choppy days are here again

it's so late. had issues logging in here.

long week already, and it's only tuesday. and so very busy at work, i've already put in a couple of overtime days. more to come for the next several weeks. will keep me out of trouble right up until the chicano park show in april, then back for more following that weekend. hamster on a wheel all right...

so quick recap: did three car shows this weekend, though not necessarily all that i wanted to go to. i was extremely fatigued, and i'm suprised i even got out of bed to go anywhere. but i did, and i'm glad, or i would have missed a couple of very good shows.

saturday, got out to the chino corn feed run. liked it a lot. i can't judge the numbers, but there were at least a couple hundred cars up and down the main street and in the parking lots and lawn of city hall and the area surrounding the civic plaza.

bonus that it was just the perfect weekend weatherwise: overcast and cool. so no harsh shadows until later in the day when i was about done anyway, and i didn't die of heat exhaustion.

problem with doing several shows is that i got so many pics, and having to copy them over, back them up, label them, etc. takes a lot of time. and then i'm running out of space on the puter again, so having to back stuff off of that as well. and then deciding which to post...

my better half liked this buick, so it's mostly here for him. he was home all weekend taking care of his mother. good boy. greggie loves his mama...greggie loves his mama...

ok, tired and going to bed for five hours of sleep.

goldie but goodie

i used to go to the broiler most every wednesday for a couple of years. and then my office moved farther south, and it made the drive too difficult with traffic to get there so often.

and when i do get there, most often there are only the regulars there, or some low rider clubs, or simply not much.

now the back lot has the back exit closed off and it's dark back there. and there's just a different vibe with the people that are there.

probably all in my head. they never know what to think about me anyway.

i just felt like getting out and shooting some pics, so endured the traffic last month, and drove on up there. it was kinda busy up at the very front. saw a few people i kinda know and said hi.

saw this truck drive in and park while i was shooting some other stuff. saw that the hood had gone up and the owner was showing off the engine to someone. thought i wouldn't be taking a picture of it at that point, and went back to whatever it was i was doing.

by the time i considered it again, the hood was down and no one was around. so luckily i got a few shots.

clean truck, interesting details. the truck bed is all padded, and i doubt very useful for carrying anything. i took a shot of that, but it's late and i don't have it ready to post...maybe i'll add it later.

wasn't daylight savings time yet, so it got dark early. the truck was golden, but around back under the fluorescents, it kinda goes green. so the weird, not stock tail lights look a little off.

ok, i'm done for now. my legs hurt from sitting all day at work. waiting for the weekend, hoping to get to a couple of shows, though it would be more fun if my better half could go. he's hoping he can join me next month at chicano park...hoping his sister can stay with his mom that weekend.

not so fast

digging through some older files for something else, and found this ferrari imitator. not a fav, but i do like the curves.

from the show they used to have in cypress. sometimes, it was a very busy show. no idea why they stopped having it, aside from the restaurant not being there anymore...which might be the problem.

put in a day of work that came in late on friday. didn't want to deal with it tomorrow, with all my other work that is piling up in the office.

tired and heading off to bed. not looking forward to getting up at four a.m.

zlaket’s

stopped by the show in garden grove yesterday, on the way home from work. was better than sitting in friday traffic. haven't been there in many months, so it was nice to see that the street was pretty busy. i don't think there were too many empty spaces available when i left.

sadly, there weren't enough of the cars that i like or that used to show up there. i consoled myself with the few bel airs that were there. this was the first one i came across.

i set up and took a couple of angles of it, before the owner moseyed over. he asked if he could get a copy. told him i'd post it and handed him my card. want a print? go buy one here.

noticed the latin gents had shown up while heading out, but didn't take any pictures of their cars...to many people around them.

i intended to also stop at the show at the buena park elks' club before sunset, but was thwarted by construction lane closures before i could turn around and go a different way, so skipped it and went home.

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my older bro is in town from the east coast, and today's his birthday <happy bday rob!>, and all of us sibs are actually going to be at my parents' all together. that's rare.

too bad my better half can't go...he's sure to miss some of the best stories my brothers tell from their daily life at work. interesting jobs, they come in contact with some unique samples of humankind—and it's not even walmart.

then to see my younger bro mimic people...he transforms into that person, so you can almost see them. it's just priceless. bubbles, the ginormous stripper from west virginia, is a fav. with her country twang demanding "i thank you need to buy me a drank," to the gyrations of gravity on her heavyset frame coming to a stop, he burns the image of her perfectly into your mind, though you've never even seen her.

