what's up?

out and about

finally talked myself into getting out of bed last saturday, and showed up rather later than usual to the kustom car club’s monthly bbq out at legg lake.

saw several very nice cars leaving as i arrived. that always sucks that i missed shooting them, but it was my fault for my lateness. and i was taking the chance it wouldn’t get stupid hot outside after lunchtime. hate the heat. makes me all fainty, and burns my pale skin. give me a gloomy or rainy day anytime. i’m in a mood, i guess.

had a nice long chat with an acquaintance from san diego. far from home, but said his wife had sent him out for the day or weekend, while she visited with an ailing friend. said the brakes were out on his own car, so was driving hers.

there were enough cars to keep me busy for a bit. still not sure how long this old computer will last, but make hay while the sun shines, so they say.

i’ve had a long day at work, but feel the need to post something, before i’m forgotten. interesting mercury here. custom chop job. liked the tail lights and pinstriping.

i did have to boot up the better half’s computer to get my pics onto a hard drive, then bring it over here to this computer. haven’t decided if it’s worth using his computer instead; i don’t like the setup. and it’s only slightly less old than my own as well.

actually, i rarely turn on the computers at all lately. other things to do, and a day vanishes quickly when i get lost in the files.

can learn a lot about a person by the files on their computer, and how they’re arranged. smoke and mirrors. it was a nice dream, and now it’s done.

fire

cool paint job.

———

if all the other stuff going on in my life isn’t enough, we just evacuated because of one of the fires going on today. mile from home is too close.

what the hell?

missed it

here’s a chevy from the bomb club show at santa anita. from five years ago. it’s marbleized like a bowling ball, only better. the pinstriped details help tie in the gold of the rims. and red and gold…my high school colors.

i missed yesterday’s show, since it’s hard to shoot pics at santa anita when you’re in phoenix with no camera, but even with a camera, just couldn’t do it.

from the pics i have seen online, i missed a really good show. :(… looked packed. read about some people complaining that it took too long to get out at the end of the show.

flight from phoenix was happily uneventful. i timed everything out perfectly, from check out at the hotel, to bfast, to car return. only a little wait at security. i actually had an empty seat next to me, so yay.

i will miss the hotel. after a week there, i had deciphered the various ways back to my room from any direction, or outside door, for a quick dash in from the heat. i remember my disappointment when i saw the sign over the door across from my room, “ice stairs,” imagining slippery, cold, blue stairs, with icicle rails. nope. an ice machine, then another door. then plain, cement stairs, warm air, some pipes, leading to the oven that is outside. also, locked on the outside, so always had to walk a little further if i went around that outer perimeter of the building. best to do in the morning or the evening, after five pm.

i haven’t checked on the work i have missed while i was gone, but suspect no one else picked it up for me either.

backing up old files today, doing some shopping, hanging with my better half, who did come pick me up at the airport after all.

i’ve missed this cold, overcast. there’s no place like home.

red

ya, ya. i had this picture ready a week ago. i got busy, places to go, people to see. forgot.

just getting back to sifting though pics, before i have to run off to my mom’s house. going south again to have mothers’ day dinner with my bro and his wife and friends. really not looking forward to sitting in traffic.

nice car. red. does this look red to you? bane of my existence. red cars are a hassle for my camera. does this look a tad orange to you? my eyes are getting old and tired.

change of plans

better half and i decided to go to the azalea festival show last weekend at the south gate golf course.

used to wake up early and be there before the sun rose, to get that early morning light on the cars waiting to get in the gate.

then there were a couple of years, where my better half couldn’t go, while he was taking care of his mother. i’d go, but there weren’t as many cars; then the gate guards wouldn’t be persuaded to let me in to take pictures before the official open time.

then another year, i went on my own again. before the sun. in the lot, in the dark before six a.m. before the people running the show and the vendors. before anyone bothered to show up, to line up, to get in. almost left, after sitting for an hour, but then, i’d already waited, so waited some more. not much went in the gate, didn’t wait until start, as they again wouldn’t let me in, so i left.

same thing last year, with my better half. we shot all the cars that bothered to be there, until they all went in, and decided it wasn’t worth the wait, and found a much better show elsewhere.

this year, same deal, but we didn’t get up early, got there after ten a.m..

i was worried we wouldn’t get a place to park. it wasn’t an issue; we were right in the lot.

we were stopped by one employee, asking if we were with the band. nope. better half strode right in the gate where the cars enter, so i followed. i thought for sure that employee would stop him, but they just walked the other way.

where once the golf course was crammed with cars to the outer fences, there were only a few rows. a stage was set up across the way, and a live band played later on.

