what's up?

back home

finally made it home yesterday night. quite sure, i’ve completely used up my time off with pay for the year and then some. but an emergency is an emergency, and i am glad that i was there to help.

my brother is back home, physically all right. still a little on the loopy side, but hoping that will go away after he gets back on his regular schedule.

he has a lovely hospital bed smack in the middle of his office now, and will be visited daily by nurses or therapists or some such personnel.

hopefully i will not feel scared enough for him to have to fly back, but i would.

one more from dolphin park last week. isn’t it lovely?

delay delay delay delay

so far, my return flight has been delayed four times. almost ten pm now before we take off. i'll be heading straight to work at this point. i won't have any sleep. no one at the desk to ask about changing flights. gotta ask my brother, a pilot for another airlines if its weather related. guessing not, since i just heard a flight called for san diego.

now my flight has dropped off the board altogether. shit.

sunny here, unlike the skies in this pic from a few months ago.

recovering

1939 chevy master deluxe

sitting here in florida, in an icu room, while my brother sleeps. surgery went ok, but he did have some somewhat scary complications, so i finally booked a flight to come see what was going on myself.

he’s going to be ok, bu will be moving to a rehab facility for some period of time when they release him from the hospital. already booked a flight back in a few days, so he better keep improving.

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i did see an old chevy on the ride between the house and the hospital, but sister-in-law didn’t stop to let me take a pic. not really top priority for her, as she needed to be somewhere and has other things on her mind. i have her car for an hour or so, but i don’t think i’d find my way back to where the chevy was. oh well.

it’s pretty cold here, for florida. nephew says because of a storm or hurricane coming in a few states north. pretty much feels like california now, at about seventy degrees in the daytime. almost nice, but i know the other three-hundred and sixty das of the year are mostly sweltering humidity, with some windy hurricane excitement thrown in. nah, i wouldn’t live here. i’ll stick with the occasional earthquake for one-hundred, alex.

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posted this car up on instagram before i headed to the airport the other day. i know i’ve seen it elsewhere, and probably posted it. it may or may not be the same one owned by someone who chatted up my better half once in anaheim, talking about hand sanding the pieces until flour would just slide right off it before taking it in for painting, or else there is another super purple master deluxe driving around. this one has some glitter in the paint, and i can’t remember about the other one.

contemplating

i went out for a few hours to the toy drive at dolphin park.

i expect a lot of people were at mooneyes xmas party. never been there, wouldn’t know where to park, didn’t feel like getting up that early, and also, too many people.

my younger brother, on the east coast, had gone into the hospital the night before. needed his gallbladder out, but no surgeons were available. so about the time i was wandering around the park, they’d finally got him in to have it removed.

so really, the show was just a distraction.

today, he seems to be in and out of icu, having some unidentified complications. i’ve offered to fly out there to give her a break, but his wife has sort of said not needed yet.

yet her updates seem to be getting more unsettling. i’m about ready to book a flight, but my mom says i should wait for test results. so i’ll just sit here and pretend that it isn’t bothering me, and putter around with my pictures, and watching my mother-in-law while my better half is out shopping.

so, here’s a chevy from yesterday. i heard there were about a hundred cars that had come through or were parked in the lot. admittedly, i didn’t expect to see so many, cuz, mooneyes.

i’d also never been to this park. not so very big. parked down the street, around the corner. wondered where they’d put the cars earlier in the year for a show there as well.

this chevy was one of the first few i encountered on the edge of the park, under the trees. i do love how trees can frame a car.

still around

1955 chevy truck

went out to the just memories/kustom classics toy drive last night in bellflower. i’m a bit rusty, as i haven’t been out as much.

got there about four-thirty, before the official start time. really just some of the club cars there, and mostly the hopper types. shrugged and just went with it, since i was there.

figured i try to remember how to do night shots like i used to when i’d go to the broiler. have you noticed how fast the sun takes a dive this time of year? just blink and it’s dark early, too.

no one really bothered me, while i skuttled around trying to stay out of the way, as more cars did show up eventually. the lot got pretty full by the time i left three hours later.

i did run into one friendly face, who did chat for a bit. apparently he had heard i’d been in a bad accident, hit by a car or something. first i’d heard of it. wasn’t me, obviously, as i was there chatting with him, but fun story anyway. i was expecting to start hearing stuff, since i don’t go out much—family obligations get priority—can only juggle so much.

