what's up?

no style

1954 chevy

this is a telling of a chick problem, so dudes should probably tell themselves, who gives a shit, and move on. enjoy the picture, and get on with your day.

shiny car, sitting on the ground. maybe it'll lay an egg. i'm in a mood.


one of those rare weekends, where there were no shows on my calendar, no work to be at the office for, no shopping to do, and a crap load of pictures waiting to be seen. so i had set up an appointment to lop my hair off, or probably just nip the ends, and color it to a deep red, sort of like the color of this car.

i had only found a new hair stylist after a year of not going, and the previous one ghosted from the profession. true, i don't go very often, but this last one had already switched salons, and kept me updated, so i thought i'd found a good one. even if i had to drive out to brea.

when i called thursday for an appointment today, i thought the phone breaking up was the only issue in understanding what i needed done. set it for noon, so i could sleep in. also because they're in a freakin' small parking lot with a damn coffee drive-thru, so early morning means no parking.

i went a bit early, so i could grab some lunch on the way. not enough time, so i stopped at a subway. bad idea. got there just before a pack of soccer kids showed up. looked like there had already been a food fight there before i arrived. all the tables were fairly dirty, with drips of mustard, mayo, or crinkles of lettuce on the table or seat.

i suppose i should have been more paranoid about the bins of meats looking a little too "sweaty," and cheese looking a little too dali, but i went ahead and ordered. found a relatively clean corner of a four-person table, and took a few bites of the sandwich. they'd overloaded on the mustard, and it squirted out the other end. it hit the table, and not my clothes, so whatevs. realized i wasn't that hungry, at least for a subway sandwich, and randomly wondered why i hadn't just searched for a jersey mike's. i threw the food away, and headed to my appointment.

found a decent parking space in the front corner, the caffeine rush over at the coffee shop. 

entering the salon, the young nymphette at the front desk greeted me and asked how she could help me. "i have an appointment with fiona*." she looked at me blankly, like "wha?" i wondered if her head would whistle if you blew in her ear.

she said, "fiona* was no longer with the salon. what was my phone number, it wasn't in the computer, or they would have called to let me know..." "how long has she been gone," i asked. another stylist came over to see what was going on, and said, "about a week, week and a half, but they had another stylist that could help me."

i asked why, since i had only booked the appointment two days before, the bimbette answering the phone didn't mention it, and also that i had given her my number at the time, so i called b.s. on not having the number in the system.

anyway, they had scheduled me with someone for a haircut. i met her assistant, who seated me in the chair, and brought over the straightjacket, i mean the black gown to keep the mess off your clothes. then the stylist is there, with some high falutin' name that no one can pronounce, and profusely apologizing for the whole mix up, but trying to give me confidence that everyone in the salon were artists.

so, i started to tell her that i usually have fiona* color my hair red, and then i just wanted the ends cut. i never decide to chop it short or keep it long until i'm actually in the chair. depends entirely on my mood at the time. apparently, my subconscious wants to keep it. still curious how long it will get.

my mom has a picture my brother took of me when i was maybe a freshman in college, and he was taking a class in high school. i'm looking over my shoulder, so cliche. it shows how long my hair was then. i'm still about four or five inches short of that now. i digress.

the unpronouncably named stylist, flustered, says they had only booked enough time for a haircut, and they were all busy. almost thought she was going to offer up another stylist for the color, but no, they were all busy. she offered to just do the haircut, and book a color at another time.

reiterating that i don't usually have free time to do this, much less the fact i hate dealing with hair stylists in the first place. i said i preferred to get both done at the same time, and i only wanted a trim, not a cut. asked if she wanted to reschedule several times, and i don't know if she wasn't hearing me or just not paying attention, but i managed to just leave with nothing to show for it, but a bad lunch and a quarter tank of gas less.

so i'm just pissed, but not pissed. my hair is as untamed as it would have been, just not red, which was what i wanted more than the trim. and i need to find another stylist, so it may be a while.

and then my stomach started to rumble in an unwelcome sort of way, so i quickly sped directly home to deal with the aftermath of that sandwich. it all comes out in the end.

