what's up?

deadly

so, school shooting yesterday in florida. my niece and nephew were there...that's their school. they are ok, spent time hiding in the dark, under desks. saw stuff, heard stuff.

nephew has been doing interviews on tv; niece spoke to abc london. four of her friends died.

other nephew on swat team, clearing classrooms.

scary stuff.

quiet, early morning, waiting to head in at the bomb club show at santa anita last summer.

maybe i'll go

i haven't been out and about much when i'm not at work. just have other things i've been dealing with, and just haven't.

there's a cruise tonight, and a show tomorrow that i'm thinking about going to, for a change.

i was out at pomona last weekend, and i noticed my tripod is a bit wonky, and one of my cameras definitely is out of commission. camera i think is still under warranty, so i need to look into sending that in. the other camera needs the sensor cleaned, which i can do at home.

when i find myself looking back at years' old pictures for something to work on, i know i need to go out and find something new, or a fresh look at an old car.

so maybe i'll go, out to covina before it gets dark, and shoot some cars until sunset. better half isn't going, so i won't be out late. EDIT: didn't make it. :(

now to motivate myself to get my shit together and go.

pic above from the bomb club show at santa anita. that was a fun show. i overheated before i could get to all the cars. really need to head out early to summer shows, so they don't kill me.

still here

not feeling well enough to go out to car shows right now, but good enough to walk uptown. so, cruise on by, so i can take a picture. it's my own little car show driving past our window, most every day.

heard some news from an old co-worker today. bad times. that sucks. happened to check facebook messenger, which i hardly ever do, and there was a month old message there. they happened to be online when i replied.

then another former co-worker's dog passed away a few weeks before xmas. that had to be ruff. see what i did there. been there, done that. losing a pet always sucks.

hoping for a better new year for everyone.

here's an old shot from the bomb club show last summer at santa anita racetrack. an old truck with 'character.'

those spindly palm trees kind of bother me, but not enough to erase them.

random thoughts

last full day here in the cold north. maybe another time, i will go even farther, up into canada.

i've spent the day wandering around art museums, taking all the time i wanted to read about the artwork, or sit on my ass and watch the videos in the little display areas that loop about various pieces or art. was a decent mix of classic, native and local art. not anything too modern, which i find terrifyingly stupid, or maybe it's me, and i don't have my head far enough up my ass to appreciate or pretend to understand. maybe i just missed that class in college. i do enjoy the artist statements to try and explain why that crap is of importance, or justify it's existence, or price.

still trying to finish off this cold, especially before i get on an airplane tomorrow.

during my tedious hours on the road, i had plenty of time to ponder:

captain crunch is like broken glass when you have a sore throat
not one fast food place between home and here had fountain drinks that weren't flat, even those that used to be reliable. at least most had clean 'facilities'
while most of said dining establishments couldn't serve up meals that were quite right or edible, at least the employees were polite and friendly. just couldn't cook or do a sandwich for crap
i satisfied my daily wish to just keep driving, instead of going to work. maybe i should be a trucker, but then i'd grow to hate that
i do miss big trees and forests, rain and snow of my childhood, and glad i got to see it all again this trip
some people really shouldn't be given driver licenses and/or should study physics when deciding to swerve in front of eighteen wheelers.
oregon has xmas radio commercials selling guns. thirty bucks off on glocks for him or cute conceal carry purses for her. not to mention the adult edibles and smokables commercials. plenty for those last minute stocking stuffers.

i suppose there were other things, but i was driving and couldn't jot them down. mind like sieve sometimes.

countdown

world series, game seven, playing in the background. my sister-in-law is a serious fan of the dodgers, and she's been terribly silent and avoiding the tv a lot this game. previous games have been a roller coaster, with her screaming and moaning, depending on which way the scoring was going.

fifth inning now. was uptown a little bit ago, and all the bars with any sense and tvs are packed—one bbq place uptown is absolutely empty...don't know if it's the food, the booze, the mangagement, or lack of a tv being the reason...i've never actually set foot in there. and they really are never busy...how do they stay open?

also now the countdown has begun for dad's date with destiny and a surgeon. got his first set of tests done yesterday, and a date for the first procedure coming up in a couple of weeks. after that, heart surgery of one sort or another.

my younger brother has been in town for almost a month, as he was here for his anniversary, then stayed on, expecting things to have gotten rolling much sooner. he's anxious to get home and see his kids, but now his wife is coming back to town next week, and is talking him into staying for at least another couple of weeks. basically, he's bored, and would rather be bored in his own house, with his kids and his dog.

told him i'm rearranging my schedule, so i can get dad where he needs to go for the next part.

i may need to get my gall bladder out, but that can wait...that doc wasn't seriously concerned about it. i'll see about that when i can't just ignore that ache any longer. more important stuff going on, and ain't nobody got time for dat.

