sick of being sick

so right on queue, following a week long road trip vacation, comes the annual week long cold/flu thing. usually follows being stuck in the confines of an airplane next to patient zero, but this year my better half blames it on me out on the ferry in san francisco bay without a coat and wearing flip flops too late in the evening. pfft.

i blame it on the coworker calmly telling others about the cold that's run through her family, and she was still fighting it off, but was valiently slugging through a day at the office a few days before our trip. her, or any one of the thousands of people in the city that happen to sneeze or cough or hoick in your vicinity. but no, i don't think getting chilled for a couple of hours will do it to you alone.

whatever. thusly, with said illness, i am banished from the house, in the effort to prevent the mother-in-law from catching any respiratory bug, which at her age, may not be in her best interest, which also separates me from my computer and my blog. my kid is in my house, and i'm not going to get mr. law student sick. just spent my vacation fund, so not going to a hotel. end up at my parents house for almost a week. i think i heard my dad sneezing a couple of days ago, but mostly he's just a couch potato, asleep in front of the tv.

decided i was well enough to go to the office on friday. was about forty minutes from shutting down and heading over to ruby's last show of the season, when the boss asked if i could tweak a file and get it uploaded to a vendor before i left. spent over two hours trying to ftp the fricking thing, and it was the ftp at the other side that kept crashing. file too big to use dropbox.

ended up simplifying the file and sending it in parts, only to have the last piece get stuck. sent an email to the boss, who later responded that i hadn't been expected to stay, and the guy at the other end had left the office for the day. pissed that the traffic was too effed up to tackle and get to the show in time, headed back over to my mom's for another night. glad i'd kept a couple of extra sets of things to wear over there just in case. at least when the company moved their headquarters, it's only a five minute drive on the freeway to my mom's house.

----------

enough blathering. sick of it now. here's a car from the show in san diego i mentioned before. they block off about five blocks right near horton plaza in downtown sd. my better half didn't really see anything he wanted to shoot, and ended up being my bag boy the whole time, pulling my gear around, but i suspect mostly just checked out my ass when he thought i wasn't looking. he also made sure i was properly slathered in suntan lotion and that i didn't forget to drink water.

really expected a lot more there than there was. i mean, i've been to shows in rialto, riverside, whittier,... with blocks closed off and they get cars out the ying yang. this one mostly had blocks segregated, by decade or type. most crowded block was full of ferraris and lamborghinis...freakin teenie peenie club members. maybe i'll post a shot of those. nah. seen one, you seen them all. just imagine the show room in all reds and yellows and whites, and that was what was on the street.

then there were muscle cars <yawn>, too many with their hoods up, so buh bye. too few chevys and low riders. really didn't take so many pictures as i'd have hoped to. guess we'll have to make a point to go the show in chicano park next spring, to find the kind of cars we like.

i was only going to shoot the hood ornament on this one, when the owner walked over and asked if i'd vote for his car. they had awards for the different categories, but also a people's choice, so he was being proactive. i shot the car while he convinced my better half to also sign for it. it was a nice car, and i liked shooting a car in a different setting, so there you go.

there is never enough time

i'm kinda bummed about this show in pico rivera. sponsored by the showlows car club, i had several people tell me about it. i was going to be out of town with my better half and miss it.

turns out, our plans weren't cast in cement, and we were heading out the day of the show. had a little time to spare and it was not that far out of the way to the freeway, so we swung by the show. my better half stayed out with the car and cleaned the windows, while i did a too quick run through.

so bummed i didn't have more time. there was a smorgasbord of exactly the type of cars that i love. had to just quickly pick and choose. it was around noon, also a hot day, which slows me down. and then in the midst of it all, one of my kids calls and wants to chat. so even less time available to shoot. ah well.

found this one in a line of pharaoh's cars. very nice line up. hope to see them again.

this show was a first. hopefully it will become an annual, and that i can drag my better half in there with me.

everything old is new again

i'd never seen one of these before, at least that i can remember. dropped to the ground, it was hard to decide which point of view would be best. i have a front view, that i like, but it doesn't give you a sense of how low it was, so i'll show you this one instead.

wish the three dudes had moved out of my shot, but they persisted in just standing there for more than five minutes, so i just said screw it, and shot away. maybe that was the whole point of staying there anyway. at least they aren't being dorks and making faces.

de la chica

sorry i can't chat tonight. gotta get to bed, but wanted to at least post a purty picture. this one belongs to one of the ladies at the viejitos show. she came over and chatted for a minute. beautiful car...so jealous.

ttfn.

stumbled upon

after melting over at the shakedown show, we were hungry. i suggested pizza, and remembered that there was a round table a couple of freeway exits up. coincidently, in the same plaza as the fuddrucker's show in lakewood. and hey, the show there was just getting started.

just kidding. i knew it was there. just dragged my better half over there to have a peek. still wasn't that busy yet, but this one did catch our eye as we drove by. originally sitting there with nothing next to it, but by the time we parked and set up, a clown car drove up and parked next to it...not the mg, that one was sweet...on the other side. a whole parking lot, and he has to park there. so i squeezed in and took this shot.

don't think i've got one of these before, and the blue and white paint job made it more striking. happy accident.

