let the sunshine in

i've had a completely unambitious weekend so far. mostly catching up on sleep. did a little laundry.

still need to make some travel plans for next month. kid getting married out of town. those plans are done. also making a road trip out of it, so need to decide how much in debt i want to go, since it would just be me, out and about, during the holiday season. i could hole up in a random hotel somewhere, and hide out until xmas passes.

or i can just head straight home, and spend time with my better half and his mom, then head to my parents' for what is, lately, quiet xmas dinner. my brothers have moved out of state, so it's just my sister and me now.

some years, i just don't want to deal with holiday cheer; some i'll reluctantly participate. this year, i'm feeling a bit indifferent about it. no little kids around for the time being, so i can still choose not to deal with it.

i'm sure the closer to xmas it gets, the likelihood of me just saying 'fuck it' will go up.

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getting to car shows early, and catching pictures like this one, cheer me up just fine. 

oldies' san fernando high school car show in july—hasn't disappointed me yet. even if it is hotter than hell there, i try to do my best to at least have a look at every car there. except those extreme machines. hate those cars. really, i do.

almost forgot

i had to boot up an old computer yesterday, to do some work at home, connecting to my puter at the office. today, i had the day off, to get my car fixed. needed regular maintenance and a new starter. awesome.

they needed the car until the end of the day, so i was stuck at home. since the computer was still hooked up, i figured i'd take a look at what files i had on there. found some 2013 files on the hard drive. while looking through over four hundred and fifty pictures of stuff i'd tagged to work on (shows you all the cars i'll probably never get around to fiddling with), i saw stuff from the old memories eastside veterans' day show.

i forgot that the holiday was coming up. i suppose since i haven't been out much lately, no one had a chance to tell me about it. a little internet search confirms that they are having the show again this year...would have been so bummed if i'd missed it. we really enjoy their show.

so, we'll be there early next week. better half is already thinking of getting his wagon out and setting up his video camera contraption he can roll down the street. me, i'll be doing the thing i like doing best, hauling my tripod and picking out my favorite cars and bikes to shoot.

bouncy flouncy

no plans today. maybe i'll go for a walk.

one of my favs, that i see quite often. didn't know it did this (click on the thumbnail):

inglorious basterds

better half got called into work this evening. sucks. watching the families walk by, headed uptown for the little kid trick-or-treating at the stores. just saw a toddler dressed up like winnie the poo. that was, dare i say, cute.

so, i have netflix running while i play with my photos. watching inglorious basterds, which is hard to do, since they speak a lot of the movie in german, and it's hard to read subtitles and work on a picture at the same time. didn't see it in the theatre, but someone said it was good. i'm not so sure, so far. did like the guy using the baseball bat on the german guy.

not doing halloween this year. neighbors next door are big aholes, and scared away all the kids last year, so we were stuck with a crap ton of candy. the other neighbor kid really enjoyed it though.

said ahole neighbors seem to be setting up for a similar evening this year, so no kids will dare come up to the door.

i didn't have time to find a costume or pull my old box of outfits out of storage, so there it is.

here is a car, that i see once in a while. i've posted it before, and it seems to be quite popular, if you count views. forgot to shoot it at san pedro this year, though the owner stopped to talk to me. found it here at the viejitos show in march.

junk in the trunk

it's been a crazy week. got back from my trip up north, home for a couple evenings, then out of town again. 

so, friday finally rolls around, when i finally make it home again, i'm too tired to head out to either of the car shows i wanted to go to. hung out with the better half instead, since i hadn't seen him much since last week.

then today, the annual running of the idiots, before six in the morning. i mean, <clearing throat>, the halloween 5k fun run. seriously, why do they need to shut down all the streets, and have idiots running past the house so early? mostly, the "serious" "marathon" runners. the people that just have to win the little trophy. followed later by all the average schlubbs dressed in anything from blue jeans and t-shirts to full on halloween costumes. aren't those costumes going to stink later, when you really need them? polyester 'breathes' so well, you hardly even sweat. actually, no, you're just glowing. pfft.

better half left me the driveway to park in, while he had to park a couple of blocks away. been too warm to hike back over to the plural zed alpha to retrieve it. maybe later.