the vendor’s truck had overpriced food, while outside the course, at the main street front, there were boy scouts selling a reasonably price breakfast for a reasonable amount of food.

also, whatever happened to the carnival part of the festival? there was just a baseball game going on in that field.

we stayed only two hours and shot everything we wanted. chatted with an old acquaintance, who said they search the cars for booze and drugs, don’t allow barbeques, or outside food, which pretty much will eventually kill off this show.

ended up in norwalk, at an easter basket drive, with a whole lot more cars.

here’s a chevy with a really amazing paint job. better half chatted with the owner for a while, who said originally he only wanted a solid color paint job. the painter convinced him it would be too plain, and that he’d be back, he went with it and here is the result.

one of those cars, where you wish you carried a ladder, because i am just too short, and the tripod isn’t tall enough.

i wonder what my better half’s pics look like, or if he’ll post them on his blog.

i don’t think we’ll be back to the south gate show.

we had thought about going to the true pride show yesterday, but those plans also changed. my younger brother had been visiting my mother for the past week. he had been dropped off, while his wife was out of state, and so we ended up in san diego, driving him home, and staying in the area for the night.

it was a good break. our jobs have been very stressful lately, with more work than usual, and we were just exhausted, without realizing it.

uneventful

found this lovely out in the parking lot of vail hq. not every spectacular car can fit inside the center court.

just enough light at dusk to have a blue sky above, and the parking lot lights shining down light tinged a pale yellow, makes a complement and pop of color on the cars.

i wonder what the girl in the car finds so much more interesting than all of the rolling art surrounding her?

i worked three days this week, then had friday off.

i’ve been trying to get over this cold. it’s mostly gone, but i’m really just low energy. no, i don’t have covid.

instead of hitting some car shows, i’ve spent my time sweeping the floors, which just always seem to be dusty. just pushing the dirt from one spot to another, i guess.

i haven’t gone far from the house since i came back home. i have been spending a lot of time with my better half. it’s nice we still enjoy each other’s company after all these years.

i wish i had more to say, or even be funny, but i just haven’t been out much to generate a story.

i hope you all have had a good new year’s day, and that this year will be better than the last few.

fyre

speaking of vail headquarters, here’s an interesting car from the limited amount of time i spent there in the middle of the summer. before i decided to have a heat stroke.

damn, it’s hot out there in the summer.

maybe it’s the flames on this car.

at least my kid showed up with his family and got some pizza from the shop at the back of the complex. highly recommend that place. kinda hungry right now, come to think of it…

dodgey

not feeling too great today. taking it easy at home, and had my computer on, catching up with bills and emails.

just going to post this car from huffarama this past october.

was sitting with some rather bland cars, and it stood out like an emerald.

moved

last show we’ve made it to since we moved, was mooneyes open house.

we arrived about five in the morning, and didn’t get started until about five-thirty. we expected more cars that early, as in past years, but really there were very few cars. just a few singular cars, and a couple of clubs, there to get their choice of parking.

saw this one very early on the far side of the street, then he moved over here in front of the shop. interesting customizations. not really sure what that thing is for the shifter, but close enough to being an alien for me to dig it. i like that it’s eyes light up. betting that dashboard gets very hot in the sun.

i loved the morning light, and the overcast sky kept it cooler a bit longer. still, we were pretty much done relatively early. just wasn’t enough of what i like to keep me there.

better half wanted to hit up his favorite restaurant over by our old apartment, so we headed to whittier, before heading back behind the orange curtain.

we’ve been so very busy unpacking too much stuff into a smaller space. it really isn’t working, and the majority of our stuff will just live in a storage unit for a very long time. the intention is to sift through boxes and toss or give away stuff. i’d like to sell some, but i really hate doing garage sales. last one i did was when my kids were little. some guy paid for some piece of junk with a twenty…i gave him change. only later did i realize he gave me a counterfeit bill. ahole. it’s just junk, and he still had to rip me off. sometimes i can’t stand people.

so, ebay or the like it will be. if i ever get around to doing it. easier to just buy a bigger house, but theres no money for that just now.

have a hard enough time finding time or the energy to get up and go to work every day. i’m just tired. lots going on around here, but i’m not going to bother you with details.

hoping to get to a few shows eventually. we’ve missed a few, because i just couldn’t get motivated to get out of bed and drive the extra hour and/or hotel prices are just a bit too insane right now.

taking down my show listing page. too many people sending me messages about shows i have no part of—i don’t run them, i don’t book vendors, i won’t take your money. i always redirect them to a website or a contact or a flyer, but really, it was just meant to be a cheat sheet listing of shows i was interested in going to. oh well.

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.