man, i'm baked

not what you thought—pull your head out. i mean, it was really, really hot yesterday at this fundraiser. why, oh why do a show on a sunday on a day over 100 degrees, on a blacktop, er, in this case, pavement?? really limits the crowd and any pictures to be taken.

have to be selective, because i already know my interest is going to decrease relative to the temperature. though there was some shady spots to retreat to, eventually, i'm not gonna keep going.

judging by other people's pictures on the net, jae bueno was there, as was howard gribble. sorry for not recognizing you guys and saying hi there. though now, after the fact, i have some guesses which faces in the crowd you might be. you got some great shots, way more than i took.

there were only a few old cars which i like there, and maybe twice as many of the low rider jumpers. still too many of both types with hoods open or just angled weird, so i skipped a lot of them. and a few that were just too flashy, as to make me giggle. but that's just me...whatever floats your boat.

both me and my better half zeroed in on this one right away. he took a bunch of shots first, while i took a walk around the rest of the cars. got back to this one last, and this is the only shot i took. i was soaked with a coating of slimy sun block and sweat, and just felt gross by then. aparently, the sun block wasn't cutting it so well, and my better half said i was starting to "get some color." just temporary, as today, nothin. never was worth my time to try and get a tan, thanks to my parents; oh but you should see my son...who used to tell me he was "dark white" when he was three years old.

glowing

why is it they say that women don't sweat...they glow? bullshit. i was definitely sweating the other night at ruby's. not that it was that hot, but more that it felt humid. probably should have just worn shorts and a tank top, and expose more skin. levis just don't "breathe" even if they are made of cotton.

i purposely waited until later in the evening to hit this show, hoping it would cool off enough to persuade me away from the fans at home. and so i could start taking some sunset shots, with summer officially coming to an end, and the sun going bye bye earlier and earlier.

there were many cars i walked by because of their location, or owners parked in chairs in front of them. running out of room on my hard drive makes me more picky i guess.

i came back to this one before i left, and probably should have just kept shooting while the sun went south. the hood was so reflective, and the colors changing in the sky just glowed off of it. this shot isn't picking up the rose colors that i saw later.

forgotten

i was going to upload a different picture, and then noticed this one. wonder what i was doing the day i intended to post it, then completely forgot about it. huh.

whatever. this one was at the viejitos show in fullerton. lot wasn't too crowded that day. my better half chatted up the club and took a group picture, that he is a couple months behind in posting for them <hint hint d>. he said that the restaurant was thinking of cancelling their shows due to lack of participation. that would be a shame now, wouldn't it?

that's hot

this bucket was from early in the year out in norco. back when i used to have to drive out to riverside pretty regularly. lots of pictures, and i've been reviewing files to try and free up space on my drive, and found this one. figured it was time for something besides a chevy. i think that's the owner in the picture. didn't say anything, just sat there while i did my shots. seemed pretty happy with himself.

--------

didn't go to any shows at all today. my better half treated me to the brian setzer orchestra show last night at the hollywood bowl. how long have i lived in california, and i've never been there? didn't realize so many people could be jammed onto a hillside.

was a great show, with the ninety-six piece symphony orchestra behind brian. the light show and fireworks were pretty cool. some of the acoustics were sketchy, and the music seemed to be playing down in a hole. one of the few concerts i've attended that didn't take three days for my ears to stop ringing, but still, glad to have been there.

i guess one of the big features of the bowl is that you can bring your picnic basket and booze and lounge about the area and in your seats before and during the show. all that is well and good, but not being drinkers, we had to smell all of our fellow show goers' open glasses of vino throughout the show. so nauseating. never could understand how people could drink that piss. it's nasty. i've tasted it, and i suppose i just never had those friends that i had to pretend to enjoy the taste of alcohol in front of growing up. actually, mostly didn't have friends, but did get to observe others making asses of themselves.

anyway, my better half put us up in a hotel nearby, so we didn't have to get stuck in the log jam of drunk winos after the show. thanks, d, you know how i hate sitting in traffic.

well, we enjoyed the show, the hotel, the air conditioning, and stuff. we had decided not to do the show in pasadena and hadn't brought the cameras on purpose, but had left others as an option. we slept in, then stopped over at the hilton by universal studios and ate the buffet for brunch. got too hot outside to bother with norwalk, and then got too sleepy to go to lakewood in the evening. and somehow, i'm ok with it. pretty awesome weekend, considering.

intersection

i had intended to go to two car shows on the way home this evening. but its hotter than an armpit out there. wondering if it will start a shake and bake, california is so famous for. 

i have also spent half the day working, working, working, and packing. moving to a new office next friday. somehow it gets hot in an air conditioned office when you're throwing crap into boxes and piling them up. somehow in over five years, i've amassed more junk than anyone else in the department, it seems. gotta keep everything for legal, but they are all still making me feel guilty for snagging all the boxes.

so i'm sitting here, in front of a couple of fans, waiting for the sun to start setting, then maybe i'll go on over to ruby's. really shouldn't, until i make some room on my hard drive...getting pretty full.

this car was on the corner of the main intersection at the uptown show. well it is very nice. walked past it several times throughout the day because the hood was open, or there were too many people around it. patience, grasshoppa. finally found it with the hood down and people mostly out of the way. maybe the owner was getting ready to leave, or was off to see if he'd won a trophy or something.