anyway, got things to do this weekend. looks like i'm hitting up a couple of shows next weekend, so gotta take care of stuff now. and probably do a job for work on top of that. don't think i'll drive all the way down to the office, unless i really need to, though that's fun too...no one there except the cleaning crew, and i always suprise the shit out of one of the women, when she comes around the corner of my cubicle.

pinecones

off to bed. another exhausting week at work and it's only hump day.

found this chevy under a tree half way through the parking lots of the new year's show. so many cars, not enough time.

next year...early!

buick eight

another from the elks' club yesterday. ecclectic mix of cars, as you can see from this one to the muscle car in the background. never know if this show is gonna be busy or not, but the latin gents always show up to support their guy, ernie, who runs it.

a guy came over to chat while i was taking some pictures of it. was guessing what year it might be; i dunno. said he had just been driving through garden grove and saw it going down the street, so he kinda just followed it and ended up at the show. thought it was really stunning. 

i told him about the show over at featherly park, which i didn't go to, as i had limited time out of the house before i had to get back home. seems to me he walked around a bit more then took off. i wonder if he happened to drive on over to the other show. i'm curious as to what was there, and will be looking at flickr to see what people post up there.

ernie—good tunes, good show.

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got the call for entries for the oc fair. what to enter...what to enter...so many to choose from. any preferences?

just a favor

no, i haven't gone to the dark side. just posting this for the owner as a favor. 

i've run across him many times now, usually at the latin gents show, and he sometimes asks for pics of his car. can't remember the history of it anymore, but it's special to him. usually it's crammed between the kind of cars i like, and i never really get shots i like of it.

he happened to pull in at the monthly show at the garden grove elks club yesterday, and parked off here by himself. so, why not take another shot of it? managed to get a couple of the latin gents' cars in it too.

and what's up with the elks not putting the show on their online calendar??? 

junk in the trunk

i do notice these cars; i just don't always bother to shoot them. only the exceptional ones catch my eyes, be it the art, the chrome, the details.

saw this majestics car out at the oldies san fernando show last year. i really liked the glittery airbrushing on the roof, but i'm not tall enough to get a good shot usually. 

i also like the engraving details on the metal of the plaque.

there was a woman sitting behind the car, holding a sleeping baby. i thought the child was so beautiful, but i dare not take a picture, that would be too up close and personal, at least without permission.

look at all the chrome fun in the back end. what is that? stereo equipment or just the hydraulics? pretty sure they don't drive this to the supermarket.

road warrior

i always feel worn out after the drive home from work. typically takes over an hour when it should only be about forty-five minutes.

and people on the freeway are insane, so i'm not the only one. but really, most people drive fine; it's the one too many f-holes that think they are exceptional and the road is theirs. you know the ones i mean—they swerve in and out of lanes, giving semi-trucks no effective warning or brake space. they'll drive up the shoulder if need be.

ya, my hands hurt sometimes from gripping the wheel too tight. after a long day at work, followed by that drive, i feel about as old and tired as this truck.

but it's still here. and so am i. i need a vacation, but don't have one scheduled. maybe i'll visit my kid tomorrow and sit in the jacuzzi. better half can't go anywhere on weekends until his mother is better, and even then he'll worry about her.

blurtard

since my better half hasn't bothered to post this one yet, i'll go ahead and put it up.

owners were nice enough to me, offered to let me get in and shoot some pictures of it. there was a really old guy, who told the other guy "there's a photographer." and the other guy was a really large guy.

better half had a different experience. paraphrasing what he told me, and you really need to hear him tell the story, with all the affectation and vocal interpretation:

he'd just set up his tripod and mounted the camera. the big guy that owns the car comes up behind him and informs my better half, "that he has long hair, and that his long hair is long, like a woman's hair, and that, people may think he is a woman. a big woman. with long hair. and that he doesn't mean to offend, but in case you didn't notice, your hair is really long."

and my better half stared at him.

and the guy went on to tell him some other stuff, mostly repeating the previous information, and even tried to touch my better half's hair in order to show him that it was long. like a woman's.

at some point, my better half had enough, and offered to let the guy go and not offend some other people, as there were plenty of other people waiting to not be offended.

it distracted him from what he was doing, and he says his pictures of it are crap, because he'd forgotten to set it to the proper f-stop. blurry, with the big blurry guy in the frame.

so ya, i kinda ignored the big guy, said uh-huh a lot, and got the shots. not really a great fan of the car, just the story that went with it. too over the top, too much glitter, just too much too much, it distracts from the car, and renders it fugly. my opinion, but i don't mean to offend...