what's up?

showdown

back in washington dc with my bro. his wife and kids flew in yesterday. their hotel reservations got screwed up and not enough beds. bro stayed with me, since i had two beds.

now she's spending her morning on the phone yelling at expedia customer service, trying to switch hotels. she has already been disconnected once. feeling like we should fetch the kids and take them out while she deals with that.

anyway, a few more days and headed home. has been fun, but missing my better half. hope he will pick me up at the airport. pretty sure he will...ya he will, no worries.

another sunrise shot. tired of them yet? i suppose i should sleep in more often and just shoot when the sun is high and harsh, and see if there is any 'mood' to be found at high noon. middle of a dusty road, shoot-out, just like an old western flick.

away

pretty impala out at garden grove a few weeks ago. hadn't stopped there in about a year, and it certainly has shrunk since i used to go five years ago.

there are a few cars i like here and there, so was pretty happy to see this drive up. parked in a nice spot too, able to include the "historical street" arch in the background, as an extra framing device.

here with my younger bro on a roadtrip down memory lane on the east coast. been a great trip so far, perfect weather, and not quite overcrowded by spring breakers.

we're up in the mountains of west virginia today, and it is supposed to rain all day, and start snowing around midnight. temp was in the eighties here a couple of days ago, and will be again after the snow.

got a couple more hours to go to see some relatives i basically haven't seen much since i was a kid, but my bro has been more in touch with, so should be ok. we'll stay a night or two, then head back down the hills to dc.

after that, i have three more days before heading home for a few days, then on a plane again. crazy month, but it's fun, consoling myself for missing chino cornfeed run and chicano park day.

missing my better half tho...

terminal

after a lot of time wasted plotting a trip to london and france with my bro, his wife shot that idea down at the last minute, citing his kids' spring break and family time. i secretly think she didn't want him to go to europe without her. maybe he's a little pw, but we changed plans and are staying in the states.

i should have just gone by myself, what with the british pound being eighty cents to our dollar...was really a bargain, even with last minute booking.

so here i am, sitting in lax way too early in the morning, heading out to the east coast. i think i've gotten about six hours of sleep the last couple of nights, and i'm tired. burned out and ready to just be away from work.

going roadtrippin' with hotels booked tonight and the last, and no idea where in between. spending more money i don't have, just to relax ese.

what i'm saying is, i'll be away from my computer, so those few people i talked to at the last show about their cars, well, you'll just have to keep waiting to see the pictures. sorry, ran out of time.

i'll be gone for a week and a half, back in the office for three days, then back to the east coast on a business trip.

busy month, and going to miss a few of my favorite shows 😞 east coast shows are mostly muscle cars, so <yawn>.

better half staying home with his mom, so if you happen to see him moping around uptown, say hi.

i have a couple of older shots i can post, but nothing new, besides this beauty. shot it earlier this year, at the dia de los muertos in whittier, and here it was at walnut high school. owner came right up and said hi, but had to remind me about where i'd met him before. as soon as he said it, i knew exactly where it was...better at remembering the cars than faces and/or names, until i meet you a few times.

nothing better than to hear the kid say, "i used to follow you, but..." ya other stuff gets your attention. no big. not writing anything worth reading anyway. just drivel. gave him another card.

shot a bunch of different angles, but this is the only one i had time to fiddle with...still sorting through the two hundred car shots i did take that day.

was a pretty good day for a show. usually a hot and sweaty day in walnut at this annual show, but the chance of rain this particular day, with the clouds blowing through, kept it a mostly comfortable temp, with a cool breeze.

appreciated a slightly inebriated guy, in different part of the parking lot, manplaining how the noisy chevy deluxe driving away on the street, just on the other side of the fence, was all original and therefore more valuable. keep 'em noisy is all i could say, as i watched it driving away. then he proceeded to talk me around an old thirty-six chevy, pointing out the skirts and chrome bits that add several thou to the value. then he just wandered away. ok then.

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guess i'll go wander around the terminal and watch planes take off. better half would have liked that part. ttfn.

abuelo's 55

quick post. quickly realizing there is not enough time to get everything done before vacation or in a day, even.

told a few people i'd post pics of their cars from last weekend's walnut high school fundraiser/unidos car club show.

here's a front view at the owner's request. hood up, i don't like, but that's they way he set it up. guess i'll add an engine shot when i have time.

gotta get to work now...more later.

just testing

clearly, i haven't bothered to learn any video editing skillz, but i'll still shoot some video sometimes. usually, when the cars are moving and i can't do what i like to do.

haven't tried uploading video here, since i switched over to the new layout, so figured i'd give it a try.

shot some video clips last week, since they gate guard wouldn't let me in, so just shot cars while they rolled past.

i'll add a few more, if the first one works ok, for chuckleberries.

jack sprat

feel like posting something different. saw this ford last week in south gate. the car was just a car, but it did stand out just because the entire body of it was covered in airbrushed figures and skulls. big modern wheels, with tires so new, the sticker is still on that front tread.

the little back lantern lights remind me of the haunted mansion, or maybe herman munster.

better half has been working from home for over a month now, with a couple more to go. he has his reasons. he has taken advantage of the time to also eat better, since the kitchen is right there. he has a lot on his plate, so to speak, but is dealing with it in healthy ways.

to get to the point, he's lost more than twenty pounds in a month, mostly by eating vegetables and fish, and avoiding sugar. and he likes it.

me, i never liked veggies, and barely can stand to eat a salad once a month. and i think i easily gain five pounds in the same amount of time, without trying, especially since i hit the last big birthday milestone.

don't know how many nights i go to sleep, thinking tomorrow will be the day i will stop drinking coke, only to fail by lunchtime.