it's the medicine

i've decided that i feel like shit because of the meds i've been taking for the past week. three more days to go. because if it's not that, then there's something else, that i will not want to deal with, things being so beyond my control just now.

my dad says his one doctor is recommending that he opt for open heart surgery vs the up the leg bit that he'd settled on. i know he has more appointments scheduled to discuss it with several docs this week, so we shall see what happens.

we had been talking our tenth anniversary/vacation just a couple of weeks ago, but that is totally on the shelf now. life happens. as my better half says, it's the tenth year all year, so we can go some other time.

still hoping to squeeze in some car shows when i can, when i feel better, when it's not so hot out. i still have time to get over to legg lake, if i just feel a bit more myself. i'll think about it. batteries charging, just in case.

saw this car out at the bomb club show at santa anita. here it is, sitting out in the parking lot, waiting for them to open the tunnel to the infield. interesting paint job. color coordinated hood ornament. nice car, overall.

my teef

lovely car from bomb club's santa anita show. can i say again, i really liked the venue. do it again when it isn't so hot. makes me move quicker than i'd like, and i miss taking a lot of the detail shots, just trying to get to the shade. i should have shot that hood ornament, but i'm not seeing that i did. oh well.

been a tough, nay, tuff week. for my better half, more than myself. he thought he'd let me go to work at the office, while he stayed home and took care of his mother, and put in a full eight-hour day of work at the same time.

he's done it all week, but you can totally tell how tired he is, as well as hear it in his voice. hoping his sister comes back this week.

my work is ramping up for the next few weeks, so i don't know what my hours are going to be. apparently i've been grinding my teeth in my sleep, and now they are hurting a lot. stressing out or something. probably should go buy some that stuff you smear on babies gums when they are teething.

this evening's weather is very pleasant, and i really should go to a cruise nearby, but i'm going to stay put and help out here. heating back up this weekend, and i will stay put in front of the fan. but hey, come uptown on sunday, for the stupid family time they are planning—walk n roll—not a car show, but hey lets close a bunch of streets and ride bikes, listen to live bands, do a farmers market, face painting, etc. hope they have a heatstroke station. stupid. how to share your hot, tired, cranky, whiny kids with neighbors. not feeling it...can you tell?

tired, i should go to bed early, but my teeth hurt...

hoodies

a few hood ornaments from last weekend. quick and dirty, and straight from the camera. i should take more hoodies, like i used to. maybe i should just shoot something totally different. i need a change in attitude, maybe a change in subject matter. just don't see a vacation anytime soon.

have been otherwise busy and melting at home today. skipped mooneyes, though i was up at six-thirty this morning. took a walk around the block and through uptown, just to stretch my legs, but have otherwise been holed up in the house all day.

heard about a death in the family today. never met her, had alzheimers, went peacefully. still sucks, even when the closest people were expecting it, they were not prepared.

saw there were a couple of other tempting evening shows, but since i said i was only going to do one show a weekend, figured i'd go tomorrow. but now it's getting late, and it's still warm outside, and i just don't know. i gotta find the sunscreen. my arms are getting all freckly from the sun and all that vitamin d.

on the other hand, if roll-in isn't until eight in the morning, is it even worth getting there before the sun comes up? especially for shows that aren't out in the open; there's always that chance that the people at the gate just won't let me in. i'll pay the entry fee, just let me in early. i guess i could always look for some club that knows me, and try to bum a ride in their car, through the gate.

i don't have time to deal with that right now. either i shoot very early, before the heat, and before i have to be home to help with my better half's mom, or very late in the afternoon. if i can't get in, i'll just go home, and watch cars drive past the house or something. maybe i should set up my tripod at the stop sign and wait for the cars to drive through uptown.

a smattering

just gonna throw some random pics up here from the other day. basically straight from the camera, one-offs, hand-held. perhaps i should post more of these random shots i take, to get a better feel of a show, usually from staging or roll-in, early before the people get there.

what i usually observe is controlled chaos. at santa anita, it seemed a bit more tightly set, so the horses' safety. don't want to spook them with loud music, sirens or engines.

up through the tunnel, came the gladiators, er, i mean the cars. hoping to win the three-hundred dollar top prize, but most just there for the fun of it.

i gotta go

one of the many things i hate about this old place we live in, is that there is only one bathroom. my sister-in-law just got in for a shower. i just woke up. i gotta pee something fierce. lol. not thinking about it while i type here. the sound of that running water tho...

one of the many things i like about this old chevy is that tattered old window shade. this looks like they just pulled it out of some grandpa's garage after fifty years. i like that it has dents and crusty windows, aged with perfection.

i'd be worried about the suitcase flying off on the freeway, but i'm sure that bracket is holding firmly against that back skirt--it ain't going anywhere.

and neither am i. staying in whittier for fourth of july, though there is a perfectly good fireworks show fairly close to my place in the oc. better half is here, the only reason i am too.

...gotta go...the shower just stopped...