what's up?

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.

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

back to real time

vacation days are officially over. back to a normal weekend, back to work on monday. wonder if i'll remember my password.

i used to check work emails while on vacation. they blocked that ability, unless you have official work-supplied phones or computers, so, now i can actually forget about work. kinda nice, i suppose, not knowing what minefield i'll return to. whatever. just another day in the life.

back end of a cadillac from the hillco fasteners show. i liked the color of the car, the fins of the car, and the shadow play back there.

lunch

waiting in a quiet corner for my food. it's going to make me sick, it always does. but it tastes good going down. maybe they don't wash their hands here, but i'm not going to think about that.

took the bandaid covering where my stitches were off last night. gotta keep putting some medicine on it for a few days. first look since they pulled the strings...looks like a kitten's little pink sphincter. great now i'm a little asshole. maybe it will fade.

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speaking of rear ends...nice little impala from a while back.

on the front

made it out to the historic front street car show yesterday. had never been, but have seen pictures from past years, showing an impressive assortment of cars.

i was somewhat underwhelmed that there seemed to be only a lot full of cars. sure i can understand that there were more than a few other shows going on, and i was there earlier than move in was really expected, but still. other streets were not closed off for the show, as should have happened per past expectations.

well, fewer cars, fewer people, this early. i had time to shoot what i wanted, without much problem. i did have a minor problem, with a particular person who'd pissed me off in the past, so i mostly skipped shooting any of his club's cars. petty, perhaps, but i remember, even if he didn't.

found this impala toward the far corner of the lot. owner, and i believe his son, sat behind it, and i hate to inconvenience people, so was just going to shoot without disturbing them. when the owner asked to see what i was shooting in the camera, i took it as an ok to move in closer.

opted not to show him the camera images, as i happened to have a book of old prints with me. let him look through that instead.

anyway, nice chat. so i'll post this shot, with the presumed son standing in my shot.

sparkly

really liked the paint job on this one. and since the owner came over and said hi, thought i'd post it.

talked to some guys that drove down from fresno. they said this heat was nothing to them. one of them chatted about my cameras, which sony models i'd used or liked and why. he said he's seeing more people interested in getting them. he knew the difference between full frame and cropped sensor, so not a novice.

forgot to ask him which car was his, or i'd post it if i shot it. maybe he'll read this and let me know.

drop off

did anyone even notice i haven't been out and about much lately? not posting as much? well, maybe not. it's sort of an out of sight, out of mind relationship, right?

i have posted from elsewhere when i'm out of town, like a squirrel with pictures squirreled away for those days.

the usual song and dance: been busy, tired, sick, burned out, taking care of our healing resident patient, some cooking, some cleaning, some baking. just not a whole lot of photography going on here. just busy living life, or just vegging out...in some semblance of balanced way.

do i miss it? yes. can i live without it? reluctantly. there are priorities, right? but it is one of the few ways i get any exercise, so it's bad for my health not to get my ass out of bed and out to a show. i see a few coming up, that i very much look forward to each year. i've already missed a few, so will really try and go, if possible.

anyway, all i've done so far today is to get out and drop off my entries for the oc fair and walk around the swap meet there. better half was able to escape the house for a couple of hours, before his mother woke up, and his sister was left to take care of any immediate need. rare treat for him to get out, and also not to drive—simply being a passenger is nice sometimes; the ability to just take in the sights you can't pay attention to while being the driver, should not be overlooked.

time for chatting, just us, which has been in short supply for a while. not quite a date, but still time spent together lately is rare.

shot the back end of this impala, only because it belonged to tudy's friend. they'd stopped by and said hi earlier, just down the street from here. the friend asked if i'd shot it yet? no, didn't think so. told him i'd go check it out, which i did right away, before i forgot about it.

found the car, with the hood up. umm. bugger. decided it's the back end that has the identity anyway, so took this shot, just so i could say yes, yes i did, if i ran into the guy again.

went back past it later in the afternoon, before i went to find lunch, but the guy was no where around, and the hood was still up, so, oh well.

rimshot

here's ron's 'burban again. pretty sure i've posted one or two others over the years. i've noticed little tweaks to it each time i see it.