i cannot imagine how he can say he likes eating vegetables, it's just not in my vocabulary. they're just gross. maybe my mom just didn't cook them right or just overcooked them to make them unappetizing. maybe i was a picky kid who has become a picky big kid. mentally i know i need to make lifestyle changes to kick my metabolism back into gear, but i never had to think about it before. and i don't know how. how do i say no to the random craving for cookie dough? just don't, i know--diversions.

trying to walk more, now that i have changed my work hours, but i'm inconsistent. mostly, i just want to sleep.

so what i'm trying to say is i'm happy for my better half getting healthy. sorry i've gotten so squishy the last five years; time has caught up with me, and i guess i will have to figure out how to do better just to keep up. it sucks getting old.

goals

appropriate signage, no? i'll add this to my annual review goals: work hard and get me a stylish old chevy. think they'd go for it? nah. but they might be interested in this picture if the little in-house photo competition actually happens, unless they make me be a judge. then i couldn't participate, right?

i'm kinda thinking i got better shots out in the parking lot than inside on the grass. mostly because i got the early morning light here versus later, harsher light. pfft. it happens. i say i got lucky; better half says the more i shoot, the luckier i get.

i've shot this car elsewhere, but i do kinda like this one now. and if i shoot it again in the future, i'll probably like that one better too.

limping my way through two more weeks until vacation. though the time off i have scheduled this month for vacation and business trips will make me miss a few of my favorite annual car shows. that part sucks, that and traveling without my better half; hoping to spend some time with my brothers, so i guess that will make up for things somewhat.

early and late

had a choice of two shows i wanted to go to today. just needed to pick which to do first. pretty much knew which would have more cars, so decided to start with the other one, just to be ornery.

past years' at this show in south gate had been quite busy, with an abundance of cars waiting to get in before the sun was up. so based on that thought, i was there by five-thirty.

aside from the people working the show, there was exactly one impala, which turned out to belong to one of the workers. so i sat in my car and waited. i watched the lone guy waiting to check in cars that were late registers, observed the trash collectors.

it was almost an hour before the next show car drove in, then another fifteen minutes before the first club showed up. by then the sun was up enough, the "golden hour" was about done.

got out and started shooting anyway. more arrived, so that was good, though still not the consistent numbers as before.

when they opened the gates of the golf course, i headed over and took some video of cars driving past. i suppose i'll post some clips when i have more time.

once there was a lull in the drive-ins, i tried to talk my way in, expecting to pay and get in as usual. but noooo, the lady at the gate said i had to buy a ticket at the ticket entrance. problem with that plan was that the entrance didn't open until ten and it was only about eight.

i should have taken that as a point to head over to lincoln park there and then. but i was tired, and hopeful that one of the other workers would take pity on me and help me out. a couple said to talk to jackie. i was about to head over to watch the girls' softball game for a while when one of the groundskeepers offered to chat with the lady at the gate. by the time i figured out who jackie was, i was being helped out at nine-thirty by that guy, who got me in the ticket gate only a little early. good enough.

just a photographer, feeding her habit, i mean hobby, doesn't always work at the gate. if i'd said i was with a magazine, i wouldn't have been on the list, so why bother fibbing?

so, with the light changing already, i got to work. there wasn't much really, that i hadn't already shot in the parking lot. there was plenty of room, as they hadn't even filled half the field, but the weather was perfect, with lots of shade, so i made the best of the situation.

couldn't decide which picture to post, so closed my eyes, and picked this one. it's a buick, but i can't quite figure which year from the fifties it is specifically.

only stayed inside until a little past noon. decided to skip the other show, as i needed lunch and kinda felt icky. my guts hurt. i suppose i should see a doctor about that.

thinking

thinking of which show to go to tomorrow.

...probably both.

thinking of what to do for vacation.

...home, north, south, east?

thinking of how to get through the next two weeks until vacation.

...no fuckin' idea. just will.

just finished sorting and stacking pics i shot on friday evening at a couple of shows i haven't been to in a long time. had my cameras with me, so i stopped on the way home. now it's late, and i should get to bed if i'm actually going to get up and go to a show in the morning. and it's so tempting to just keep the blinds closed and hide from the world for one more day.

guess i should have gone to manny loco's today...i've seen some excellent pictures on insta, but i didn't so i won't dwell on it.

i suppose i'm just burned out from work, and need to recharge. just gotta make it two more weeks...

not sure if this is a mercury. can someone tell me? here i'll show you the sideview, with the suicide door. does it help?

splintered

anytime i haven't been out shooting regularly, it takes a few shots to get into the swing or rhythm of setting up, framing up and firing off shots. i don't expect the first few to be good.

this was the first car i shot the other day at workman high school' fundraiser. was already overheating.

it's a little distorted, but i like it anyway. it pops a little. and i love the hood ornaments on these cars. wishing the little palm tree head wasn't behind the yellow reflector thing on the hood, but oh well.

reaching for a cooking pan in the lower cupboard, trying to not force my better half to move away from the sink, i tried to reach through a slightly open cabinet door. it's an older house. the cabinets have layers of paint and wobbly pull handles. and rough edges on the bottoms of shelves.

so yup, my knuckles slide up along the bottom of the upper shelf and i got the pan and several long splinters in my finger. one i pulled out with my fingernails, just because it was sticking out of the skin. the longer one seems to be just under the skin, with either a smaller third beyond that, or just a cut.

i don't like digging for splinters. probably had one as a kid that my mom went after rather unpleasantly. so i'll just put a band-aid on it and let it work itself out.

didn't hurt at first, but within about five minutes, it started hurting like a mofo. oh well. hope it isn't lead paint.