this was the last shot of the night. i’d done one more look around, and saw this one sitting in front of carl’s. i’d shot it from the other side, as there were a couple of guys sitting where i’d set my tripod on the other side, but then the owner, i presume, said he liked it better from the other side. i saw that it had the spare tire on it, so i agreed. told him there were dudes there and didn’t want to bother them, whereupon, he got them to move.

it turned out ok, in spite of people that did walk through my long exposures.

to the wordsmith that felt the need to send me the email “ur dumb” with the three word message: “this website sucks,”… i applaud your economy of words; precise and to the point, yet lacking in any real constructive criticism. be still my heart. what shall i do?

no one is keeping you here. perhaps you should stick to the instagram page—no reading necessary.

and then i got on with my life…

no what

1936 chevy

psst. better half just was sent on an expedition to fetch large wheels of dough slathered in tomato blood and the various body parts of slaughtered beasts. yummy right?

that’s for him. i’m just keeping it simple and getting a small one with processed cow juice melted on it.

when i get home now, i have about an hour before it gets full dark. he delayed me going uptown by having me watch something on youtube, and i sort of got stuck watching it for a while.

now it’s dark and he didn’t want me to walk uptown alone, and he can’t go, so he offered to go out.

pretty sure he’s a little stir crazy. it’s good for him to get out, even for a little bit. even tho he is really very tired…his mom had a bad night, so he was up a lot dealing with that. even overslept a bit when he should have started his work day. oops.

at least it hasn’t started raining yet. and the weather man is always right about when that starts around here…not.

seen this blue chevy around before. i know it’s posted here somewhere from last summer. here it was at the veterano’s show, sitting in the blue car parking area, i guess. purty, ain’t it?

thinking that blue is a little bit too blue, but i don’t feel like toning it down. maybe it’s my eyes, or my monitor.

choices

1940 chevy special deluxe

my brother is heading home tuesday. one of my other brother’s kids is here with his girlfriend. better half needs to go to the market. i want to go to one of several toy drives. day is half over already.

finding myself sitting indecisively uptown, having a shrimp basket.

better half’s adventure is dependent on how his mom is doing, which is currently a maybe he’ll go any time soon.

my nephew has probably already left; my bro i could see again tomorrow, but i was also going to haul down a big chunk of leftover ham from thanksgiving. if i do go there, i might as well spend the night, since it’s only a few exits from work. ugh, already don’t want to go...sunday traditional whining.

car shows...mid-day light sucks. why isn’t overcast like yesterday? and most are done by four or five, so if i’m going, i should get going.

and then, i’ve also barely made a dent sorting vacay pics...still solidly in france. this project will take forever. suppose it would be better to take a film camera next time, and take fewer pics. easy, right? should i post more?

never enough time. never.

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old car from the veterano’s show. owner didn’t say much, just sort of watched. no worries, i don’t want to hurt your car as much as i don’t want to hurt my camera. i do need a new tripod. and i should start thinking about using the chuck e cheese account at work to get another camera body. oh, there’s another thing to do...actually mail in the two broken cameras for repair.

granny watch

1958 chevy impala convertible

i’m seeing more shows happening at this location in covina. not terrific, especially when a lot of cars show up, but there is space if they need it, due to the closed supermarket next door. close enough that i can get back home quickly if needed, and i haven’t noticed certain a-holes attending this one. apparently, i do hold certain grudges when earned, and it has ruined my enjoyment of car shows more than i think.

should have kicked the guy in the nuts at the time, but i didn’t, and bitching about it here doesn’t fix it. he’s an ass, probably was a bit drunk, and probably doesn’t even remember. i do. asshole.

anyway, the veteranos show was quite full of cars, so i was in a happy place. better half kept saying things were fine, so i didn’t need to head home as early as i thought. i shot maybe ninety percent of the cars that were there before i left. i did skip a few. people in the way, hood up, not my type, the usual reasons.

a lot of them are just ok shots. need to get out more, to keep my eyes open to seeing a good shot.

i liked this one. usually shoot fifty-eights from the back end, since that’s the interesting part for me. i did shoot that, but i just like the crop and reflection on this angle.

