what's up?

excellent day

woke up very early for the show uptown. better half was up early, his mother was still asleep, so he walked me up the street as far as the theatre here. he hung around for about fifteen minutes, before deciding he needed to get back.

posting this car, since the ladies that sat with it asked about where they would be able to see the pictures. here. right here. and also on instagram, more often than here.

i think i was out for six hours before i started feeling woozy. had to stop for lunch. wobbled over to the japanese place, but they weren’t open yet. so rolled my bag down the block for a slice of pizza at marco polos. after that, i took a shortcut down the alley to shoot a couple of cars i hadn’t gotten around to, bypassing the crowd.

it stayed overcast and cool all day; still is perfectly gloomy outside. was so happy, as this show is typically full on sun and heat by ten. crossing my fingers that summer doesn’t heat up, and i won’t have to skip going anywhere cuz i can’t take the heat.

i probably still managed to get a sunburn. at least my skin feels tingly.

back at home about one, downloaded over fifty gigs of pictures. kicked back a bit. after three, noticed cars driving by, so went outside with a camera, to catch them at the stop sign. not so many go further than hadley, so i walked back up the street to take pics of cars rolling out. more people than cars still.

saw my friend ernie and his wife. so happy to see them. been over a year, since he’d told me he had cancer. he is now cancer-free, the treatments worked. so, yay! the world isn’t done with him yet, and now he’s a good church-going boy, in thanks.

ok, i gotta go hang out with my kid’s dog and my mom. my boy is out of town with wifey, wine-tasting and enjoying good food. happy twenty-ninth birthday!! time is flying so fast. wtf.

maybe another picture to post tomorrow when i get back…so many cars, not enough time…

silent treatment

you know it’s going to be a bad day when even the rice krispies won’t snap, crackle and pop at you…

worked eleven hours yesterday…only cuz i had enough. only doing eight today because i am only doing eight.

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looking forward to the bomb club show at santa anita. such an interesting location and nice bunch of guys.

far side

ah, chicano park day. has been a weekend getaway for me for four of the past five years. i think this past year was a fav, as it was the coolest temperature-wise. seems to me there are not as many cars as the first year we went, but still plenty to take pictures of.

this one was parked over by the freeway on-ramp, where you can usually find the illegales cars every year. was told yesterday it is in fact one of the club’s cars.

bottom of the long weekend. i don’t want to go to work tomorrow.

missing my dad a lot lately. he randomly pops into my head most days. remembering miscellaneous memories, or those last few days before he died.

did we do everything we could? yes. did he know he was loved? yes. still an empty space in my heart. i wasn’t in the room the night he passed…makes it easier for me to imagine he’s just upstairs sleeping, at my mom’s.

thinking of him today. he was in the navy, lieutenant commander when he retired. happy memorial day, dad.

baby, it's cold outside

twenty-sixth of may, cold, rainy, gray. i love it. memorial day weekend, and haven’t really ventured very far from the house, except for my search for avocados yesterday.

i don’t want to deal with holiday traffic, so typically don’t travel to anywhere. better half can’t hardly get out to the supermarket while tending to his mom, so i feel guilty when i just take off to do whatever.

my kid seems to hit up solvang for an overnight every memorial day. something about picnics at vineyards. not sure if he went this year or not, since it was supposed to rain. i only know that he didn’t ask me to watch his dog, and if they did go, it was going with them.

other kid supposed to hang out with my mom for a few hours, so i don’t feel under pressure to not leave her alone for all three days this weekend.

trying to talk her into going to vegas later this summer, but really she’d be on her own there for several hours a day, while i attend some classes.

i want to take a vacation, but don’t want to go alone. i mean it’s great to go off on your own, and sleep in or do whatever without taking into consideration of another person. but there’s that desire to share the experience with someone else, and pictures don’t do whatever justice when you get back.

i’m feeling the itch to go back to canada, climb the mountains, sit in the meadow and look down over one of the many turquoise blue lakes. wondering how many more trips i have in me.

corvette hood from last year’s old memories pancake breakfast in montebello. used to be one of my favorite kind of cars as a kid, nothing unique.

was an overcast day there as well, but the clouds had a little more definition than today.

pretty sure i was attracted by the reflection for this shot at the time.

driving without cameras

was out driving around earlier. got lunch, went in search of ripe avocados. had a craving for guacamole. didn’t make it to a car show, but a few came to me, as in i saw them as i drove around.

passed an old veteran (was wearing one of those black and gold hats…you know the kind) on painter and whittier…his old buick or some such seemed to have stopped running at the light. hadn’t put on the emergency lights yet.

saw a chopped rag top merc cruising through la habra. did see an old chevy deluxe in the parking lot in la habra, and turned around and stopped for a picture with my phone camera.

had lunch at in-n-out, and just outside the door, sat a veteranos club car. was he with the wedding party inside?

saw the back end of thirty-four driving through uptown, but he got away. and an impala heading up hadley…

busy day for not hitting up a car show.

i did find my avocados, and am in possession of a fresh batch of guac.

saw this master deluxe last year at manny’s el loco. for all i know, it was there today at a vendor fest. seems to be shows there every weekend. just didn’t make it out today. didn’t have my cameras with me, when i had the chance.

hump day

i’ve worked three twelve-hour days so far this week. sometimes being salaried is a bitch. not gonna lie, i’m a tired mother—

strange and interesting things going on around me; stars must be aligning. awesome cold rainy weather for late may…even snow on the mountains.

and game of thrones…my watch has ended. man did they rush most of the loose ends. spent all the budget on the visuals, and they were pretty cool.

