no particular place to go

rainy day. sauce simmering in the kitchen for the homemade lasagna i'm having for dinner. had a craving. like mine better than the italian place down the street. house is smelling like a giant garlic onion festival. oh well. 

there are three college age kids visiting from the never never lands of middle california. sleep all day and stay up all night. they wanted to go to disneyland today, and asked my better half to take them there at seven a.m. this morning. they were still awake at two and three in the morning, but he woke them up promptly at seven, and they shuffled into the mach van. he said it was pouring on the way there, and they refused to carry umbrellas. though it stopped raining, they called around noon for a ride home, and all are currently passed out on the couches.

was hoping to go to the viejitos show tomorrow, if not the earlier one in santa ana. supposed to be cloudy, and that would make some awesome images. i'll keep my fingers crossed.

i'm already hungry. guess i'll go cut the cheese :) for the lasagna, i mean.

move over

ahhh, the holidays. time of brotherly love. can you feel it, driving through the parking lots at the mall, everyone waving the one finger salute in peace and love, while they angle for the closest parking space? mouthing two short words; i'm thinking possibly 'love you,' but i can't be sure. yes, i don't go to the mall during the holidays and post xmas sale season, there's just too much friendly repartee for me to handle.

move over. exactly what i'm thinking when i'm driving down the freeway. little old ladies, get out of the way, captain insano, get away from me. just want to get where i'm going in one piece.

happy whatever

i'm baked. i mean, i spent all afternoon, to past midnight yesterday, baking stuff for family members. hope they don't tell me they're on a diet this year.

every year i make a batch of vinegar taffy for my dad. something his mother used to make for him. never knew her, but he looks forward to that stinking bag of taffy every christmas. and following most every christmas, he has to make an appointment at the dentist to have a crown replaced. until a couple of years ago, when he decided to superglue the damn things into his mouth himself. hasn't lost a crown since then.

well, this year, i had to make the stuff twice, and both times, it just didn't turn out right. sure it's taffy, chewy and soft, but this stuff should be hard, yet soft (hmmm, ahem), and it should shatter if you hit it right. i'm blaming the new candy thermometer i had to get, since all my own stuff is still in my house, where my kid is now living.

so my arms are tired from stirring batter, shredding stuff, and pulling taffy. at least i didn't burn my hands off this year. so i'm thankful for that. and my better half took his first try at pulling taffy. something about lots of practice pulling...something...that's what he said.

back to work

my week as a slacker is over tomorrow; back to work for half a day, then a day off, then the rest of the week like normal. i've enjoyed sleeping in late. got a few things that needed done, done. i'll be glad when the holidays are over. not my bag.

this week, it's my better half's turn being a slacker. he's got family coming to town. sometimes, that's more work than going to work.

he did take me to the brian setzer concert last night, sort of an annual thing. but i think it will be the last time. the gibson amphitheatre has reconfigured the seating just enough that he cannot fit into the seating comfortably—he's six foot five—and it's pretty uncomfortable even for me. and he felt ripped off after a great wall of enebirated backsides wouldn't sit down. if we wanted to stand up the whole show, we'd have bought pit passes, not the ass passes we apparently were stuck with. 

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another of the legend's cars. i think that's enough for this year. time to share the love with some other clubs.

merciful

so i hung out at the broiler for a few hours. its a different crowd now than there used to be. the vibe is different. maybe its just me. maybe its just the cold, or the holidays. i really intended to stay later than i did, but i just wasn't feeling it. 

there were a couple dozen cars there. some of the new clubs tend to gather in front of their cars and don't move. kind of bovine, just standing there. i didn't feel like out-glaring them out of the way, so i skipped them. shame.

i'd already spent time shooting cars i'd taken before. mainly, if they were in a different location, or the light struck them different than before. fricking richard's car got in a few shots, but i'll pretend it isn't there, since it doesn't exist in my universe.

sometimes, you just need to look at something differently, and it will be a lot more interesting. i've shot this one before, but i wanted to get some of the roof, then noticed the neon, then the sky, and angles and colors. just wished that the soccer mom van and other newer cars were not there, since they were hiding some other nice old cars.

this one seems to be for sale now; tiny tiny "for sale" on the window doesn't really scream that you're trying too hard.

chillin’

so i had some vacation time saved up, and i've got the week off. end of the world coming, so why not chillax? end of the world is my mom's birthday. is there some significance in that? lol.

