that time of year again

baby, it's cold outside. skies are spectacular. it's time for rain. and it's time for the tree carcasses. randomly discarded, used up christmas trees. arbitrarily dumped anywhere and everywhere. sure, this week, people are dutifully putting them, untrimmed, out with the trash.

then there are the people who make that extra effort, who actually take the time to put them in their car to find some lonely deathbed to toss them out on. usually just sitting by the roadside, but i did see one jauntily propped up in a bus shelter corner, still attached to the stand. wonder where it was going...

spent the morning at the honda dealer, for an oil change. of course, they found something else...back brakes almost gone, so replace them and resurface the rotors. never get out of there for less than $300. i suppose when it starts being more than $500 a pop, i'll think about getting a new car.

anyway, i managed to make it to the latin gents show yesterday. arrived a little late, stayed a couple of hours. probably left right when the light was getting good, but i thought i was meeting up with people for an evening at disneyland. i got there, but they didn't, but that's another story.

parking lot was full of chevys, mostly bombs. i was happy. lots of clubs too. i took a bunch of pictures, and just hoped my hard drive would fit them. it did, so i have a few good ones i'll post over the next few days. i can probably do about thirty more pics, then i'm done until i save up for a new drive. blah blah. whine whine.

not much going on

i stopped by the broiler this evening. albeit, it was early, there was not much more than the die hards there. could be the cold, or maybe people are still out of town. anyway, i didn't take my bag out of the car, and only walked around the lot to see if there was anything interesting, or a car in a different spot. no luck. being more picky until i get new hard drives.

i did chat for a bit with an acquaintance about hard drives, cameras and printing, until his other club buddies called him inside for dinner. decided not to bother staying to see what else might show up. i had to have dinner myself, and my better half was waiting for me at home. he worries sometimes. well, most of the time, when i'm out on my own.

found this car in the archives from 2010, a duke's show and shine car show. from the broiler, so i can pretend it was there tonight. parking lot was overflowing with awesome cars. only time i've seen this one and for all i know, it's been sold and repainted by now, but it did have a really interesting roof job. one of the first cars that i wished i had a ladder to shoot.

happy whatever

i'm baked. i mean, i spent all afternoon, to past midnight yesterday, baking stuff for family members. hope they don't tell me they're on a diet this year.

every year i make a batch of vinegar taffy for my dad. something his mother used to make for him. never knew her, but he looks forward to that stinking bag of taffy every christmas. and following most every christmas, he has to make an appointment at the dentist to have a crown replaced. until a couple of years ago, when he decided to superglue the damn things into his mouth himself. hasn't lost a crown since then.

well, this year, i had to make the stuff twice, and both times, it just didn't turn out right. sure it's taffy, chewy and soft, but this stuff should be hard, yet soft (hmmm, ahem), and it should shatter if you hit it right. i'm blaming the new candy thermometer i had to get, since all my own stuff is still in my house, where my kid is now living.

so my arms are tired from stirring batter, shredding stuff, and pulling taffy. at least i didn't burn my hands off this year. so i'm thankful for that. and my better half took his first try at pulling taffy. something about lots of practice pulling...something...that's what he said.

back to work

my week as a slacker is over tomorrow; back to work for half a day, then a day off, then the rest of the week like normal. i've enjoyed sleeping in late. got a few things that needed done, done. i'll be glad when the holidays are over. not my bag.

this week, it's my better half's turn being a slacker. he's got family coming to town. sometimes, that's more work than going to work.

he did take me to the brian setzer concert last night, sort of an annual thing. but i think it will be the last time. the gibson amphitheatre has reconfigured the seating just enough that he cannot fit into the seating comfortably—he's six foot five—and it's pretty uncomfortable even for me. and he felt ripped off after a great wall of enebirated backsides wouldn't sit down. if we wanted to stand up the whole show, we'd have bought pit passes, not the ass passes we apparently were stuck with. 

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another of the legend's cars. i think that's enough for this year. time to share the love with some other clubs.

delayed gratification

there's something to be said for waiting. "all good things take time." "everything's eventual." there's the an-tici-...pation. a delicious, squirrelly itch, which you're sure will never end. sort of like love.

i suppose that there are a lot of pictures i take, that will never get posted here, mostly due to a lack of time and attention. and i apologize to any of the guys who have waited endlessly to see their car here. really, if you've been waiting that long, i wonder why you've never bothered to send me an email to ask about it. otherwise, i'm left to my own devices and whims as to what i post. and i hear that a woman's heart is a mysterious thing, at least my better half has me thinking so. let me know when you have me figured out, d. 

some days, i have no idea which car i want to post, i love them all. other days, i just want to delete them all, and go in search of new cars and new shows. and then i have days, sitting here, worrying how many more can i play with before i run out of space. come on after xmas sales! i need new hard drives.

