what's up?

looking back

my thoughts have bounced around in my head a lot lately, to the point i don't know any one thing i would write about, that might be of any interest to any lurker who may be reading this on a somewhat irregular basis lately.

if you've never met him, my better half might be considered imposing, especially when he has a 'stache and goatee, and his long hair. when he's clean shaven, he just seems more friendly and younger, rather than tuff. he's a big guy, six-five, hovering around three-hundred pounds most of the time.

big enough to stare down the little shits that block sidewalks when his mom used to roll her wheelchair uptown. he would politely 'suggest' that they make way, and when they'd turn their back and stay put, he'd 'make way' for his mom. fucking little posers.

there's a new generation that hang out uptown now, only i think they are wannabe drug lords, making their little drug sales out in the open. i have my own little bitch face that moves them out of my way when i go uptown by myself.

he's mostly a big, friendly bear of a guy. i really don't know why he picked me, but i'm happy he did, and that's all i'll say about that. no need to get mushy here, and i really am not that gushy kind of girl.

there is one car club guy, i'd like to sic him on, but i'd prefer to keep my better half with me, than to visit him behind bars, so there's that.

better half has tossed a more than a dozen memories at me, to write about. we laugh about each recollection, giggle at the details of what people said or did, and how we ended up where we are today. then i say i've already referenced most of these stories at some point, and how a lot of stuff is inside jokes, or too gross.

i haven't been anywhere lately, except work, my parents' house, and picking up mail at my house. boring, but i gots things on my mind.

i could bitch about stuff i see on the freeway every day, but there hasn't been too much going on with the holidays, and i assume people home with the flu. traffic has been really light in the evening, so the few drives to whittier i've done the past couple of weeks have only been about an hour.

i'm hoping to get up in the morning and head to pomona for the swap meet. was thinking, it's january, it will be cool outside, everything will be great. summer is hell out there, and i usually can't / don't stay that long in the sun there.

it was fuckin' eight-five degrees outside this afternoon. it's going to still be in the eighties tomorrow. so it will be a short day as usual, in spite of being the middle of winter. really is no winter in cali, so what am i thinking?

one of these times, i'll have to actually walk the aisles of parts and stuff for sale, but i never seem to be able to tear myself away from the cars themselves. maybe next month it will be cold again. next week it will be sixty again.

so, long-windedly, i have no stories to blather on about, or that anyone might care to hear anyway. not feeling very enchanting at the moment, though my better half seems to still be stuck under my spell. who knows why?

here's a lovely back-end of a fifty-seven bel aire. it's all about the fins on these cars. the fronts are pretty generic and boring.

still here

not feeling well enough to go out to car shows right now, but good enough to walk uptown. so, cruise on by, so i can take a picture. it's my own little car show driving past our window, most every day.

heard some news from an old co-worker today. bad times. that sucks. happened to check facebook messenger, which i hardly ever do, and there was a month old message there. they happened to be online when i replied.

then another former co-worker's dog passed away a few weeks before xmas. that had to be ruff. see what i did there. been there, done that. losing a pet always sucks.

hoping for a better new year for everyone.

here's an old shot from the bomb club show last summer at santa anita racetrack. an old truck with 'character.'

those spindly palm trees kind of bother me, but not enough to erase them.

off to a start...

new year. new day.

started well so far. for some bizarre reason, i thought i had january second off, same as we had the day after xmas off the week before. and i was enjoying it; slept in until nine, had breakfast, watched some inane youtube videos, and was about to start working on some pictures.

then i went back to the bedroom to get my ipad and phone. picking up the phone, noticed i'd missed an hour old text message from one of my coworkers asking if i was ok. wtf?

texted her back asking what/why? ten minutes later she responded asking if i was coming in or taking the day off. i'd missed a telecon, and no one had heard from me.

so after pleading idiocy, told her i'd be there by noon. first time i'd ever ever screwed up like that in all the years i've been working.

then i get to the office, and by one o'clock, i'm being asked/told i need to do a photo-shoot of someone for a press release—and they'll be there at two.

i haven't touched a camera in three months. hadn't set up the lighting equipment in three months or more. my brain is not thinking clearly. i looked at some old notes, then texted my better half for what camera settings i should use because he is a tech and camera geek, and dragged the equipment out of the closet.

asked if the other designer could come help me set up. he usually does the videos, and had used everything recently. he was out to lunch, but would be there soon.

so i set stuff up from memory, and it was mostly fine. only the camera was set up for video, and i had to surf through the menus, to make sure everything was good for a portrait. but it was still set for video, blinking standby.

the other guy shows up, i explain it isn't doing what i want, and that i haven't touched a camera for a while, and i'm sort of already having a weird day. he walks over and turns the dial on the camera from movie to manual. omg. duh, so basic.

