what's up?

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.

monday monday

sitting in the parking garage at work. don't want to go in. want more sleep, please.

but i like the paycheck and paying my bills, so i guess i will just this once. and repeat tomorrow and tomorrow...

why am i the only one here? is it a holiday? no, it's just monday.

looks like rain, with big gray clouds moving this direction, from the ocean.

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spent a good bit of yesterday flipping through this past year's pictures, to see if there are any i want to enter in the oc fair. probably pulled about thirty. i'll have to look at those later, and whittle that number down, then ask my better half for his opinion. maybe cut it down to five--don't have a lot of wall space for after the show, and my storage unit is already stuffed. i really want to get my stuff out of storage; been so long since i've seen it, some would argue i don't need it anymore. maybe, but i still want a look at it to decide.

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had this picture waiting in the wings, from february's super cruise in garden grove. not so many cars that day, which is good and bad at the same time. less people and cars cutting through the shot, but also less to shoot. can spend more time on each car, to get an angle i like, i suppose.

i feel like i need to use a different lens, but what, i don't know. thinking i should have moved a little more to the left to separate the windshield from the building more, but i still like the bleakness of the picture.

lucky boy

made it out to memo ortega's fifth anniversary show in montclair yesterday. had never been there. small space between the industrial buildings, and a bit of overflow in the next lot, but still a decent turnout.

took pictures of these two cars first, since they were the farthest in, in the in between, i suppose closest to the shop. i didn't actually make it into the shop, since i was distracted by the cars, so no idea what there was to see.

owner of this car came up and introduced himself, and asked if i'd post it. that's the surest way to get a yes, so here it is.

meant to stop at costco on the way home, but they closed at six, and since i stayed until about five-thirty, i didn't quite make it. traffic was brutal on the freeways, so i took more scenic surface street routes round about it all.

sometimes i really don't understand why the map on the phone sends me one way when i know another way is better, so i do ignore the directions quite often. or the bit, where it lost the signal, and i had no idea which way to go, but being up on a hill, saw the freeway and turned around and jumped on for one exit, until siri could get her bearings.

see lots of interesting new neighborhoods that way, just out cruising.

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.

yesterday

busy day yesterday.

had rained a bit the day and night before. i knew it was completely possible our family member was getting released from the hospital, and that i was going to have to be there with my car, to be the taxi driver.

not knowing the when, i decided to go to the local car show first, check my phone frequently, then i would head out to santa anita, if there was still time.

i was at the los angeles bombs' second anniversary show before eight in the morning. figured, cinco de mayo weekend, and a sunday, i could sleep in a little and still get there to get a parking space.

and i did. my usual parking spot, right up front. and then the club members were there setting up their trophy table and tent.

so i just shot pics of the two or three cars that were there for a good ten minutes, until more cars arrived. the skies were mostly cloudy off and on, and always a chance of rain, but it didn't stop people from showing up.

other photographers arrived, and i met a couple of fellow instagrammers. very nice and talented guys. one had stopped at santa anita first, and realized that the bomb club show had been cancelled because of the rain. thanks. saved me a trip out of the way.

the lot was about half full by the time i took a break, then heard that i needed to get over to the hospital to make my pick up.

i have quite a few decent shots from yesterday, that i hope to have time to post, but who knows what tomorrow will bring.

i rather like this buick eight. caught it during a brief moment of the sun shining through, with colors not muted down by the overcast.

made it to the hospital on time. it did pour on us a while on the way home. as unexpected as that was, the wheelchair on the back of my better half's vehicle got a bit soaked. he's currently trying to clean it up, and hoping the electronics and motor didn't get fizzled.

