what's up?

thank you sir, may i have another?

i have too many cars sitting in the queue to posted, and nothing interesting to write about. so imma gonna just start throwing two or three up for a while, for no reason at all. make space for some fresh ones.

i have been getting a lot of emails lately from people asking for registration for shows or vendor sign ups. i then have to inform them that i only list shows i’m interested in, that i’ve heard about, or seen a flyer for.

curious as to why, i searched the internet. i think i know why—some bots have been crawling my site, and on some random page, and are showing me listed as the organizer. as if.

i end up digging up the flyers and sending them contact info. only a couple have written back to say thank you. they could have done their own digging, but it is my list, so i feel responsible. maybe i should take it down permanently, but it helps me remember what’s coming up, should i have the opportunity to get out.

this car is from a couple of years ago, at a fundraiser at jfk high school in la palma. been to a couple of shows there. usually a pretty good turnout. usually see some guys and cars that come out from closer to home, coming out and hitting up this show.

this one was just a beauty, and the color really popped under that sun that day.

round trip

made a trip up to whittier today. had to pick up a few things. took my mom for a joy ride as well, since she hasn’t been out of the house much.

mom stayed in the car. better half greeted me at the door masked and gloved, and handed me a set to put on, while in the house. he takes this stuff seriously. only thing missing is gowns and hair covers and some sort of thing that would rain down disinfectant to kill the cooties on my hair and clothes at the door. i envision something more marilyn monroe over the grate for some reason.

i guess the neighbor across the street tested positive, and the other neighbor had gone in a car with that guy, so he is pretty sure he has it too. tried to bum some masks and gloves off the better half, but was told that since he already has it, he wasn’t going to waste a mask on him. that neighbor, well, both those guys, are usually assholes to my better half, so payback is a bitch, i guess.

i got on with collecting things quickly. kid texted that she was going out with her dad to watch movies or something, and the dog was home alone, doing who knows what. better half has some hard to get stuff, that we don’t really need right now, but took it just in case. i can always take it back.

before we left, my mom got out and went to mother-in-law’s window to wave hello. they were both happy to see each other, as it has been several years, though they couldn’t hear each other through the glass.

stopped at the in-n-out drive through near the freeway off valley view for a quick lunch via the drive through. watched the clouds moving in, as predicted. apparently rain moved north to south, as it started up there soon after we left, and is only just now sprinkling down in the oc.

also made a quick stop at the office for something i forgot—they had me go back in late last monday to collect my computer so i could start working from home. the building was closing the next day, then the following day, reopened, and by friday was closing down again.

always strange to be in the empty office. have never seen the elevators so clean before. they’ve hired people to scrub all the surfaces down, hey, they even cleaned my desktop. :)

the blast doors to the lobby were shut, so had to get in the area through a different door. curious to see if security says anything, since there are cameras watching your every move. hell, nobody said anything when i hauled a desktop computer and two big ass monitors out the door, so i see no reason to fret over some papers and a sweater.

was sad to learn that the doorman there had died earlier in the week. had seen him on monday at lunchtime. they did not disclose the cause, but guessing he was just old or a heart attack.

back home now. unloaded the car, mom has gone off to nap. i managed to walk the dog before the rain started. now i am bouncing around between three computers in the house.

tore down my dad’s computer, and set up my home computer there. only to find out the internet is not working up there. i have my work computer set up in the front room on two card tables—one for each monitor, and plugged into the router. am currently using my mom’s computer, as i’m not going let work watch what i type here. keeping their stuff separate; they can keep their spyware on their stuff to watch their stuff.

been a bit of finagling to get my pics from one computer to another, but i managed. hadn’t booted up my personal computer in a couple of weeks for more than just paying bills or seeing if it worked. have just been really busy. the on'/off button is on it’s last legs, so i may not even be able to get it started soon. better half may have to order one online and walk me through a replacement operation.

having to do my own laundry too…imagine that! better half usually does it, since he’s always home. i’d hauled a bunch of work clothes down here, and now i don’t need to get out of my pajamas. hell, i’m not going to wear a bra until this effing virus is gone. lol. that stuff is all washed and hung up, ready to go when it’s all over, or when it’s all over…

so, i think we’re set for a while. maybe i can work on pictures more often, if the dog will leave me be. he’s been very good while i’m on my work computer. i think, though, that he has an inner clock that knows i should be off work and available to scratch his ears and feed him and take him outside.

taking the opportunity to dig into old backup drives hidden around this house.

this is only a couple of years ago, but i liked it on a quick run through. summer blast 2018. my dad was still alive, this car taken a month before his birthday. <sigh> sorry, sitting in his chair, in his computer room had me thinking…

it was a good show. has been since the bomb club started doing shows at the track. the overcast kept the heat down until lunchtime, and i was there early to make the most of the day.

inconvenience

so there’s this virus going around…

torn between staying here in whittier or in oc with my mother. better half is giving me the stink eye, since i am out and about in the world, and he’s at home 24/7, and in “protect his mother” mode. will probably start packing my shit, and go stay at my mom’s for the duration. he disagrees with my laissez-faire attitude on the whole situation. he’s exhausted, and i don’t want to say anything else stupid here. dark clouds are moving in, and it will be raining again soon.

