the offered ribs, chicken and potatoe salad. she ended up being fine, and let's hear it for nitroglycerin tablets. saved us an evening at the hospital.

anyway, everyone was friendly, and didn't mind me shooting their cars. felt a little awkward invading a bbq, so i asked if they minded first. i saw some familiar faces and cars, so it was all good anyway.

i believe this was the car belonging to the lady that came over to inquire if i post my pics, as i was packing my bag to leave. up close, there is some microscopic glitter in the black paint, though hard to see at this size/this distance.

sun came out by the time i got home, so timing worked out anyway.

one of those weeks

ever feel like you've just gotten through a week, and get shook up and dumped out onto the weekend? but you made it?

ya, that's the one.

getting spread a bit thin, pulled here and there. getting worn, but no where as tired as my better half.

dad was in the hospital again, to start the week off. busy at work. kid had a perfectly timed meltdown when i had the least inclination to deal that hot ball of fun.

my other kid has plans to go to europe, with the wifey, his dad, and her mom. sounds like his dad is going to drop out. he's asking if i want to take a free trip. i dunno. a vacation would be nice, but can i be gone that long? i just don't know. offered up my brother, but they kinda aren't into taking him.

so i'll keep thinking about it, until his dad makes a decision.

at least i've got a wall back up in the kitchen. just no cabinets. or sink.

labor day weekend. maybe i can sneak off to a show or two, get my ya yas out.

------

talked to the owner of this car for a bit. nice convo. he was heading south to la vuelta in san diego the next day. sounded like fun, i'd have gone if i was able.

liked the airbrushing of the gas can, which he was particularly proud of, as it had just been done.