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all i have for halloween, is stuff from the day of the dead show.

figure a trunk full of skulls will do. not sure who the guy in the picture was, as no one was there to tell me about him. i'm sure he is missed.

ninja turtles

i'd like to think that manhole cover is about to fly several feet in the air, and leonardo is going to spring out and kick shredder's ass. but only if it's the turtle from the original movie, not the roid ragers from the reboot. really, can't hollywood do anything new, without creaming themselves on updating old, perfectly good movies in search of an easy dollar?

hopefully, said manhole cover won't hit that pretty chevy back there. from a hot day in los angeles, at a church show i'd never been to, and only did because i had other plans cancelled. i think i would go again, earlier, if they host the show again next year.

burnt

waiting at sea-tac, watching planes take off. has been mostly perfect weather until today. light rain and about fifty-four degrees out. heading home, where it's about eighty-eight. better half would say it's about one-hundred, since his air conditioning in his car isn't working. so not missing the heat.

been a good trip. daughter's birthday was just us two, since her boy toy had to work. she had a larger karaoke party the next night with her friends to make up for it.

took her car in for maintenance as a gift, since all she ever does is change the oil. ended up being more than expected, of course. worth it for piece of mind, and not imagining her stuck on a highway in the snow this winter.

anyway, got to the airport too early, and not much to choose from to eat or to look at in this terminal.

one more show on my show calendar this year. guess i'll look back at what i've been to that was any good and start building a tentative schedule for next year.

already see that work is busy and plenty waiting for me at the office tomorrow. yay.

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interesting car color here. at least i was able to shoot it without too much of the pop-up in the shot. no way to avoid the port-a-potty, though.

not normal

if anyone is not normal, that'd be me, but in this case, i'm referring to this truck. not one i'd normally bother with, but the owner seemed really hopeful that i'd take a shot of his baby.

only one i took. kind of wishing for a slightly different and higher angle to show more of that engine.

uptown bombs

better half accused me of being like a squirrel, hoarding up nuts for winter. because i have been prepping a bunch of pictures to post, but only posting them up one at a time.

so? i can.

sometimes i'm holding them until i have something to say. other times, i'll put up a couple, and have nothing worth mentioning for the day. does it really matter?

this one is going up because i'm out of town, and away from my puter.

saw an awesomely old rusty chevy nomad in an overcast field today. drove past it twice, but couldn't really park on the side of the road to shoot it. but it was really cool.

also missed a trunk n treat in town, because i decided to get a late lunch, and then had to wait for a ferry boat. that's ok. probably would have been a bunch of packards anyway.

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this owner was the reason i had to stop and shoot several more cars, after i had decided to head home. he really liked the picture i shot of his car at another show, so he talked me up to his buddies, and they all wanted me to shoot their cars.

i like this shot, maybe better than the previous picture i took. the other had some funky clouds above, but this just seems like a cleaner shot.

deluxe

didn't sleep well last night. no reason. just made me not want to wake up and go to pomona, knowing i wouldn't want to pull my bag around the miles of cars there. and of course, any time i decide to skip it, it turns out it would have been a perfect day.

stayed overcast in whittier for most of the early morning, so i can only make assumptions about pomona. well, i've got a few pictures saved for upcoming rainy days.

spending the day working on a few pictures i promised from recent shows, kicking back with the better half, and whining about having to go to work tomorrow.

just as well. doctor told me to keep taking it easy, since my cracked rib is still not completely healed.

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another one that goes with yesterday's story, one of the last group of cars i shot last week.

nice car, liked the location. would have otherwise skipped it at the end of the day, because there were too many people passing by. but since the owner asked, i shot it as best i could. just takes patience, shooting in between people passing by.