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cinco de mayo

the annual season opening cruise night at ruby's in whittier fell on cinco de mayo this year.

first and last shows here are usually overflowing with goodness on wheels. being that it was a 'holiday' or excuse for a lot of people to get more drunk than usual on a friday night, it did not get as busy as i would have wished.

being that our family member was still in the hospital in the middle of los angeles at the time, i chose not to endure that traffic, and spent the day at home alone, cleaning, working, and running laundry in anticipation of the patient's return.

end of the day, decided to get out of the house, and headed over. i didn't really hit this show that much last year, and figured it would get a few cars i'd like to shoot, in spite of the party day.

i took some pictures, chatted with a few people i hadn't seen in forever (hey dave), and shook the cobwebs from my head.

got home, downloaded the pics, and promptly forgot about them for a couple of weeks. figured i should post one, for the hell of it at this late date.

i mostly have gotten over fifty-seven chevys, as they are quite numerous, but i still love to shoot the fins. didn't do it this time, since i was trying to get the building sign in the shot. that, and the speaker there was a bit loud on the eardrums to stand there for very long.

it was slightly hot out that evening, i started having a hot flash, and my head got swimmy, so i packed it up after about an hour and a half.

stepped up

staying at my parents' house this evening. went out for a walk after work. felt good to get out, though it was hotter than the last few days have been.

decided i needed a destination--seems to be the only way to make me take that first step. i needed dinner, so headed to sonic for a burger. i know, doing something good to get something bad, but i don't eat the whole thing, and only a few fries, so sorta ok.

well, my phone shows just under five miles to show for my trouble, so, got more than the mythical ten thousand steps the mythical "they" recommend.

therein lies the problem: finding the time to do it consistently and often. say if i don't post a picture unless i've put in my steps, i'd probably post as often as my better half...not anymore. easier to do at my mom's because there's no computer here for me to work on my pictures.

but then, i have my phone or my ipad, and a couple of pictures all ready, waiting for some words to go with them, however meaningless. my blog, my blather, doesn't matter.

this couple, (or brother and sister?) asked me to take a picture of them over by this car. not theirs, i think, but a friend's. no time to set up a typical shot of the whole car, and lots of people walking around at the time, so opted for my macro lens, for more of a quick portrait.

probably not what they wanted, since they posed in front of the car. guess i should have clarified that it would take a few minutes to set it up, change my camera settings, etc. maybe another time. i could have just flipped it into auto mode i suppose. brain wasn't clicking quick enough to flip from cars to people. stupid, right?

anyway, nice people, and have since let me know they did like their picture after all. and i had taken a picture of the friend's car earlier. turned out ok. maybe i should enter it in the fair.

vandolero

first of all, let me apologize to the person(s) on the freeway at four in the morning, who do not think eighty miles an hour is fast enough. it's not like there aren't other lanes you could be in, yet feel the need to crawl up my tail pipe.

oh how i wish a cop on you after you give up and take off at a hundred miles an hour. even a flipped car, but then i take that back--it would mess up my drive to work more than you already have, asshole.

quick post, as i do have to get to the office. this is memo's baby. it was his anniversary show, so had to get a shot of the car. where it was parked, couldn't really squeeze in for another angle, with cars and people congregating in this prime apex of the lot.

pretty sure i've seen it elsewhere, just didn't know it's history. if i tagged it right in my digital garage, i'm sure i could find other shots of it.

gotta get movin'...weekend isn't gonna get any closer if i don't. ttfn.

poor boys

saw a few cars from the poor boys' car club at the show last weekend. can't say that i've heard of them before now. don't think they had plaques, just the banner here, so that might be one reason.

i think this is one of their cars. it's nice, and the matte finish under the cloudy skies really muted out the color.

over the last couple of months, my better half has dropped about fifty pounds. he pretty much has cut out all sugar from his diet. due to other stuff going on, he's had to work from home, and do a lot of running around on minimal sleep. he's a bit stressed and distracted to say the least.

i, on the other hand, am starting to look like a bean—better half says he loves beans. i bought him a 3x shirt at the car show the other day, as would be the habit, but looking at him now, i think it's too big. i'm pretty sure if i don't start getting out off my ass more, i'll be the one wearing it.

i guess we deal with stress differently. i walk uptown to eat, i whip up a batch of cookies, i take pictures of cars. he cleans the house. he cleans the house. he cleans the house.

oh well. just gotta decide to get up and do something. need to throw out this coke and drink some water. i have a headache, probably because of the coke. maybe i'm diabetic. i don't know.

better half is asking if i can do some shopping this afternoon. i will. just need to decide which car show to go to, and find a supermarket nearby/on the way back. that's the way to do it.

may showers

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside I've got the month of May
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?...