manual setting wasn't working for me, lights weren't bright enough, didn't want to crank up the iso and add noise. flipped to aperture, like i'm used to shooting cars.

by then, i realize i've left my ipad in my car, because my day is already screwed up, and i have ten minutes before the person is supposed to be there. got there and back with a few minutes to spare. and i have to pee. no time, don't think about it.

then, i hadn't had lunch, so i start feeling dizzy. i think now, it was mostly nerves. suck it up, it will be over soon.

next, i hear the guy will be half an hour late. whew. more time to worry, but at least i can go take a leak.

when they finally do show up, it takes all of five minutes, got the shot, and they were gone. all that for a quick shot. and it turned out all right. i even managed to seem cheerful, to undercut how uncomfortable i was with humor. told them about my day so far, and got a smile from them, so it worked. i'm an idiot, nice to meet you.

so i guess, when i do go out to a car show again, i will be ok. muscle memory will kick in, not to worry. just got to get my eyes refocused, and get my head back in the game.

shot this bike in late november, at the latin gents/dukes toy drive. i think it might be with the majestics club, or maybe it was just parked near their pop-up. mostly, i think i liked the paint job, as it was otherwise, just a harley.

out for a walk

walked uptown for breakfast/lunch. the last bunch of times that i'd been home and gone uptown, i'd get dizzy, because, ya, i was sick, and an inner ear thing probably didn't help.

today, i just got overheated, but that's because it's in the seventies weather-wise and i was wearing a hoodie. found it funny, when a sixty-plus year old woman drove past blasting usher's "yeah" song out her windows, so very loud. she just didn't look the type. then i don't look the type to be hanging out at car shows either, right?

noticing that my eyes seem to be more sensitive to the sunlight, and seem a bit blurry. that is a problem for someone who likes to be at car shows for several sunny hours, taking pics. hoping that clears up, and getting some new glasses too. doc says my vision is actually a little better, so the lenses may be the issue.

meanwhile, i guess if i do go out, i'll just go really early, as usual, or go in the evenings. it's been so long, i'll have to try to remember what i was doing with a camera. starting all over again.

still going through recent photos. here's a beauty from a blessing of the cars show out at the san gabriel mission. didn't know what to expect, as i'd never been there. inner courtyard/parking lot filled quickly with lovely cars, so i made quick use of my limited time that day. had to meet up with someone that day, who had bought one of my framed pics from the fair. should have gone back to the show, but had other places to be.

better late, than...

end of the year has been a minor hurricane in my life and time, and i feel like it's just the eye of the storm right now. there will be the other side to get through soon enough. so i'm gonna just sit here and breathe for a bit.

took a little thinking out of the box to get this post up. i guess while i've been away from home, better half discovered someone had been trying to hack into the home network, so he did some finagling of the router and stuff. so when i was here the other day, i worked on this picture, and when i was ready to post it, found i couldn't get on the internet.

better half has pretty much stretched himself a bit thin, between work and home, as well as trying to fight off a cold, so he was exhausted, not thinking clearly, and already gone to bed. couldn't wake him to fix this piddly little problem; it could wait.

also not getting the best vibes here, so packed some clothes and headed back down to my mom's for a few days. had stuff of my own to deal with there. took my dad in for followup appointments; his heart and pacemaker are working fine, see you in a year, thank you very much.

back home again today. better half in a mood, probably catching the cold he wanted to avoid. i'll probably leave again, and let him be a bear in a cave. my niece is in town for the holidays, in from japan, so i should probably go say hey to her anyway.

oh, so i did a workaround to get my picture posted today, as my computer is still not connecting, and it has to do with his router, and, well, i'm not going to wake him up again.

but, ya, been too busy, away, sick, and/or unable to post lately. waiting for the other shoe to drop in the new year.

meanwhile, this chevy is from the oc viejitos show last july, at the anaheim marketplace. haven't posted much from the show, from a lot of shows, actually. shame, cuz i have so many lovely pictures.

anyway, i wanted to post a shot that isn't already out there, and this one caught my eye, as i flipped through the past six months' of shots.

early morning sun is hard to beat, bouncing off a beautiful car.

random thoughts

last full day here in the cold north. maybe another time, i will go even farther, up into canada.

i've spent the day wandering around art museums, taking all the time i wanted to read about the artwork, or sit on my ass and watch the videos in the little display areas that loop about various pieces or art. was a decent mix of classic, native and local art. not anything too modern, which i find terrifyingly stupid, or maybe it's me, and i don't have my head far enough up my ass to appreciate or pretend to understand. maybe i just missed that class in college. i do enjoy the artist statements to try and explain why that crap is of importance, or justify it's existence, or price.

still trying to finish off this cold, especially before i get on an airplane tomorrow.