*names have been changed to protect the innocent.

the night is dark and full of...

1939 chevy master deluxei should say, it is leaning more toward morning in this shot. haven't really been out shooting at night for a long time. i really should work on that.

been a while since i took this picture. i want to say there was a kid that belonged with this car that stood aside patiently, for me to finish, so he could get something from inside. i may be mixing it up with another car i shot later in the morning.

whatever, long exposures are a hassle, so when i find a car by itself, and too early for lots of people or cars to be noticed, i'm happy.


dealing with issues at work, where we have one less designer, and so follows, more work for those left behind. i'm coming off jury duty, and i have a road trip coming up. the schedule is really going to be a bit hectic for a while, more so than usual. anyone know a good junior or senior graphic designer, let me know.

so baby

found this car at san fernando last month. pretty sure i've seen it somewhere else, if not just the previous year at the same place. i want to say the tangiers cars are usually here, and a few show up at the showlows st hilary show in october.

it was highly polished, and the sunrise was just popping the light through that clear coat.

a little sunshine

1937 chevy

so i've spent a lovely week hanging out at a courthouse, doing my civic duty. don't know how that happened, as they usually look for the most ignorant jurors possible. they didn't even ask me any questions, and i had no other excuses to be unable to serve.

love how all the jurors of a certain ethnic group, with only one exception, pulled the i don't speak english very well or acted like they completely didn't speak english at all. i call bullshit, but i guess if i was the one sitting next to the lawyer at the table, i wouldn't want them on the jury either.

i won't bore you with details, but it was an interesting experience. i got to use my best assortment of bitch faces sitting in the jury box, glaring at both lawyers, and so they could not guess which way i might be leaning for or against the defendant.

freaking freezing in the courtroom and deliberation room. was great if i had climbed the stairs or had a hot flash. otherwise, had to remember to bring a sweater.

back to work and a more normal schedule to whine about, and freeways to sit in a slow roll upon, and think up topics i might posit here.


caught this pistoleros car at the viejitos summer show in anaheim a couple of weeks back. its not finished, and i am making the assumption that they will eventually paint this car. but even if they decide they like the primer look, though i cannot understand it, you can see the beautiful lines of the car. the small details you'll never find on today's cars.

i liked how they dropped it to the ground under this tree, perhaps in anticipation of shade later when the sun got to doing it's thing in the sky, but at this time of morning, there's just that kiss of sun on the back end, through the trees out of the frame.

maybe that isn't something that you get worked up over, and sometimes random shadows on cars bug the hell out of me, but here i like it, and that it is hitting the skirt that doesn't match the rest of it. stupid, but that's how it was, and i liked it at the time.

karma

1951 chevy deluxe

my better half says i'm a lucky person. well, he says he's the lucky one, but as far as randomly finding money, i'm that person.

there's nothing to finding spare change. stupid people toss pennies and dimes for whatever reason. i have no idea if that's true. mostly its just the young morons that don't think coins are worth anything or worth carrying, and toss them at each other, at passing cars, or just drop them. i pick them up and throw them in my bear bank. individually, they're not much, but get enough, thar be dollars for the taking.

i only pick them up if they're heads up. that's just a stupid superstition, but its what i do. some people think spirits put coins in their path. messages from beyond, from dead relatives.

mostly, i think my better half refers to the times he's seen me find presidents. the flicker of paper from the corner of my eye, he equates it to how i sometimes find random car shows when we're on a vacation or road trip.

there was the time near uci years ago, grabbing lunch at ino, and picking up about forty, or was it sixty bucks, just absently blowing across the lot. i was so sure there was a string and a camera involved, that they'd be snatched away by some college student as i bent to pick them up. but no. they were mine now, and i bought him lunch with it.

there are other instances he's seen me randomly find cash, but i can't remember specifics. i'm sure he remembers; he remembers everything.

