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mr bill

1950 dodge coronet

i met mr bill at the show in riverside.

i saw his car the evening before, as the sun was going down. he turned his lights on for me.

(it wasn’t my favorite shot of the car, but i’ll include it here in the gallery.)

i saw him again the next morning, about six-thirty. he asked if i remembered him. yes, of course. turned your lights on for me.

i shot around the outside of the car, then he said i should check out the inside. saw the mr. bill doll, and said in the voice from saturday night live, “oh no, mr. bill!”

he said his name was bill, and i think he said his wife or a friend had given it to him.

he told me he’d taken three years of classes from some well-known craftsman of upholstery, at a college, until the college said he and the other students were just using it as a car club hang out.

mentioned that his wife had given him the task of sewing up some pillows, thinking that it would keep him busy for a while, and that he’d actually enjoyed it, and quickly finished the project.

he said he had reworked and stitched the interior of the car himself. it’s immaculate, and for some reason, i can’t find the pictures i took of the seats.

it is a beautiful car, and he was quite charming.


the turquoise and white paint job reminded me of the keds tennis shoes i had as a kid. you know, the ones that dyed your socks and feet turquoise blue. those were the days.

early morning

1933 dodge phaeton

1933 dodge phaeton

flipped a coin, and ended up in anaheim saturday morning. arrived before the club again, and vendors, even. was almost convinced there was no show, as there was zero activity, no roping off the lot, nothing on the marquee, and no one except a random guy pedaling around on a bike. was already warm, and the sun had barely come up. at least there was a small breeze.

then i saw this one drive by, and soon another. and another. good good.

got my gear out and got to work. the day was going to be hot, and i knew i wouldn’t stay long. and i hadn’t had breakfast yet. saw raynbow, who always welcomes me.

the viejitos cars park along this fence, at the entrance. they were hanging up framed t-shirts from past years’ shows and events. as a designer, i found that interesting.

i don’t recall seeing this dodge anywhere. almost as if it had rolled off the line brand new, save for some chipped paint here and there..

past years, the lot would have been packed by eight. i do not understand the machinations of where the cars go, but i do know when several big shows are on the same day, you take your chances.

no matter, plenty for me to shoot before the sun got me.

when it looked like the incoming cars had slowed, and my skin was starting to turn pink in spite of the suntan lotion, i packed it in, and headed to breakfast.

strange days

it’s been a strange couple of weeks, since i got back from europe.

sick/not sick—no fever, just a cough that won’t go away. at this point, mostly gone. really miss being able to work from home, and not have my coworkers cringe and call me hacker.

1947 dodge

1947 dodge

the maintenance light popped on my car, time for an oil change. made an appointment. only two-hundred and thirty-plus thousand miles on it, so gotta keep it going.

finally felt well enough to go see my dad in the hospital. decided to go wednesday after work. three o’clock comes, and i have to get out of a conversation about what fate has befallen a coworker that hasn’t shown up for two days and no notice as far as the boss can remember. my offer was he was unconscious on the floor, and his cat had already eaten half his face. supposedly, they continued on without me, but mine was the most morbid.

anyway, as i was saying, out to my car in the parking garage. it won’t start. lights working, dashboard all lit up with all the warning lights, but engine…pfft. sucks, since i’m missing my best chance at missing a lot of the traffic.

walked to the parking office, to see if they had jumper cables. worker bee hops in his golf cart with a portable charge, and heads up to meet me at my car. of course he assumes i stupidly left the lights on…i didn’t. he clamps the cables to the battery and it starts right up, thank you very much.

off i go to the freeway, half an hour late. only a little stop and go, but still took an hour to get there. mom had already left for the day. after decades of not driving on the freeway, she’s been going daily, between rush hours, to sit in the room with my dad. they had to put him in a hospitial miles from home, since no where closer wanted to deal with him, and he was too sick to just go in a rehab home.

gotta put on gloves and a gown to visit his room. he has cooties or something, picked up from the other hospital. on heavy duty anti-biotics, but almost cured.

spent an hour and a half chatting with dad, telling about my trip, asking when they were going to cut him loose. talked about my kids, my brothers, my sister, whatever popped into his mind to fill the empty spaces. his dinner arrived, so helped set him with that. decided to head out before it got too late, and noting that with traffic, it would still take another hour to get to whittier from there.