these rims aren't entirely new, and i've seen them on it before, but not sure if i've posted it with them. so simple and clean, with minimal color-coordinated pinstriping.

last couple of times i've seen him out at shows, he's been driving his beauteous fifty-nine impala. and i admit, i am more partial to that than this car, but this is nice too. sort of sounds like someone saying the big girl has a nice personality, when you think about it, in a twisty sort of way. might just be me.

long time, no see

1963 chevy impala

saw this impala early at chicano park. anything parked by this mural is always a good shot. the mural is colorful on it's own. park a nice car in front of it, it makes a pretty picture.

i think i have one of a truck in front of it later in the day. not so sparkly a paint job, but nice truck.

was gone for ten days. long road trip, my mom came along for the ride. i drove a big rental truck of stuff to my daughter in washington, then a rental car back.

let me tell you it's a long drive when you don't have someone to help with the driving. my feet hurt. my legs hurt. my butt hurt. lol. i was all butt hurt.

my mom would not have been able to handle it. she doesn't drive freeways anymore, much less a truck. should have seen her face when after gassing up the first time, i said it was her turn. priceless.

we saw a lot of stuff, but didn't have too much extra time to really get a good look around. i'd stop here and there, but mostly, it was about getting to the next hotel for the night.

i did love the scenery though. i like road trips, even if they hurt. i miss the trees already.

stopped and saw family in san jose, then instead of going through big sur and monterey, decided to cut and run for an overnight in solvang. then had to cut that short to get home and turn around to take my brother to lax.

home a day early. trying to get laundry done, but this washing machine hates me, and keeps going off balance, trying to commit suicide by rocking itself off the little pedestal it sits on. my better half decided to give it a shot after i was found giving it a double finger salute one too many times, and dropping a few f-bombs.

omg. there's never enough time, is there?

so baby

found this car at san fernando last month. pretty sure i've seen it somewhere else, if not just the previous year at the same place. i want to say the tangiers cars are usually here, and a few show up at the showlows st hilary show in october.

it was highly polished, and the sunrise was just popping the light through that clear coat.

winner, winner, chicken dinna

1962 chevy impala

this guy asked about my pictures, and asked that i don't forget to take a shot of his and his friend's cars. not sure which car belonged to who, since i didn't write it down; but for sure it belongs to one of them. i'll add the other, a sixty three, in a little while.

after another hectic week at work, we made it out to the fair yesterday. great day, great weather. would have been perfect for a car show...like the white wall nationals. but a girl can't be everywhere at the same time, and my better half was sort of on call to go in to work, so we went to costa mesa.

second day the fair was open, and we wanted to go see my stuff hanging in the photography building. found the first, a picture of one of the dancers blessing the cars, from the dia de los muertos car show back in october. no dice, i mean no ribbon. still looked good hanging there.

then over to the where the transportation pics were...same area as last year...in the corner. there's an impala, there's a fleetline; nope and nope. and there's a nineteen fifty two chevy hood ornament. yes! a ribbon! and not honorable mention! third place. good enough. never have done better than a mention, so yay, right?

and then there was one more picture to find. and we both had a brain fart, and couldn't remember what we were looking for. lol. so, while my better half called his mom to tell her the news, i had to search my phone for the entry tag, since i just couldn't picture what it was in my head at all. finally found it, and took a few minutes to locate it, but there it was, a lighthouse, in the landscape section. and nope.

so, one bigger ribbon out of five pictures hanging on the wall is good. better half's mother was overjoyed, but they're both just that type of people. i called my mom. my dad answered gruffly; he was waiting for a call from an air conditioning repairman. heat makes you pretty grumpy. my mom got on the phone quickly, and she was happy about it, but had to get off the phone quickly.

my dad doesn't have the best of hearing, and i don't have the best communication skills. i think i'm out of his auditory range most of the time, so it's just easier to let my mom translate info to him. apparently it didn't translate all the way, as he sent an email at some point in the afternoon, asking if i'd sent a picture of the first place shot and ribbon, so he could get bragging rights with the relatives. no dad, just third place. don't be too disappointed.

1963 chevy impala