anyway. taking a break from the legends of san pedro, to post one from the other show i went to that day. i found the token lifestyles car, of which there seems to always be one or two, at some of the better advertised shows. always immaculately painted, pinstriped and/or airbrushed. this one just seems so bright and cheerful in the craptastic background of santa ana. not one of my favorite chevys, but i liked it nonetheless. why ask why?

legend in his own mind

i really liked this truck, but i didn't like the location when i got there. sun was rising, and it was next to a light pole, with a big, strong shadow across the hood. and a group of guys that were standing around in front of it.

so i walked away from it, and started shooting the other cars, the ones in better locations.

still frustrating was that from the good side of a car, there was the tent, or people, or the public bathroom, and from the other side, my shadow would fall across the cars, unless i got down low enough.

sometimes patience will solve a problem. i went back to this one before i left, the sun had moved, the guys had moved a little farther away. i didn't like what was on the other side of the truck, but i did like the palm trees. so there you go.

one of many legends

i went to a couple of xmas toy drives this weekend.

first up, i'd never been out to point fermin in san pedro. i'd noticed this one on the list, and thought i'd go check it out. was fun going over the bridges and past the craptastic ports and all the stacked boxes. out through the typical beach type town, with some really fun hills. the park was actually sort of nice. not much of a beach, more of a cliff to a rocky shore. habited by shabby homeless dwellers.

this toy drive was sponsored by the legends car club. i guess i got there a little before the official start time. was hoping to get out before the sun got too high, but i didn't quite make it. the fog decided to lift, actually more got blown away. but it was early enough on a sunday, that only the sponsor's cars were there. should have known better from going to the viejitos shows...people are still at church that early.

anyway, i found easy parking, and got going. in pretty quick order, probably half of the group came over to welcome me, ask who i was shooting for, and pretty soon had passed around a couple dozen cards. i'll have to post a few more, for the guys that really pointed out their cars. they all seemed very nice. and the cars were really great too. just what i like.

one of them said more clubs were going to be there, i was welcome to join them for some tacos, but i couldn't stay, as i had other places i had to be, and a tight schedule. and of course, right on queue, as i was putting my car into drive, a string of chevys came driving down the street. and more from the other direction, and more as i drove back through the town. ahhhhhhHH!!!

spacing out

i thought about going to the mooneyes show today. really i did. but decided to skip it. i'm seriously going to run out space on my hard drive, and i intend to go to two shows tomorrow. already was invited to go to one of them tomorrow, so i'll make a day of it.

that will probably be it until after the holidays. missed the thanksgiving sales on drives, so hoping they go back down after xmas. i'm going to have to go through some of my older pictures and "edit" out the ones that are just not worth the time or space, that i'll never do anything with anyway.

meanwhile, i'm just going through some of favs. like this truck; liked the reflections on the hood. not too many people around, this far down the main street. always wonder who buys the crap they sell in that rustic furniture store, but the paint colors of the buildings do go well with the green of the truck.

better than the gym

i had every intention of going to the gym a couple of days ago. actually made it to one last week, after over a year of not setting foot in one. they're so frigging boring. and kinda sucks going by yourself. i mean all alone in a room full of sweating, stinking people.

i was surprised, though, because this gym had totally been redone and expanded. all shiny and air conditioned. as compared to the one over here near where i live. each and every time i went through the door of that place, i'd get hit by a wall of air so stagnant and ripe, i really didn't stay very long. so what's the point?

so as i was saying, i was going to the gym. had changed into the stretchy pants and big, ugly shoes. had to drop some stuff off at the post office, and figured i'd stop by the fuddrucker's nearby. got out and took a walk around the lot. some stuff there. a big ass, fussy britches car of some sort i don't know, but with his hood open, so nevermind. some muscle cars. some random cars. a couple of old vettes. and a few latin gents. they seem to have adopted this show, and there always seem to be a few of them there.

i'd taken a walk without my camera first, in case there wasn't anything worth shooting. then decided there were a couple. went back to the car, got my camera and tripod and headed back over. didn't bother to get my whole bag out of the trunk. ooops. got set up, framed the shot, and realized the memory card was back in the trunk. so had to make the round trip back to the car. errr. 

after my first few shots, the owner noticed and turned on the lights. that's different. wished he would have closed the hood. oh well.

anyway, took a few shots, talked to a few people. made it right in my head that all that walking, lifting the tripod, and up and down squats in front of cars somehow cancelled out the need to go to the gym.

and then after stopping to see my kid, i walked around the lake. so there. gyms suck.

sorry d

so i've skipped every show this week, even the good ones. i wanna go, but i haven't felt like it by the time i get home. the hour plus drive is really tiring. people drive like idiots. and thanks to the rain, more like two hours. i suppose i could have made it to a couple this weekend, but i figured with the sky threatening to drop buckets, it would be a wasted trip.

my better half is patiently putting up with my insanity. he's a saint. i suppose i have to go apologize for my own personal demons.

i think i like these kind of cars the most. style on wheels.