would be a good time to hide in my condo, but it’s currently being renovated and is in no condition for anything to live in it.

my office hasn’t shut down yet, and as of now, i wouldn’t be able to connect into the network and keep working from home.

was supposed to go on a cruise with my mom and brother, but that finally got cancelled—mom didn’t want to go anyway. they may reschedule to later in the year, since the cruise line doesn’t want to refund the money. see if they are still in business next month.

my current problem is that i took a week off for that cruise; was looking forward to time off from work, but by then, we will all probably be quarantined and not going anywhere anyway. i guess i’ll just cancel the time off and work if i can.

seeing more car shows being postponed or cancelled, so i’ve postponed making my annual reservations for chicano park day and others. so take my listing of car shows with a grain of salt, as i’m not out and about at shows, and not totally sure if some of them are cancelling or hoping for the best. i’m adding notes or deleting as i see info online. maybe i should just take the page down for now. i dunno.

here’s an old pic. pomona swap meet, from a couple of years ago. i guess no new shows, means i can dive into all the files from past shows i never have time to revisit. and i have a quite a bit to choose from over the last ten years.

two years ago, this was just primer. no idea if they’ve painted it or not. still a pretty cool car as is.

just makes me kick myself for not getting out of bed a couple of weeks ago and heading to pomona…

groundhog

days seem to go by quicker lately, different, but strangely the same. i need to break up the routine somehow. it’s killing me. i live out of a suitcase. see my better half two days a week, if i’m lucky, or determined.

i need a vacation. somewhere with trees and cold. have a trip coming up, not of my doing—my older bro’s planning, and devious way to get my mom to go somewhere, anywhere—and she would only agree to go, if i came along. so there’s that to look forward to, i guess. assuming it doesn’t get cancelled due to the nasty virus going around.

super busy at work, as always, but more stressed. there’s a new boss in town, and haven’t been able to tell yet whether they are a good one or not. already started off on the wrong foot, entirely not on purpose, and a simple misunderstanding, probably due to my social ineptness.

not going to dwell on that. things either will or won’t work out, and i’ll just carry on.

did get a lovely valentine’s gift—a new granddaughter—born on valentine’s day, and whose middle name was changed to valentina because of it. full head of dark hair, and blue blue eyes, just like her mom. tiny little thing. don’t remember my own being that small, but they were. captured her daddy’s heart from the moment she arrived.

i want to sleep, but i should answer an email first. someone likes my pictures and has questions. they took time out of their day to write a lengthy and nice email; i should take some time and respond in kind.

here’s one of the veterano’s cars, at their cruise night back in january. got there early, while the light was still warm enough, and the people were still few and far between enough. better half and i used to discuss which chevy we would prefer—the thirty-nine master deluxe or the forty-seven/forty-eight fleetline. i think we settled on one of each, as we really couldn’t decide. we can dream, right?

groundhogs day

another holiday weekend. another daily visit to the hospital—not me—so much for relaxing.

did start with a baby shower, which was a happy time. grandkid any day now.

missed pomona, but that wasn’t going to happen anyway—better half told me early saturday that he wanted to get out to santa fe springs swap meet and to the market on sunday. maybe in march, if it’s not raining.

only other notable accomplishment was bingeing two seasons of the sopranos.

needless to say, my pictures and blog are being neglected. just not much i can share, nor energy to spend. would like to take apart my dad’s computer and reload it, so maybe i can take a portable hard drive with me to my mom’s and play with them when i’m there.

overheating in this hospital room, so i need to step outside to hallway now.

meanwhile, enjoy this shot from a couple weeks ago. messing with long exposures again. lost the race with the sun.

first of the new year

i really hadn’t gone to too many shows the last few months. which was a good thing in a way, because i think i had a pulled muscle or sprain, so it apparently had time to heal.

started off this year at the veteranos’ cruise night in west covina. didn’t officially start until three-thirty, so i figured i’d get there an hour early, and shoot whatever was there while they were setting up. knew i’d be racing the sun for light later anyway.

well, no show cars were there. momentarily thought i had the wrong date or location, but when i decided i’d at least go inside and get some pizza, there were four of the veteranos at a table having a meal. apparently neither of the couples had brought their own cars to the show.

by the time i was done and went to get my gear from my car, vendors and cars had begun settling in. i had a couple of hours with varied degrees of light, and increasing numbers of people, before it got hard to get clean shots. i ended up staying about four hours, since my better half said he was not going to be able to get out to the market anyway. i think it was more about encouraging me to get back to taking pics, especially since i was actually having a lot of fun.

saw several people i hadn’t chatted with in a while, so happy new year to them, was nice see them.

had an asian man wander through the show ask me how they were monetizing it, if it’s just in a parking lot. wtf. not everything is about money, and he was free to participate in the raffle.

i’ve seen this car before. interesting color combo. makes me want some sherbet. parked against a curb, but pretty close to the dj booth area, it had a lot of people and car traffic in the way. i took the chance that a car wouldn’t need to get by for a few minutes during my exposure. still had to take several, so i could blend out the people. still have a blur, and a random shadow on the car. it was late, and maybe i’ll clean it up later, but i thought it already looked presentable enough to share.