farther back, i remember finding a small purse full of dollars and change at a gemco...does anyone even remember gemco? must have been about twenty bucks in that one, which is a lot when you're in sixth grade.

i guess it was my turn to give back in san fernando. 

i remember i had pulled some cash from my purse and moved it to the upper pocked of my camera bag, with the intention of buying some cold water when i got back up to the snack bar. at some point, i pulled my white balance thingy out of my bag, from that same pocket, then putting it back.

not long after, a woman approached with a girl in tow, and asked if i'd dropped any money, five dollars maybe? maybe out of my pocket? since i hadn't been carrying any money in my pocket and wasn't thinking about the cash in the bag, i said no. she said you sure? didn't think so, so i told her, finders keepers, and went on shooting.

as i listened to the girl asking if she could get ice cream, it suddenly hit me what probably happened, and it was more than just five bucks, because i know it had been wrapped up with some singles. pretty sure i had pulled the jackson from the bundle before i'd moved it to the pocket. 

i guess i could have gone back after it, she'd asked after all. i thank her for her honesty. if only there were more people like that, right? overall, it wasn't that much, and i still had some money to get water, so just smiled and kept on keeping on. good things come to good people.


this chevy was an interesting shade of turquoise green. it was shiny and the light was hitting it just so.

best intentions

1951 chevy truck

this is a very bright orange truck. brighter than a del taco sign. whack you in the face with a wet squirrel to wake you up bright. i think my head would explode looking at that color every day bright.

fortunately, the overcast dulled it down a bit. my head didn't explode, and my eyes didn't bleed.

clean and shiny, it's a perfectly fine chevy truck. that color tho...


i had intentions this weekend. intended to go to the front street show in norwalk, which is not too far away, and to which i've never been. X.

failing that, intended to go to the latin gents show in cypress. X.

intended to be at the pomona swap meet gates at five this morning. X.

my better half says sometimes you gotta listen to your body, and my body said, umm, no. not today.

yesterday, woke up late, felt yech all day, slightly off, moreso than normal. i was exhausted by about four in the afternoon, and lay down for a quick snooze. quick snooze lasted about four hours.

better half wanted to go to pomona this morning too, but his one caveat was that we wouldn't set the alarm. he's being overly protective, but i let him without fuss this time. if i was up, we'd go. shouldn't be difficult, since we get up so damn early on workdays, right? neither of us woke up until almost eight this morning, so, not going to make it. supposed to be over one-hundred out there today.

so, didn't shoot a thing this weekend. haven't looked at my pictures for most of the week. better half has stuff he has to get done around the house. his niece and family visiting for the weekend, a belated birthday suprise for gramma. gramma's worn out, and still sleeping at ten in the morning; they took their one-year old to disneyland for a few hours, so its quiet now.

i'll get a few pictures spit shined today, ready to post for the week. not going to be fun this week at all. work and other stuff.

road trip coming up that i gotta plan out, going to washington state to visit my daughter, taking a truck full of her crap to her, again. really hoping the rental place doesn't give me a big ass diesel truck instead of the smaller one i've reserved. i got the strangest looks from people when they saw me driving a big moving truck last time i rented one to move stuff from my home to storage unit and to whittier. it's kinda scary, but you just gotta step on the gas, and not think about it.

also our anniversary trip coming up quick...we used have that planned out six months ahead, now its been getting booked a few weeks before for the last couple of years. never seems to be enough time to think about where to go, yet i seem to have plenty of time to waste, mostly sitting on freeways, to and from work thinking random thoughts about what to write about here, only to forget because i couldn't write them down while driving, and siri is a bitch and won't wake up to take note.

i want to ride my...

harley davidson

so, i've been busy doing stuff i'm not allowed to talk about, so i won't talk about it. i've been away from my computer and/or too tired to turn the damn thing on all week.

saw this bike at the viejitos show. one of the few i saw that morning before i bailed. only one i shot.

liked the paint and pinstripes. not a girly girl, so i won't call it pink; more of a mauvey marooney color.

now i think i'll work on another picture until it gets late, which is going to happen quickly...time flies when i'm having fun...then gotta get some sleep.