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.

daddy's girl

i know this car. my dad bought it when he ran his own business, back in the day. it was a business expense. a good story goes with it, and probably haven't got the complete story right, but i know he reads this blog sometimes, so he can comment if he doesn't agree.

at the beginning of the eighties, he used to tool around in an early seventies ford pinto. you know, the ones that would explode in a fireball if they got hit on the back bumper. it was a real piece of crap. mostly my sister drove it to work and back.

i guess he'd dreamt about getting a nine-twenty-eight since he'd first seen one, and started figuring out what it would take to own one. he'd done some research, and knew he wanted the car in a dark blue, and had tracked down a dealership that had one in stock.

at some point, he decided today was the day, and drove up to the dealership and parked at the front curb in that stupid pinto, no doubt dressed quite casually, but hopefully not in the greasy clothes he'd work on cars in.

now, as i understand it, car salesmen are a competitive bunch, and are like wolves on the prowl, when i possible customer walks onto the lot. but none of these guys wanted to waste their time talking to him.

i want to say it was late spring, so the weather was warm, and the pack of them were watching for customers from the air-conditioned sales room. guessing they got a good laugh seeing this rube climb out of that trash filled car. so they sent out the newest guy, with the least experience at wheeling and dealing, not expecting anything to come of it.

apparently back in those days, they didn't run the full credit check on you before you went out for a drive. he talked his way into a test drive, and the newbie took him through his paces, being good practice on his salesmanship.

after returning to the dealership, they go inside to continue with the sales banter, talking about options and colors and the like. at some point, my dad said he'd take it, the other sales guys watching nearby. i'm a little fuzzy on whether he played the offer and counter offer game, or just named a price, but knowing him, he probably opted for the latter.

the sales guy went along with the discussion, wondering how he intended to pay for the car. at that point, my dad takes out his wallet, and starts laying down thousand dollar bills. no doubt, that left the other salesmen spitting out their coffee or standing slack-jawed on the loss of that commission.

he'd planned it all out--he thought it would be funny, so he'd stopped at the bank on the way to buy the car.

pretty sure that young newbie sales guy made salesperson of the month that year.

my dad drove back later with my older brother, to pick up the pinto.

i drove the car a few times when i was a high school senior, to pick up my younger brother. i loved the purr of that engine, and the smell of the leather interior. and it did move real fast. just sayin...not like i went speeding in it...nooooo. that was other kids. i admit it was pretty cool. i may have been a lifelong wallflower, and never popular, but i didn't care when i drove around the school parking lot in that thing.

my dad drove it for about twenty years. probably after ten years of owning it, he started tinkering with it, trying to do repairs himself. always bitched about the service at the dealership, and it was only getting more expensive. he'd shut down his business by then, and the car had already been written off, so it was all on him to keep it running.

and my dad was getting older, and couldn't really hear well, making it difficult to hear when the motor sounded off. he installed a loud noise maker to go with the turn signals, as he couldn't hear the blinker when it stopped shutting off after completing turns, and hated driving about with the turn signal on.

then someone ran into it once, and my dad got banged up a little, but the car was mostly ok.

after that, i can only remember that he'd gutted the interior for some reason. i do not know if it was related to the accident, or if he was hunting down a short in a wire...i think it had also caught fire. he never really got it put back together quite right from that time on. seats weren't bolted back in, but he drove it anyway. it got full of garbage and spare parts.

finally, he just kept it covered in the driveway, as he got too old to deal with it.

my older brother took it on as a project car, something to do when he visited the parents every few months. he found the original maintenance manuals at a car show, and studied them meticulously.

he dropped a refurbed engine into it and got it running again. my dad decided he didn't want it in the driveway anymore and/or didn't want to insure it, so he gave it to my brother, who shipped it back east, to his house.

he and his kids continued to tinker with it, and drive it around town.

their kids are grown and moved out now, so they sold their house, and moved further south, into a smaller condo, with only a one car garage.

somehow he got my other brother to let him park it at his house, since he has the space. it's been there a year now. his wife is starting to whine about the thing being there, undriven.

older bro stops by once in a while to start the engine, and drive it around the block. younger bro is afraid to drive it too far, afraid it will break down and that he'd have to pay to get it towed. nephew wants the car, but really hasn't got a garage for it yet, so there it sits.

glad i made it out to see it while i was on my business trip, as i hadn't been into photography of old cars back when it sat in my dad's driveway for years. i'm sure if no one wants it or has room for it, it will be sold or donated, since it's like a boat...a money pit.

no, i didn't drive it. aside from being blocked in the driveway by another car, when the cover was taken off, we noticed it had hundreds of tiny little white mites or bugglets of some sort crawling around the window edges. just assumed they're probably on the inside, and i wasn't having any of that.