— smokey robinson

who needs april showers, when you get these skies in may? jacket weather. hanging out at hospitals. busy month.

my birthday happened too, but did nothing that day, and usually don't care about it. ask me how old i am, and i have to do math in my head. not really something i obsess about. my son did take me out for dinner a few days later. didn't hear from the other kid...pretty typical.

another car from the los angeles bombs cinco de mayo show. before the rain came. good thing, since this car had the top down.

beautiful cars. how can we not want to take pictures of them?

may shower

it did shower after i left the show the other day. happily, got a lot of shots in before i left. great clouds, great cars.

i think it was this car, that the owner ran up excitedly to ask if i'd taken a shot of his car at a recent high school fundraiser. he showed me the pic on his phone. yep. i remembered him then.

seemed to be happy, and looking forward to seeing another one. happy to oblige.

attest

having recently had the experience of repeatedly having to drive back and forth to the hollywood area over the last several days for a family medical issue, i can hereby attest to the sheer hell of driving in los angeles. fuckity fuckity fucksticks. and i may/will probably have to drive back over there at least once or twice more today and/or tomorrow. much more of that, i'll find myself in a hospital, if not from an accident, from having my own heart attack from the stress.

it's not like i'm driving like a little old lady, but if you're not going at least eighty on the freeway, you're in the way. and the glorious stretch of the ten, where several freeways split off is just a hell of a good time if you're in the wrong lane. and if the mapping program sends me off to another freeway for no good reason, say the one-o-one, that is just as delicious.

surface streets are just as fun, like running a gauntlet. stay out of the right lane until the last minute before your turn, or you get stuck behind cars parked at the curb. even better are running up to double-parked, i'll just be a minute cars.

do see some interesting people in the outer limits away from the hospital, though, and neighborhoods, that may have possibly been quite nice at one time.

anyway, airing out and cleaning the house, in case said patient gets to sent home today. too soon, and we're really pushing back to have that not happen. otherwise, all's good. things are hectic, but roll with the punches, eh?

here's a beautifully polished fifty-eight impala. yummy color, just want to eat it...but i already had a chocolate bar today...better half keeping fat. thanks d.

possibility of some rain this weekend, to mix things up. really wanted to get out to a show, so maybe it will happen later in the afternoon.

feliz cinco de mayo a todos.

new life

owner of this car came over one row to specifically say hello to me.

i was shooting another car at the time, but i didn't mind. the sun was already pretty high in the sky, so i'm not missing the light changing much.

he pointed out his car when i asked. fleetline, one of my favs.

took my time on the aisle of cars i was already shooting, but definitely told him i'd shoot it. took a few when i came back around to it.

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hoping to get out to a show or two this weekend, but things happening at home may keep me busy. beyond my control, truly.

merry go round

one thing after another around here lately. sort of a carousel.

one emergency over, another to worry about in the next week or so. being ambiguous. i like that word. more mysterious than just saying anything directly. if you know what i'm talking about, you're on the inside, if you don't, it's not important that you do.

didn't have the energy to go to any car shows today, nor probably this weekend, though i badly wanted to be there. maybe next year. big shows next week...definitely next week. that can be my mantra, no matter what happens this week.

you do miss me when i'm gone, don't you? nah, i'm more successful at being the fly on the wall, quietly walking through your life, shooting pictures of your cars. you probably haven't noticed.

saw this car sitting down at the end of the parking lot. dude sitting inside, talking on the phone to someone. he didn't appear to be in a hurry to get inside the show. i do not remember the half of the conversation that i might have overheard, but i'm going with he couldn't decide whether it was worth it, or if his friends were going to show up.

it really was a lightly attended show this year, so not sure that i'd blame him.

and then...

so back in so cal, off the plane yesterday, unpack, eat, sleep six hours, and back to a full day and then some, of work. already feeling scatter brained from being away from the office for most of two weeks, and it usually takes a couple of days to get back on track. ugh, i still need to do expense reports...maybe tomorrow.

gotta do a headshot tomorrow as well, so hoping i everything goes right. i'll pretend she's a small car, maybe a metropolitan.

better half dealing with a family emergency; i'm on standby, waiting to hear if/when i should be there.

dealt with the landlord when i arrived back at home after the hour and a half drive home. so not a lot has changed on that score.

...distracted by a monster truck trying to parallel park across the street from my window...entertaining, yet so stupid looking. closing the curtains...

anyway, i can't even think straight right now.

i owe a couple of people a view of their car from the last show i went to at walnut high school. i'll get around to them, promise. just need to find a moment to concentrate.

throwing this one out there, just cuz it was ready to go, and it pleases me, with the fluffy clouds overhead. not going to take the time to worry that it looks a wee bit dark on my screen. pretty sure i need to do some adjustments, or all my pics will be edited too dark.