nudge nudge, wink wink

as i said, i'd been at the show on saturday, but never did spot my sort of bud, gary and his car. on sunday, with fewer cars, it was easy to spot him and this car. i stopped and shot the car nearby, as he was busy spit shining it, and well, the hood was up.

finally walked over when i caught his eye, to say hello. he immediately went around to the front and closed the hood, proclaiming, "kathy's here...hoods down." yep, he's been reading my blog for a while, and knows what i like.

then he had the nerve to say, just kidding, you don't need to take a picture. come on, gary, you have a pretty car, and the hood was already down...i'm gonna take it.

he waited patiently while i took a few shots, and chatted a bit. hey, he said he'd won a trophy for the third year in a row...something like top 40...i don't know exactly, i'm not familiar with the categories. congrats dude.

now i gotta go pack a bag. off to san fran in the morning for a few days on business, then back for a weekend in fullerton for baseball stuff. meanwhile, my better half has to stay behind and miss me lots. so ya, no posts for a few days, and i won't have a car up there, so i can't get to the few shows in northern cali. so it sucks.

flying rat rod

quick post since it's late...seem to be starting every post lately that way...too much to do, too little time.

i had a busy weekend. i did make it to riverside. ended up for an hour or so both saturday and sunday at the riverside show and go. saturday on purpose, sunday to entertain some visiting relatives. saturday was great, about 1000 cars; sunday, only a few hundred. my buddy gary (hey blog lurker!) was there on sunday, and said if people didn't win or think they won a trophy, they either didn't show, or had already left.

well, there were still more than enough to satisfy my relatives, and we all ended up satisfied. i have more pics to post, though not of all the cars i saw...too many hoods were up! lol.

el canas

went to ruby's first show of the season last night. pretty good turnout—about five rows of cars with some cars up the aisles.

ran into the owner of this truck fairly early after i arrived. have joked around with him for about a year now, but hadn't seen him in a few months, since i hadn't been going to many shows. he asked me a couple of times if i'd taken a picture of his truck. not at the time, no, but i did get a few shots later, including this one. sun starting its way down, and this is from the darker side.

he asked for another one of my cards...lost the other, enjoys reading my blog...i think he's just collecting the whole set. each one has a different car on the back. lol. nah, he probably just keeps losing them.

met one of my flickr friends for the first time...hi there steve! he got some good shots too. go see a few of them here.

anyway, not sure what to do this weekend. big airshow in chino. big car show in riverside. definitely have to go to my son's baseball games. my big bro and family is in town from florida. better half is working all weekend. i think since it's getting late, i'll hit the car show before tonight's game, then do a few hours at the airshow in the morning before the afternoon game.

now if i stop at the train station in riverside, i'll call it a planes, trains, and automobiles weekend. :)

times are changing

as i've been saying, my life has been getting very busy. not clearly an absolute yet, but i may soon also be packing all my worldly possessions up and stuffing it into storage. nah, i'm not going anywhere else, everything's fine. change of environment, sort of.

had hoped to get some pictures yesterday at fuddrucker's in el toro, and drove over there, but since the weather has been overcast and sprinkly, there was just a couple of newer corvettes and a 1930's ford. didn't get out of the car.

today i intended to try a new sunset show in laguna niguel, but figured since you really couldn't see the sun, and would have been colder near the coast, figured it wasn't worth the drive yet.

so, i'm really hoping the sun is out on friday for the first ruby's show of the season this friday. i'll be there, won't you?

_____

found this one from the easter show over at fuddrucker's in lakewood. i think i've mentioned in another post, that there wasn't much at this show because of the holiday. i'll have to go back again soon on a typical sunday. i've heard it can be a very busy show, and more cars equals more to choose from. lots of practice, only makes you better, and i've been out of practice. 

how was your day?

so i haven't been posting as often as i think about posting. my life is a bit busy right now, as i've been saying previously. and it will continue to be so for at least the next month.

today, i intended to get to a car show before a baseball game. i didn't quite get out of the house as early as i had thought i would, but i did manage to make it to original mike's for about 20 minutes before i had to scram.

got there almost an hour after it started. probably a good three-fourths of the cars had their hoods up, but it was a decent turn out, at least compared to the last few times i'd been there. i didn't have time to find owners and look longingly at their pretty beasts until they got the clue, so i shot about a dozen others that were ready to go.