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meanwhile, here’s a car in the right place at the right time, in front of my lens, in front of one of the many murals at chicano park.

light sprinkles

not my usual shot my better half said. not a car i typically bother with is what he meant.

it caught my eye at the time, and i still like the picture months later, so whatever. probably was the pinstriping on the hood that got me.

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rained last night. still sprinkly and drab out—love this weather. hate summer heat.

feeling out of sorts lately and suddenly very busy at work. my younger brother has been in town visiting mom, so i’ve been trying to juggle my time to spend some with him before he leaves on tuesday.

i’ve missed a lot of car shows i’d normally be all over, but it’s beyond my control…

stood up

instead of going to dino’s cinco de mayo show at lincoln park, i ended up out in long beach, at a little car show in a church parking lot. no idea what types of cars would show up. my reason for going there is that my daughter is living out there somewhere with her boyfriend and her dog. in a room at his grandmother’s house. her stuff lives in my condo, which at this point is just an expensive storage unit that smells of stale dog piss. but that’s another rant for another day.

i figured since i was over there, we could do lunch. talked to her the day before and she said she’d “be down for that.”

got a text message that morning saying they’d been up late, she couldn’t sleep and was too tired to come over. sort of typical.

made the best of the situation. not knowing what to expect, and show hours said starting at nine a.m., i was there about an hour or so early, so i could get parking. thought cars would already be arriving for roll-in, as you do. nope. bunch of vendors setting up, but no old cars.

and did i mention it was a sunday? church was holding mass. nah, didn’t go in, but did splash some holy water on my forehead. very least religion i can do.

i wandered around until i found a bathroom. walked through the little garden area and looked at the various altars and statues. went back to my car and listened to music.

about the time i said i’d give it five more minutes, an old chevy truck showed up. told myself i’d at least get a picture of that one. by the time i found him parked he’d already popped the hood. shit.

then an old ford galaxie pulled up, so i settled for that. by the time i was down with that one, i noticed the owner of the truck and his daughter were going to walk away, and they closed the hood. got that one too.

closer to ten cars finally started showing up. but there was only a small area coned off for them. who plans a car show at a church on a sunday? so as mass ended, they started shufling cars and casually pushing cones further out.

sun was already high, and i figured i’d never find parking at lincoln park, so i stayed for a couple of hours and shot all the cars i liked.

seen this cadillac before, at an xmas toy drive late one evening in december. it was dark, and it wasn’t the best location. here it is again, in a circle, center of attention. interesting use of pinstriping and painted on “cadillac,” as well as metal flake paint. liked it well enough.

did i also mention there was a stage? when the live “band” (i only remember seeing a singer and a guitarist) started screeching out some zz top lyrics, i totally laughed at the dichotomy of the harpy belting out rock tunes and knowing the mass was going, with the side door open. no way the priest and parishoners couldn’t hear the profanity as they got their dose of gospel.

i couldn’t take the singer’s voice any longer, and just had to leave. headed over to the together car club picnic, since it was close to home.

magnet

was slowly easing my way around cars at the front sight show a few weeks ago. run into tudy, who asks if i’d shot his friend’s zephyr yet, as they are about to head out to another show.

nope, i was starting at the back of the show and working to the front, which happens to be where that car is parked. so i finished the car i was focused on and headed on over.

sure it is a beautiful car. beautiful cars attract people, which were surrounding it like metal to a magnet. i guess it could be a chick magnet, but i’ll just be crude and also call it a dick magnet, there were so many guys admiring it.

the owner was following behind me slowly, so i set up to shoot a few of whatever i could get before he got there to drive away.

the other shots are ok, cliche even. i sort of just like the front here for now. that’s the owner, there, just about ready to get in and disappear.

busy busy

been out shooting pics the last couple of weekends, but away from my computer more often than not. maybe i should move it to my mom’s house. hoping to get a few more posted up the next couple of days from recent shows.

maybe i should just throw up some pics straight from the camera and call it a day?

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here’s an impala from a latin gents show last year…i’m so far behind… i wonder how ernie’s doing?

should i just upload all seventy+ pics sitting in draft, waiting for me to have something to say?

gotta get to bed. weird schedule the next couple of days, but will be home in whittier, watching for old cars driving by…