stripper pole

overdue at posting a picture i'd promised to show.

i get behind in summer spending weekends shooting at shows or recovering from tough work weeks and/or the long drives back to be with my better half. lucky him that i think he's worth the drive, because otherwise, i'd really just kick my kid out of my house and have a quick drive home after work, and everything would be so much simpler. love makes you do crazy things, i suppose.


this car was in a corner at the imperials show. i like chevys, the hood was down, so i shot it. lady asked about who i was shooting for...me, myself, and i. anyway, told her i'd post something. was a choice between this one and a profile shot. profile is nice, but i like angles that show a bit of the front, to help give it a bit character and to identify the year easier.

the little details were interesting too. i guess a stripper on the antenna is appropriate as my pinstriped hat here at a car show with kids running around.

one of those days

1952 chevy deluxe

sleeping in sounded real good this morning. really thought about it. for five minutes. then got up and got ready to head over to signal hill.

smeared sunscreen all over my face and arms, expecting the blazing sun that just seeks out my pasty white skin, or rather already sun-damaged skin. sunscreen makes me look more ghostly, or ghastly, especially later when i start to sweat it off.

stuck my phone in my back pocket, grabbed my camera bag, and a bottle of water. brought my pinstriped hat too, just in case. parked all the gear by the back door.

thought i'd take one more pit stop before heading out, since i never know what facilities will be available at the shows. so i go to drop trou and hear a plop...i hadn't even sat down yet...shit shit shit...the phone...in the back pocket. totally forgot about it. fortunately, i hadn't done anything yet, and blocked the fact that i was reaching into the toilet, and went after the phone. ewwww.

so, a couple of seconds in the drink, and the phone still worked. or at least i thought it did. actually, everything except the sound, that is. negates the whole point of a phone.

siri never liked me anyway. but the bitch wouldn't read me the directions anymore, so i had to write the directions down and/or keep peeking at the screen.

and i was going to stop for a donut on the way, but i left so early, the shop i would have stopped at wasn't even open.

apart from those little tragedies, the rest of the morning was perfect. got my favorite parking spot for this show, was there before the sun came up, and it stayed overcast and cool until i left at ten. seriously, the sun started coming out as i drove away.

the sultans are all very friendly and organized. and for a change, one of my better half's fans chatted with me several times, not quite gushing, but extremely pleased, about a print he had been gifted a few years ago. it is a very nice shot of the guy's car. i was there the night he shot it. but my better half wasn't there, had stuff he needed to get done, and perhaps get called in to work, so i've passed his regards and happiness on to my better half.

it's a good show, a good variety of cars, plenty of chevys. it's good to see some different cars once in a while.

oh, and their, ahem, facilties, were the taj mahal of porta potties, really a portable building. oh so refreshingly cold from the air conditioning. it was warm outside, and to open that door to the frigid air, was divine. and three separate stalls inside, and sinks with the automatic faucets...so fancy.

hoping my phone will dry out by morning, or i'll be making a stop at the apple store tomorrow.


this car belongs to one of the sultans. when i got there so early, member cars were the only cars there. and this one was clean. and beautiful. i wouldn't mind a car like this. my hair is an unruly mess anyways, so a convertible would be nice.


happy eighty-ninth birthday to my mother-in-law. let's have cake!

pain in my chesh

1951 chevrolet deluxe

and i can't breev. one of george lopez' classic stand up bits.

so, saw his car out at san fernando. famous not only for the owner, but for the glittery mexican flag painted on the roof. and check out that interior. 

yet another time i wished for a ladder or roof or platform to shoot from, but none of those fit in my camera bag, so maxed out the tripod, and got this piss poor shot of the roof.

curb was higher than the street, and the street had the occasional car driving by, so couldn't shoot too well from there.

golf carti was curious why his car was there, but he wasn't. maybe he's afraid of danny trejo? can't have two celebs at the same show at the same time?

he also had his golf cart there...el mas chingon...it is, it really is.