this one had the door open, but i haven't seen one of these before, and it didn't bother me as much as an open hood would have. not sure if that's the owner there. i think he threw something into the car, but people throw flyers and stuff into cars all the time. he wouldn't get out of the shot no matter how much i stared, so there he is.

and of course, as soon as i called it a day, packed up and about to close the trunk of my car, in drives an oh so bitchin old mercury, clean, low, pinstriped...perfect. pulled into a parking space, sat for a minute, then backed up and left. why, oh why...followed it down the street a ways until i had to turn left, and he turned right...

shooting star

catch a comet by the tail, but not in this case. i liked the front end better.

rare day at a car show lately. family and work priorities finally gave me a brief break. this show in paramount has started up again for the spring/summer season. never are too many cars here, and the cliquish (as i was told by an unnamed acquaintance) group are always bunched up in front of the main circle of cars, in front of the trophy table. kind of like the oscars, they vote each other the awards every week, even if one of them doesn't bring their car or arrives late...or so i was told.

rumble

the thing i really like about being at a car show—apart from the taking of the pictures—is not even having to look around to know when these beasts are rolling in.

i can be low to the ground, focusing the camera, blocking the shot, and i can hear the low rumbling, like those dinosaurs in jurassic park, of the old cars blocks away. i don't even have to turn around, to know by the rumble if my next picture is driving up.

there's a big difference in the deep, low growl of old chevys, from the high pitched whine of the rodents running in the engines of say, a civic, driving down the street—eeeeeeeeeee—you know what i mean.

those lovely clouds...oh these are the kind of days i wait for all year.

full monte

another car that i usually pass by, but i liked the reflection on the hood too much. frankly, i don't get the tiny wheels they put on these cars. i suppose it has something to do with the hydraulics and bounceability. otherwise, this one was rather plain compared to others i've seen all tatted up, relatively.

bird's eye

quick post again. tired. too many late nights starts to catch up eventually.

here's another from sunday's fuddruckers show in lakewood. don't believe the owner ever was around. maybe he/she/they were inside overdosing on burgers and fries.

not completely happy with tbirds, but slim pickens' at this show. and it was so nice and shiny.

easter egg

my better half had to work all weekend. he's still there now. happy easter. pfft.

vacuumed the house, stopped by my parents' house to say howdy, then thought i'd get off my butt and get back in the saddle. surprisingly, i saw there were several shows listed for today, and thought i'd see what might show up on a holiday. i figured anyone with kids wouldn't be able to get away...kind of a requirement to be there. i expected to find old guys, single guys, and couples with no kids.

i skipped a show near my mom's, since it was about time for it to be over, and the good ones don't hang around for the end. instead, i drove up to the show at fuddrucker's in lakewood. i've seen it on the list for a while, and figured without going to one of the big parks and bothering picnicing car clubs, it was the best bet to see a few cars.

there were actually more than i expected, but not as many as there must usually show up. and in spite of not getting out to the shows much, my shyness was not allowed to reclaim me – almost as soon as i arrived an old navy guy came over and started chatting me up as i started to shoot this old ford.

wasn't his, but someone else he was hanging with. said he had one, but either a year earlier or a year later, and not at the show. told a long story about how much it costs to get these cars up to par and the hunt for parts. he'd had his ford at some shop that kept putting him off, asking for more money for this and that, and after it got to $27,000 and no actual work being completed on his car, he pulled it from that shop and shipped it out to arizona, where they were progressing nicely for much less. said he was going to sue the original shop...oh yeah i listen to these stories, and if i post the picture soon enough, i remember more details than i should. i blame you guys that want to tell me all this stuff...and this wasn't even his car. it's all right. he was entertaining, the sun wasn't going down, and it gave time for more cars to show up.

anyway, he knew all about this car, and several other old cars that pulled in. he walked me around this one pointing out parts and asking me to guess how much it was for a replacement part. he said the owner claims to have never washed this car, and only wipes it down to clean it. all i wanted to know is why they painted this such a shiny black, then airbrushed some funky looking flames there on the running boards, which just look like fallen leaves from this angle.

oh ya, i'm doing a trial thing for ordering prints. click on that button down at the bottom on the right. haven't posted many, and if you're interested and don't see yours there, shoot me an email, and i'll upload it for ordering. figured it would be easier, since my better half says i'm kinda scary at car shows...i'd prefer focused...and usually when someone does ask what sizes/what prices, i can't remember them off the top of my head. so give it a peek anyway.