called my better half, who suggested i go down the street to pep boys and have them check the battery, just for his peace of mind. shall i say, english was not the technician’s first language, but i understood enough that he said the battery was ok, i should check the alternator. told him i already had an appointment, so would have it check then. said battery would be ok to get home, but car would probably not start in the morning.

let better half know. he suggested i turn around and go back to my mom’s house for the night, as any place i took the car to, i’d be able to get to the office for the day, versus whittier, where i’d have to take the day off unable to connect to work computers.

fine. drove back in heavy traffic. decided to stop for dinner before heading to her house. already close to eight p.m., stopped at togos and ate a sandwich and chips, not realizing they closed at eight.

finished up, only finishing half the sandwich, going to give the other half to my mom. car won’t start. engine won’t even pretend like it wants to twitch.

togos employees are sweeping, but the door is still unlocked. i ask if they have jumper cables, but they both say no. i realize later, when each brings their bike around the building why they wouldn’t be able to help.

i call aaa. tell them about the battery, and that it’s probably the alternator. they advise to not just send a car to jump it, as it might just die while i’m driving it. tow truck will take about forty-five minutes to get there. oh well.

called my mom, told her my predicament, that if she wasn’t busy could she come and get stuff from the car so i could have it towed straight to a garage and leave it overnight. and the sandwich was at risk too.

she showed up in curlers, i loaded my stuff in the trunk, handed her the sandwich, but she insisted on staying until the truck showed. she’d left my kid’s dog alone in the house, thinking it wouldn’t take long. he behaved, for a change.

truck still took over an hour to get there, so i was happy she stayed. it was dark.

by the time we got to the house, it was after ten. climbed into the twin bed, tired. dog-beast jumps up, and promptly takes most of the bed. pretty much get no sleep until the kid shows up close to midnight to fetch her dog.

cough mostly for the next two, only to have to get up for work two hours after that.

and it ended up just being the battery…couldn’t hold a charge. so wtf, pep boys guy?


i see this old dodge quite often. used to be more difficult to get a decent shot of it, not up next to other cars, or a wall or whatever.

still not quite on it’s own, but good enough.

transitory

1938 dodge

1938 dodge

i never seem to stay put in one house more than a couple of days anymore. i rotate between whittier, my parents' house in oc, and my own place, where i'm dealing with a mold issue from the leaky pipe in the wall in may and the kid moving in before she really should have.

i feel unsettled and tired. in whittier for the weekend, i also feel overheated. the back bedroom, with it's little window air conditioning unit, is a little sanctuary when i need it, but my computer is up in the front room, where i am sandwiched between two fans.

i do little bursts of energy, washing dishes, running laundry, helped my better half make guacamole; made enchiladas the other day, and my mother-in-law wants me to make more...so i guess they were ok. she wants hotter sauce this time.


on another subject, i got another honorable mention ribbon for my collection, at the orange county fair for this one. the other two pictures i entered are nearby it on the wall.


old dodge from the bomb club show at santa anita. i've seen this car many times before. probably have it posted up here somewhere at least one other time that i can think of off the top of my head..

missing the overcast; love clouds and how they keep it cool. i really hate summer heat.

connect?

1947 dodge

1947 dodge

wth. i was just checking articles on linkedin, and who is the first person up as a suggested connection?  

jae bueno. 

now i’m just sad, though it does say he is still presently busy as a freelance photographer.  yes, maybe, somewhere in the universe, but not here. and that sucks.

——- 

old dodge hearse that i see everywhere. usually not like this, on it’s own, where you can sort of work around it for a better angle. was still too close to a wall/a hedge. but usually jammed between other cars, so this’ll do. 

headed out again

back at lax, in an apparently newer terminal. work is paying for this trip, so i enjoyed breakfast from wolfgang puck, but there were also options from the habit or wahoos. interesting. lax has always been more of a run down dump before. maybe i've just never flown this carrier before. anyway, nice so far. acoustics suck for announcements and someone keeps opening a security door, setting off ear searing alarms. 