its been raining off and on, and i love that. been sleeping in late. went to a movie today. saw the chevy at the havana house yet again. totally going to get my camera next time and shoot it. though i know i already shot it at the whittier uptown show. but different season, different light, could be pretty awesome. i'd ask your permission, but it stinks in there, and hey, you're out in a public parking lot.

thinking about driving out to pasadena tomorrow. maybe go shoot some flowers for a change. still a little bit of space on the hard drive. deleted some stuff from 2010, so some miniscule bit freed up.

also will probably end up in downey tomorrow evening. try to be there before sunset, maybe stay a little later, since hey, i don't have to get up at freaking 4:30 in the morning. all depends on what shows up. and how much my better half whines about me being out. he worries sometimes.

anyway, not going up to see my daughter, flights are too expensive...she'll have to wait until april. thought about driving to san fran for a couple of days, but i'd have to go alone, which i've done several times before, but i just don't feel like it this time. and it's raining up there all week so whatever.

here's a detail of the airbrushing on the shade thing from this awesome pontiac.

delayed gratification

there's something to be said for waiting. "all good things take time." "everything's eventual." there's the an-tici-...pation. a delicious, squirrelly itch, which you're sure will never end. sort of like love.

i suppose that there are a lot of pictures i take, that will never get posted here, mostly due to a lack of time and attention. and i apologize to any of the guys who have waited endlessly to see their car here. really, if you've been waiting that long, i wonder why you've never bothered to send me an email to ask about it. otherwise, i'm left to my own devices and whims as to what i post. and i hear that a woman's heart is a mysterious thing, at least my better half has me thinking so. let me know when you have me figured out, d. 

some days, i have no idea which car i want to post, i love them all. other days, i just want to delete them all, and go in search of new cars and new shows. and then i have days, sitting here, worrying how many more can i play with before i run out of space. come on after xmas sales! i need new hard drives.

anyway. taking a break from the legends of san pedro, to post one from the other show i went to that day. i found the token lifestyles car, of which there seems to always be one or two, at some of the better advertised shows. always immaculately painted, pinstriped and/or airbrushed. this one just seems so bright and cheerful in the craptastic background of santa ana. not one of my favorite chevys, but i liked it nonetheless. why ask why?

legend in his own mind

i really liked this truck, but i didn't like the location when i got there. sun was rising, and it was next to a light pole, with a big, strong shadow across the hood. and a group of guys that were standing around in front of it.

so i walked away from it, and started shooting the other cars, the ones in better locations.

still frustrating was that from the good side of a car, there was the tent, or people, or the public bathroom, and from the other side, my shadow would fall across the cars, unless i got down low enough.

sometimes patience will solve a problem. i went back to this one before i left, the sun had moved, the guys had moved a little farther away. i didn't like what was on the other side of the truck, but i did like the palm trees. so there you go.

michelin man

another from the legends show. my memory is already getting fuzzy, and i forgot to make notes on my phone, but i think this one belonged to the guy who said he was also from whittier.

i looked through my photos, and i was right, i've seen it before. i took a picture of it at a viejitos show in july. and if i looked further, i bet i'd find a few others, but probably more likely, of the hood ornament.

he did specifically ask me if i'd taken a shot of it. truth be told, i was going to pass it by. but since he asked, i hope he sees it here and thinks it's ok.

one of many legends

i went to a couple of xmas toy drives this weekend.

first up, i'd never been out to point fermin in san pedro. i'd noticed this one on the list, and thought i'd go check it out. was fun going over the bridges and past the craptastic ports and all the stacked boxes. out through the typical beach type town, with some really fun hills. the park was actually sort of nice. not much of a beach, more of a cliff to a rocky shore. habited by shabby homeless dwellers.

this toy drive was sponsored by the legends car club. i guess i got there a little before the official start time. was hoping to get out before the sun got too high, but i didn't quite make it. the fog decided to lift, actually more got blown away. but it was early enough on a sunday, that only the sponsor's cars were there. should have known better from going to the viejitos shows...people are still at church that early.

anyway, i found easy parking, and got going. in pretty quick order, probably half of the group came over to welcome me, ask who i was shooting for, and pretty soon had passed around a couple dozen cards. i'll have to post a few more, for the guys that really pointed out their cars. they all seemed very nice. and the cars were really great too. just what i like.

one of them said more clubs were going to be there, i was welcome to join them for some tacos, but i couldn't stay, as i had other places i had to be, and a tight schedule. and of course, right on queue, as i was putting my car into drive, a string of chevys came driving down the street. and more from the other direction, and more as i drove back through the town. ahhhhhhHH!!!