better half just left to search for a couple of new internal hard drives for me to fill up. hoping to get a price match at frys, but they mostly never have what he’s looking for in stock. otherwise, he’s getting time out of the house to do whatever he wants, a break from watching his mom. i could recommend a few toy drives he could visit…

she seems to need a break from him as well. wish they were a board or card game playing people…i’d hit her up, give her something else to do besides sleeping or watching tv.

maybe tomorrow we will begin hauling xmas crap in the house. my annual crabby, gloomy mood is starting to descend already.

post thanksgiving

1962 chevy impala

here’s a majestics’ car from this past summer. a latin gents show out in cypress. don’t see too many yellow impalas. maybe i just don’t notice them.

thinking about this latin gents show, makes me wonder how ernie is doing…he had some news that day. been too busy to get out to any of their shows since then, so haven’t heard from him since.

i did not go into a turkey coma yesterday. my sister bought a full dinner from gelson’s or some such whoop-di-doo market. mom has had enough to deal with lately, so giving her a break from cooking the traditional dinner. pretty sure her time for cooking the big family meal is done, and future holidays will either be bought or i will have to volunteer to do it.

i sort of half assed said i’d do it, but was happy my sister just picked one up.

i’ve cooked a turkey before, but i’m not all about the bird, so i guess it turned out ok. i want to say that was decades ago, for my ex and his parents. gosh, my daughter was probably only a year old…time flies. i get no joy from cooking, and avoid it when i can. anyway, they always dumped hot sauce on anything i cooked, so, i just didn’t bother the next holiday. they are happier with tamales anyway.

this year, as usual, better half stayed home with his mom; he sent me to my parents house…”never know how many more holidays you’ll have with them.” my bro showed up; wife and daughter stayed up in los angeles with their friends. dad initially wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t going to join us, but he did come down the stairs just as we were sitting down to eat.

the company was good, but the food was unremarkable. only a few bites of turkey, and the pathetic mashed potatoes. i’d brought a cherry pie, but it sort of tasted like they’d given me a sugar free version, so disappointed.

bro is in town without a return ticket home. they’re looking for a house, and he is spending time with mom and dad. wife and kid going home sunday. they wanted to go to disneyland today, but pretty sure they bailed on that black friday hell.

i drove home this morning, expecting to see store parking lots full, but noticed them to be only part full. did people go shopping at midnight? was happy to find no one at in-n-out, and no one in the drive thru, so went there and grabbed some burgers for my better half and myself.

have otherwise, not done anything or left the house today. hoping to sift through the nine-thousand plus photos from my trip this weekend.

i’m blathering, so i’ll just stop.

jaded

1956 chevy bel air

veteran’s show last spring over at rose hills. the “mayor’s” car, again. he always wonders why i take pictures of his car every time i see it. if i didn’t shoot cars that i’ve seen before, repeatedly, there would be far fewer cars for me to shoot around here. same guys go to the same shows, driving the same cars. but there’s always some variable that has changed, most obviously, the light and/or the location.

i’d never been to a car show in a cemetery before, so come on, that’s way different. no idea what those buildings/sculptures in the background are, but it was kind of cool, no?

my dad got out of the hospital yesterday. after three months of bland, diabetic diet food, he had my mom take him out for everything he had been craving: pho soup of some sort, ice cream shake, and diet pepsi, for starters.

this morning he was whining that the food in the fridge tasted funny and/or was out of date. reminded him that mom had spent most of the last few months driving back and forth to sit with him every day, so she really hadn’t done much shopping. pointed out the egg nog he was complaining about, was in fact, still good until the end of the month. it just tastes nasty, because…egg nog. ick.

this evening, i asked my mother-in-law if she would like me to get her something uptown. usually mentioning where i was going, leads her to remember something she used to order. tonight, instead of just california grill spaghetti, she wanted spaghetti with marinara, so i was going to have to drive out to a different restaurant.

went out to lascari’s. figured i’d just get lasagna. got mine for there; hers to go. most restaurants will hold off on the to go order, but no, the waiter brought it out with my dish.

the food there was always pretty good. is pretty good. it’s just that, after going to italy, it’s not the same. told my better half that the lasagna at the sit-down restaurant here, is on par with a fast food lasagna over there. just not very flavorful. my homemade stuff is better.

mother-in-law is happy as a clam. her spaghetti is exactly how she remembered and was craving. meanwhile, as my co-worker said the other day, i’ll continue to dream of gelatto…