i only worked three days this week, but i feel like i packed forty hours into them, staying late trying to get stuff done. zero time to play with my pictures, so i just snagged this one straight from the camera this morning, no editing...didn't even have time to slap my name on it. oh well. 

going to miss chicano park day, and i'm really bummed. one of my favorite shows, and better half and i usually make a weekend in san diego out of it. responsibilities keeping him home, and here i am off on another trip without him. 

off to florida, where both of my brothers are, so maybe i can catch them both somewhere in the middle of the state. my mom wants me to be sure and take pictures--she was peeved that i took exactly zero pictures of relatives last week. seriously.

has been a crazy month, but i guess i did it to myself. i needed to get away and do the stereotypical recharge. missing the cars tho... 

i have a few other hood ornaments to get me through the week, if i feel the need to say anything. ttfn, my flight is boarding... 

for life

1937 dodge1937 dodge1937 dodge hood ornamentgot my better half up and out of bed by six yesteday. he really had wanted to go to ruby's on friday night, but after a second evening with a two and a half hour drive home from work, i was just not in the mood for it anymore. traffic sucks, and surface streets didn't help much either gotta make a deal with the boss, so i can just work from home on friday afternoons, at least.

my point being, he had gotten his shit together, and rigged up his little screen and rollie rig, and had been ready to go the night before, so it wasn't too difficult to get packed up early on saturday to go to the show over at la mirada rec center, by city hall. he had been hoping to shoot some video at rubys, and was going to give it a try at this duke's show, since i told him it was on pavement.

it's fairly nearby, so we were there about six-thirty. i'd gone the year before, so already knew where i wanted to park. couldn't see anything going on, so we left our stuff in the car and walked over to see if anyone was there. it was a relay for life event, so i expected to see more people, but i guess all of those volunteers were inside, near the pool.

we did see a line of dukes cars sitting there, so went back and got our gear.

last year, it rained off and on, and was in the other parking lot. this year was overcast, cool, and in the bigger lot. they roped off an area that i heard held about two-hundred and ninety spaces. i think by the time we left for lunch, there was maybe half that of the show cars, but the majority were the kind we like.

i haven't been out shooting much, so it was nice to have a perfect day for shooting, without the sun and heat. i always remark how tired i am all week, sitting on my ass at a computer, but give me a car show, and i can spend a good six hours walking around, crouching up and down, and be happy as can be. don't even feel too sore after, though my ankles to get a bit stiff if i sit too long, but that probably has more to do with my shoes than anything else. and it really tells me i need to get off my ass and move more often, and burn off some of this gut that seems to be sticking to me, the older i get.

anyway, it was a well organized show, and quite a few guys came over to chat with me. all very nice people. it was really good to see lots of clubs interacting, though there were a one or two, whose members just sat in a huddle watching, and frowning, and i guess, hanging tough. i'm sure i gave back my best resting bitch face, which is apparently my default look anyway. i think i didn't bother with their cars, hood was up and the other, nah, i just didn't need their pop up in the shot.

talked to a guy who told me a long story about how this dodge used to be his car, but events in his life forced him to sell it. at least he sold it to someone he knew very well, a guy he helped to raise, i think he said, so he knew it was in good hands. still, it must hurt a little to be so near, yet so far from something you loved.

it's a nice car. seen it before, and it's probably up here somewhere else, if i bother to look.

wasn't a whole lot available food wise this year, so since we hadn't eaten breakfast, called it a day around twelve-thirty, before our headaches got too unbearable...

line up

first bunch of cars i saw when i got to the imperials show. a line of old memories. i have a lot of old memories—and pictures of the cars too. took the opportunity of being there early and no crowds to block the view. sort of wishing i'd used my other wide angle lens, though maybe it would have gotten the same quality.

all stuff i like, i can't not shoot each and every one. way to start my day.

roosevelt for president

saw this car toward the end of the day at the azalea festival. found my better half there, already chatting up the owner.

if i remember correctly [better half can correct me if i'm wrong], he'd bought the car from some really old guy he knew. so old, there was a roosevelt for president sticker on the window. can't remember if it was just stashed in a garage for years before it was sold, but wow.

i think he said he fixed the car up, got it running again. said he took back to visit the really old guy, who was so happy to see that the sticker had been kept in place on the window. after so many years, it just belongs there.