————

went to a memorial service for a former boss the other day. he’d had a heart attack xmas day, and never regained consciousness; he died on the second day of the new year.

he’d only retired a year or two before, so didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy it. hearing the memories shared, he had a good life, was a good man. enjoyed rock and roll, guitars, and mott the hoople. his eldest son looked like a carbon copy of how i remembered him, except with dark hair. he was a good boss. worked his way up at the same company for forty years.

saw several former coworkers, and many other faces i recognized, but couldn’t place the name. everyone has gotten so old, but then, so have i. told my other former boss, i guess i’ll see you again at the next funeral.

parading?

the uptown parade was this morning. don’t really care about it, but it is right outside the door, so i take the opportunity to shoot the cars that show up. i mean, they are at my doorstep, so how can i not?

this year, they staged it farther down the street and around the block. it also lightly rained early in the morning. the club that drove the pretty pretty princesses down the street last year didn’t participate this year. cars weren’t really parked right at our curb, and didn’t see many that i was interested in.

there were no horses either, which are kind of fun to take pics of too.

i was about ready to forget about it, then spied an old ford across the way. i’d just gotten out of the shower, got dressed quickly, and i went out thinking i’ll just quickly shoot that one car, and didn’t even brush my hair.

after a bunch of shots of that one, i noticed a car at the far end of the block, but by the time i got there, the parade had moved on some more, so i figured i’d catch it when it came around to the main street.

walked back toward the house, and saw that there were some cars down the street by the mortuary. so that’s where they were hiding a few that i’d seen earlier.

that’s where i found this convertible. it seemed to have been meant to be in the parade, but as i walked up to it, they were peeling the parade poster off the side of the door. maybe they had to leave, maybe it broke down, i don’t know. this end of the street is still part of the staging area, and they weren’t going anywhere, so i took a few pictures. pretty sure i’ve shot it before, if i really looked through the archives, but i don’t think i’ve ever posted it.

better half had asked if i’d seen a black one with pinstripes after i’d gotten home—he’d seen it drive past the window. i totally blanked that it was this one and said nope, being all disappointed that i’d missed it. then he walked behind me while i was working on the picture and said that’s the one i was talking about. so duh.

sonata time

apparently, the xmas sonata is going on uptown. no idea what they’ve scheduled this year. usually at least a horse-drawn carriage and carolers. the carriage i could get into, but never have; the carolers, i could do without.

better half has hauled a buttload of xmas decorations into the house, and they are deciding what colors to use on the fruity tree. already know it’s toy story again for the theme, but now it’s what color balls to use <she said balls>. at least it gets his mom out of her bed and into her wheelchair.

i haven’t been home since last weekend, for random reasons, including rain and my mom’s garage door not wanting to open. this is the picture i was working on last week, when the fuse blew. yay the new photoshop actually does a decent job at recovering a picture after a crash vs frying the file.

knocked the color out, because the light flares were just oddly bugging me, but i still liked the car.

i probably mentioned it before, but it was odd the lot was so empty as compared to previous years at this time of morning. makes me want to sleep in too, but i like the early morning light too much.

i should talk. i haven’t been getting out to any shows at all for the last month. and the past weekend and this morning have been perfectly gray and cold. just not feeling up to it. i have all sorts of excuses, but i’ll just leave it at i haven’t had the energy to get out. miss you guys tho.

sraining

hiding out at my condo, rain pounding, checking to see if there are any leaks in the roof. kid has been here off and on the past week packing her things finally. place seems somehow deflated the emptier it gets, but i will better see what needs doing, fixing, replacing without all the stuff in the way.

last rainy thanksgiving i can remember was in the early eighties, the year my sister got married.

my ear is aching and my eye is puffy and itchy. wondering what new problems await me to finish out the year.

turkey day. time for reminders from last year’s memories of my dad’s last year.

he’d just gotten out of a month-long stay in a hospital the day before thanksgiving. was super tired and only came downstairs to the dinner table last minute, and sat at my mom’s seat instead of his place at the far end. didn’t eat much, went back to bed early.

pretty sure my mom has set one extra place, not just for symmetry in place settings.

————-

here’s a chevy from last year. a con stilo club picnic, at a park not far from the house, on a cloudy day. small lot of cars, shot most of them before i had to leave. wonder if this car still looks like this, or if it was a work in progress.

53 truck

waiting at the dmv to get the new fangled driver license. got a timer running to see how long it takes with an appointment. fun times. the bingo number keeps just being a digit or two off from mine. why can’t it go in a logical order?

like the waiting room in beetlejuice. just need the guy with the shrunken head. this music sucks.

coming direct from a fire drill at work. they emptied the building and kept everyone outside for half an hour. glad i took my keys with me so i could just take off instead of waiting forever for the elevator or climbing the stairs.

lunch after this hell. then i guess back to work.

———-

haven’t been to a latin gents show since summer. sometimes they’re packed, sometimes, not so much to choose from. but the club members do have cars, and i think this is one of them. light was hitting it right and made the color pop.