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different volks for different folks

volkswagon bug

not my usual car. in fact i don’t think i’ve ever posted a slug bug up here.

but i’m a sucker for sun rays, and when i’m at huffarama, and the sun is coming up, and there’s nothing around ready to shoot at that moment, i just gotta take the shot.

it’s a bug. it’s a convertible. it’s lowered. it’s shiny. trying my best to be enthused. can you feel it?

my ex had a bug project car. it was cool. big, custom engine hiding in the back, custom interior, big tires, chrome rims. he let me pick the color—a mint aqua green—he even let me drive it. pretty sure i’ve mentioned it before, but i was the one that got the fix-it ticket, as it was too low to the ground, and the windows were tinted too dark.

  • been preparing to get my taxes done. better half over in the other room turbo taxing. says next year he’ll have my tax person do his as well. eventually we’ll file together, i suppose. still filing separately after all these years.

  • been working a lot and just tired at the end of my work day, so if i work up the energy to take a walk, i should get a gold star. mostly recovered from my slip and fall, and slowly working back into doing daily walks. so easy to just get stuck in the lazy-boy watching you tube all evening…

  • haven’t been to a show since huffarama, but thinking about going to something in the next week or so. guess pomona isn’t until march…oh well. i better charge my batteries. pretty sure that camera is dead, and will need all the settings and time reset, as i haven’t touched it in so long.

  • finally bit the bullet and went to ikea for a new desk. couldn’t find the screws for my old one that i’d had since college…they’re in a bin, in storage, where the desk has been for about a decade, and i just can’t find them. we’re back to working from home for the last few weeks because of the cootie surge, so might as well get my setup off a card table.

it was an accident, i tell ya

the end of our journey down route 66 had us out at the wigwam motel in san bernardino. cute, but kinda crap part of town. homeless people hanging around just outside the fence, having to be chased out by management. small room, as expected inside a “teepee.”

just so happened to be less than ten minutes from huffarama, the day we check out. time crunch, as we have a rental car to return in the afternoon, but we still managed a few early hours after talking our way in.

this was one of the first pics i shot. the finish on that gold one…like buttah.

better half got boxed in on street parking xmas day. car in front of him right on his bumper, and in front of a fire hydrant.

he called the cops. they dispatched an officer. better half pleads his case. officer asks where he was going on xmas day? he says, i have family to go visit. officer seems perplexed. why would you want to do that?

officer finally just says he’s not giving writing a ticket on xmas day. even for parking in front of the fire hydrant.

these cops really just don’t want to enforce the laws here. too much paperwork.

better half misses whittier pd, at least they’d show up and tow cars for violations. and he would get his schadenfreude on.

unplanned, i promise

sooo, we recently returned from a short vacation—not quite a full repeat of last year’s trip—just up the coast to portland, and across on a train, to chicago; then back in a car on route sixty-six this time.

we knew it was going wonky from the get-go. i’ll have to write up our tales of woe, the trials and tribulations, crap weather, and the fun and food we had sometime. but for now, i’ll just say, we saw a lot of new things this time, and stayed in some of the places on route sixty-six.

seriously, wasn’t thinking when we’d booked the wigwam motel in san bernardino, on our last night before heading home. i was riding shotgun in the rental car, flipping through instagram, checking out car show flyers, as i do.

i’d written off a few shows while we were out of town. then my brain started working. huffarama. san bernardino. the day we are checking out of the wigwam. turned out to be a nine minute drive away.

better half accused me of planning it that way. swear i didn’t.

it was just before seven a.m., when we arrived at a gate at san manuel stadium, and the kid there said we needed to go around to the other side. that gate turned out to be where the cars were going to be going in, and the guys in the couple of cars that were first in line there, said the other photographers were already inside, and had gone to the gate we just left.

so back around we went, and told said kid that we were sent back to this gate. he let us in, and were directed to park in the furthest end of the parking lot for vendors. we paid our admission when we walked back over to where the club guys were, and got to shooting. the club guys didn’t remember us, even though my better half had given one of them a free print of his car when they had been out to the uptown whittier car show several years before. i think the one guy thought we were from texas because of the plate on the car.

of course rey was already inside shooting. that dude is everywhere and knows everyone. lol.

attending this show was unplanned, so we didn’t have all of our gear or bags or lenses, but we did have our tripods and wide angle lenses, and a limited amount of time to shoot. still had to get the rental car down to the airport, so gave ourselves three hours to see what we see, allowing for drive time, emptying the car, and filling the gas tank. we hadn’t even had breakfast yet.

i liked the sun hitting this beauty early in the morning. it just feels quiet. i’ve shot this car before, but usually it’s up against a building, or surrounded by other cars.

this is why getting out at sunrise is my favorite. and also my bane…i just want to sleep in on weekends anymore.

anyway, we left about ten-ish. and we did get the car back with about forty-five minutes to spare.

now if i can only find the time to get more than a couple of the shots worked up and posted. and look through all of the vacation pics too.

©2023 kathy gonzalez