during my tedious hours on the road, i had plenty of time to ponder:

captain crunch is like broken glass when you have a sore throat
not one fast food place between home and here had fountain drinks that weren't flat, even those that used to be reliable. at least most had clean 'facilities'
while most of said dining establishments couldn't serve up meals that were quite right or edible, at least the employees were polite and friendly. just couldn't cook or do a sandwich for crap
i satisfied my daily wish to just keep driving, instead of going to work. maybe i should be a trucker, but then i'd grow to hate that
i do miss big trees and forests, rain and snow of my childhood, and glad i got to see it all again this trip
some people really shouldn't be given driver licenses and/or should study physics when deciding to swerve in front of eighteen wheelers.
oregon has xmas radio commercials selling guns. thirty bucks off on glocks for him or cute conceal carry purses for her. not to mention the adult edibles and smokables commercials. plenty for those last minute stocking stuffers.

i suppose there were other things, but i was driving and couldn't jot them down. mind like sieve sometimes.

i can't even

beautiful oldies chevy from the front street car show in norwalk last summer. i wouldn't mind having one of these in my garage.

so, i've made it to washington state, on my mission to test drive and deliver a new used car to my kid.

weather has been perfect the whole way, and here just in time, as it is supposed to start raining tomorrow.

she'd been texting me all morning, asking how far i was. so when i finally got to her hood, i drove directly to her place. a bit before check-in anyway.

never had been to this apartment, and got to see the spot where i'd been sending ubers for the last month or so.

anyway, parked the car, and her boyfriend walked the dog out to get me. turned out my kid had been up so early, and had been waiting to have lunch with me, though i told her not to, that she was in bed taking a nap. didn't even get up, though she did wake up when i peeked in the room.

uh, hello. i just drove eleven hundred miles to bring her a car, and she can't be bothered to get up and/or go check out the car. ugh. not out of character really, but still pretty rude.

pet the dog, got clawed by the cat, ignored the tarantulas and snakes. decided to go check in at the hotel and go back later.

she did apologize. said she'd drank two beers on an empty stomach, and about the time i arrived wasn't feeling good. well duh.

anyway, back a couple hous later, out to dinner with them and a couple of friends. (i drove). then out to point defiance zoo in the dark. it was decked out with xmas lights and music; a few animals were out in the cold. most were in for the night, but the small aquarium was open.

pretty cool, pretty cold--being right on the edge of puget sound.

back in the hotel, late and tired. not sure what i'll do for a couple of days. kid will be working, so i'm on my own.

on the road

road trippin' north. drove five-hundred miles today. probably could have done another fifty, but the sun was getting ready to set, and i'm on my own, so i'm in for the night.

haven't seen any classic cars on the road, so my pictures will have to do. one from the summer. i need to get back out and shoot more. out of practice. i know i've done better group shots, so i should reconsider what i'm doing that i don't like.

ok, been up since four am, and it's almost six-thirty, so i'm going to call it a night.

one day in, then off again

i like this picture, lens flares and all. let's just say there's a ghost in the driver's seat.

i've been away from home for two weeks probably, taking care of getting my dad to his hospital stay, followed by another week of getting over the worst cold i've had in a long time.

now i've been back in whittier for about twenty-four hours. enough to get some laundry done, and walk uptown for lunch. heading off to work in the early morning monday, doing a couple of rescheduled doctor appointments of my own in the afternoon. then tuesday, i'm off on a road trip to seattle.

small window of good weather before xmas, so off i go driving my kid's car to her. better half can't go with; mom won't go with, dad won't go with, bro isn't in town, sister busy, so me, myself and i keeping company in an untested car.

and then i'll still have a bunch of vacay hours i could take...

wish i was going...

pomona swap meet tomorrow. and i'm sick as a dog, though i've never really seen a sick dog. gonna miss the pre-dawn shots like this one, when hardly anyone is around. early bird gets the shot.

my dad got out of the hospital on wednesday evening, straight into evening drive time. took more than two hours to get home, and he had a craving for a philly cheesesteak sandwich. cardiac diet off and running.

trying to find him alternatives to diet pepsi, and fortunately, twelve packs of soft drinks are on sale now, so picked up six different flavors.

he seems to have picked up the cold too. not good for him. did we catch it at the hospital? prob take him to emergency room tomorrow, make sure he isn't gonna pop a stitch somewhere with all the coughing.

i went back to a local urgent care and they are giving me antibiotics for my pink eye and for my ear infection. eye seems better; ear less so. if i skip the aspirin, my temp head back up over one-hundred. so wtf.

ex hubby also bought a decent used car for our daughter, so i'm gonna have to drive that north soon, hopefully before snow starts. anyone up for a road trip? maybe my sister is available...