what's up?

why did i come back?

better half and i have recently returned from a three-week road trip. he kept telling me this is what retirement is like—doing whatever we want to do, going wherever we want to go at the drop of a hat—no asking permission ahead of time if it would be ok. so, yes, he convinced me long ago, but i just can’t pull the trigger on that yet.

we drove north up california, to san simeon and lake tahoe. across nevada, utah, wyoming. we experienced cooler temps, light rain, foreboding clouds and even snow flurries in the mountains.

we were thwarted by tornadoes, golf ball size hail, and severe thunderstorms, and had to cancel the planned drive further east, and turned south in laramie, wyoming.

so, we missed an opportunity to see an uncle on the east coast. we then had hoped to stop and see some relatives in colorado, but their age, injuries, and an upcoming surgery caused them to decide they weren’t up to a visit.

we diverted south to amarillo, texas, as my better half had a craving to stop at the big texan restaurant for a big steak. no, he didn’t participate in their seventy-two ounce steak meal challenge. also fortunately, amarillo was just west of a big storm.

it was fairly uneventful, and a whole lot warmer crossing new mexico, arizona, then back to cali, ending in san diego. over one-thousand six-hundred miles and we came home.

we spent a lot of time entertaining my better half’s love of airplanes; it’s only fair, when he puts up with my love of old cars. we hit up air and space museums in every state, and i think we saw at least six b-29 bombers in various locations, which are kinda cool.

maybe i’ll add a tab to my website for some vacation pics and more blather on our various stops. maybe i’ll just post a few on my flickr page.

absolutely would do a road trip again. probably will do another train trip or combination next vacation. we probably wouldn’t go so late in the year, but any earlier, we would have gotten blocked by snow in the mountain passes. it’s a beautiful country, if you just stop to notice.

so, today, was my first day back at work, where to no surprise, one-hundred and thirty-seven emails, a bunch of new assignments, and a ninety-minute required training to look forward to for the next few weeks were waiting. i’m not shocked. it’s always this way. work my butt off before i go, then more work waiting when i return.

my coworkers are great, took over some of my workload, but they are pretty busy themselves.

i’m more surprised that i remembered my passwords.

hopefully, i’ll find some time to get back to my car pics. we went to a couple of shows before we left, and have several coming up we hope to attend.

saw this chevy at the chino corn feed run show from april. the skies had been gloomy most of the day, with rain falling on and off. spotted the los angeles bombs cars at the far end of the street as we quickly walked to find lunch and shelter from a two-hour downpour. we stopped to take some shots after the rain had stopped, on our way back.

the image was a bit darker because of the light from the clouds, so i did brighten it up a little here. the car was darker, even with a temporary peek of blue sky that opened above this scene.

we were mostly tired and wet; headed back to the car at the far end of main drag. more rain was coming, and fortunately didn’t start again until we were safely in our car and on our way home.

few more days

looking a wee bit back a few months. so many shows i've shot, and haven't posted much from them at all. always a happy surprise when i find a set that i've completely forgotten about—usually when i've gone to more than one or two shows on a weekend. that's not many, compared to what i was shooting a couple of years ago.

got to the los angeles bombs' cinco de mayo show a bit early, and was able to shoot a few cars with few distractions and all alone. got this one in a seemingly empty lot.

clouds in the sky are similar to what's out there now. a bit of sprinkly stuff here and there...same as that day.

time winding down till my dad gets his date with destiny. one more test—an angiogram—then they'll decide what they want to do to him. hoping they can go up his leg, and not have to fillet him to get to his heart.

i'll be working monday, then taking off the balance of the week to get him to his appointment and back home again. they tell him it will be an outpatient thing. i don't know about you, but if i was getting a camera up my veins, i'd say give me the good stuff, and keep me overnight, if not a few days.

so i'll pack a bag for a few days' worth of clothes. should bring a pillow for the uncomfortable chair that converts into a 'bed.' going to wear stretchy pants, no point in being uncomfortable sitting on my ass all day, on my day off, right?

thinking about going to one of the toy drives going on tomorrow. no, not first thing in the morning...don't think i can do that...better half probably can't go, and i haven't been out for a while, so i'm not sure i can actually carry my tripod and camera or pull the bag out of the car. maybe if i go later in the morning, i won't feel so sore and stiff, and i'll be ok. mostly just ignore the aches in my joints. still a few weeks until a see a doc about that, so i just cope and ignore.

at the bar

no car shows for me today. our family member is in the hospital again. i will have to go tag out my better half, so he can go home, shower and get a few hours of sleep.

this is a crap picture. i know it is a crap picture, but it is how i feel at just this moment...so close, but can't go. it was a different kind of shot though, through the bars, at cars driving into the show.

they didn't stop long enough for me to get a clean shot, but the idea is there.

hoping everyone at the shows today keep cool...going to be in the nineties by noon. hate summer, really do.

two weeks until the whittier uptown show...just down the street...that i can go to...

poor boys

saw a few cars from the poor boys' car club at the show last weekend. can't say that i've heard of them before now. don't think they had plaques, just the banner here, so that might be one reason.

i think this is one of their cars. it's nice, and the matte finish under the cloudy skies really muted out the color.

over the last couple of months, my better half has dropped about fifty pounds. he pretty much has cut out all sugar from his diet. due to other stuff going on, he's had to work from home, and do a lot of running around on minimal sleep. he's a bit stressed and distracted to say the least.

i, on the other hand, am starting to look like a bean—better half says he loves beans. i bought him a 3x shirt at the car show the other day, as would be the habit, but looking at him now, i think it's too big. i'm pretty sure if i don't start getting out off my ass more, i'll be the one wearing it.

i guess we deal with stress differently. i walk uptown to eat, i whip up a batch of cookies, i take pictures of cars. he cleans the house. he cleans the house. he cleans the house.

oh well. just gotta decide to get up and do something. need to throw out this coke and drink some water. i have a headache, probably because of the coke. maybe i'm diabetic. i don't know.

better half is asking if i can do some shopping this afternoon. i will. just need to decide which car show to go to, and find a supermarket nearby/on the way back. that's the way to do it.

may showers

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside I've got the month of May
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?...

— smokey robinson

who needs april showers, when you get these skies in may? jacket weather. hanging out at hospitals. busy month.

my birthday happened too, but did nothing that day, and usually don't care about it. ask me how old i am, and i have to do math in my head. not really something i obsess about. my son did take me out for dinner a few days later. didn't hear from the other kid...pretty typical.

another car from the los angeles bombs cinco de mayo show. before the rain came. good thing, since this car had the top down.

beautiful cars. how can we not want to take pictures of them?

may shower

it did shower after i left the show the other day. happily, got a lot of shots in before i left. great clouds, great cars.

i think it was this car, that the owner ran up excitedly to ask if i'd taken a shot of his car at a recent high school fundraiser. he showed me the pic on his phone. yep. i remembered him then.

seemed to be happy, and looking forward to seeing another one. happy to oblige.

yesterday

busy day yesterday.

had rained a bit the day and night before. i knew it was completely possible our family member was getting released from the hospital, and that i was going to have to be there with my car, to be the taxi driver.

not knowing the when, i decided to go to the local car show first, check my phone frequently, then i would head out to santa anita, if there was still time.

i was at the los angeles bombs' second anniversary show before eight in the morning. figured, cinco de mayo weekend, and a sunday, i could sleep in a little and still get there to get a parking space.

and i did. my usual parking spot, right up front. and then the club members were there setting up their trophy table and tent.

so i just shot pics of the two or three cars that were there for a good ten minutes, until more cars arrived. the skies were mostly cloudy off and on, and always a chance of rain, but it didn't stop people from showing up.

other photographers arrived, and i met a couple of fellow instagrammers. very nice and talented guys. one had stopped at santa anita first, and realized that the bomb club show had been cancelled because of the rain. thanks. saved me a trip out of the way.

the lot was about half full by the time i took a break, then heard that i needed to get over to the hospital to make my pick up.

i have quite a few decent shots from yesterday, that i hope to have time to post, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

i rather like this buick eight. caught it during a brief moment of the sun shining through, with colors not muted down by the overcast.

made it to the hospital on time. it did pour on us a while on the way home. as unexpected as that was, the wheelchair on the back of my better half's vehicle got a bit soaked. he's currently trying to clean it up, and hoping the electronics and motor didn't get fizzled.

night night

has been a hell of a week at work. too much work, not enough time, slipping deadlines. unwanted overtime. cancelled day off. some people got let go. somebody died.

pretty sure i have to work tomorrow and/or sunday. but first i need to get my oil changed.

meanwhile i'm hanging with my kid's dog, who keeps bringing me stuff to play tug of war, and not letting me type more than a few words at a time. he wants more attention, though i've played with him and walked him all afternoon since i got here. and here he is again.

i'll just post this car up because i like it. not quite full dark, but it is from only a single frame from the camera, since all the exposures of the five i did of it were the same exposure time, so i kicked the pixels a bit to bring it out of the background some.

chatty kathy

1937 plymouth

made it out to the los angeles bombs' car show at the speed zone on friday. good thing we got there early...parking was hard to come by later on in the evening.

good thing we got a lot of shots in before too many people showed up. the more crowded it got, the more time it took to shoot between the crowds of people, or the people that don't notice and walk between the camera and the car. it happens. have to go zen, or just count to ten, before giving up and moving on to another car.

i was shooting this plymouth soon after we arrived. then the owner and his friend came over, the friend saying my name. he had remembered me from the unidos show the previous year—they had both chatted me up there. i remembered him instantly, when he mentioned the high school—i'd taken a picture of the friend's car.

spent a long time talking with them again. learned about a couple of car shows coming up, that the friend's son had somehow broken a braket on his car with a garage door, so didn't have it at the show. talked photography, of course, and all sorts of other things. a really rambling convo, but fun and interesting.

better half happened to walk up about that time and joined in. the more the merrier.

told the plymouth owner i'd post a shot of his car, if i got one i liked. problem with the earlier shots was that they both kept walking into the frame, the owner getting stuff from the car, the friend directing the owner on how to turn the wheel just so, so it would look good from the angle i was shooting at that particular moment.

i did manage to get a shot or two without them in it, but i like this one from later, when they were no where in sight. it's all good. i just have to chuckle sometimes.

if laughter is the best medicine, then my better half and myself are the healthiest people around.

shadow king

i'll just post this picture up from last week, while i wait for this weekend's pics from south gate and walnut high school download. gonna be a while. feeling sleepy too...been up since five a.m. lightly toasted by the sun while at the high school, so my skin is all tingly too.

this picture seems a bit dark on my screen. i think i'll go back in and tweak it a bit after the download is done. nothing like kicking the pixels to make them behave. actually, a lot of my pictures seem a bit dark lately. too much sun, or maybe just my screen.