what's up?

dad's home

picked up dad’s ashes yesterday. he’s on a bookshelf now. his dad’s ashes are nearby on another piece of furniture, but giving him the space alone for a bit.

this whole process has had the feeling of a wedding. all the excitement and preparation just before the event, then the thing happens, emotions all raw and out there. then the honeymoon….

now the ashes are here, that’s over. now just get on with things. oh well. had no ceremony, and didn’t want a military fuss. so we have an unfolded flag, and no instructions or thoughts on where we should put him. same reason we have his dad on a shelf. suppose we should get some boy scout to fold the flag or look it up on the internet.

told my mom, we should just fly the thing. wasn’t his personally, and it’s just going to sit in the shipping box otherwise. she’s thinking about it.

anyway, been staying with her five to six days of the week. probably for the foreseeable future. just back in whittier, so my better half can have a sanity break and get out of the house.

rained yesterday, more rain this next week, but not tomorrow. hoping to go to pomona tomorrow. i expect it will be cold. i expect i’ll hate the new tripod head some more. i expect i’ll take a lot of pictures, and not have time to do much with them for a while.

back end of an old lincoln from last year. a veteran’s show out at rose hills cemetery. i’ve only ever hung out near the entrance, near better half’s uncle’s grave. never noticed the weird looking building that looks like a sculpture at the udvar-hazy in dc—all space inspired—further up the hill.

tap tap

the days leading up to my dad passing, the roof of the house was covered with crows. at least i assume they were crows, not ravens, around here. there are still a few hanging about, tapping on the tiles each morning.

in the days since, i’ve seen so many hummingbirds. one even flew up to the window when i was at home in whittier.

i was getting water for one of the kid’s dog beasts outside, and i felt two taps on the hip. no one there. i’ve decided it had to have been a hummingbird. maybe i had a red jacket on, i don’t really remember, so i’m going with that.

mom slowly going through his stuff, giving away clothes, destroying meds, packing his books. i’ve grabbed a couple pairs of his socks—my feet are cold. still strange how i move about the day, doing normal things, then if i stop for too long, i realize he’s not there anymore, and this is just so much junk.

i am eating way to much guacamole. wish this fog in my head would lift. going back to work tomorrow, expecting condolences and fresh tears.

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fleetline from a show at manny locos last summer. shooting towards the sun again...maybe it was just the best angle. probably there was a car with an open hood or some other thing that ruined the pic when i considered the other side.

one day at a time

dad’s been gone over a week now. been sorta living in the house with my mom. better half stays with his mom.

still need to come to whittier once in a while, and today is one of those days. computer time, picture time. sister is hanging with my mom, and her daughter is visiting from japan…my dad had been looking forward to seeing her yearly visit. oh well.

thinking i’ve missed quite a few car shows this path month. better half had given me a new tripod and ball head before everything happened, and i only had it out this once at the kustom oldies/loyal alliance toy drive at dolphin park.

need to use it a few more times, before i declare i totally hate it, because it’s different than what i’m used to. the tripod is tight, but loose enough to lay flat on the ground. the ball head requires more fiddling than the pistol grip i have used for years. works but pisses me off. they don’t make the one i was using anymore, not too many of that model bouncing around on ebay.

better half says i’m not good with change. i disagree, i’ve been quite flexible for the last couple of decades. i just don’t see the need to change equipment, as long as it works.

here’s a nice chevy. red is such a hard color to shoot in the bright sun. i just couldn’t get out earlier, in the early early light.

thinking about pomona next week. it might rain, so i don’t know. bag the camera, carry an umbrella, get a different shot. it could work.

july 19, 1933 — december 24, 2018

my dad died last night. just before midnight. didn’t think it would hurt this much, but it does. i don’t think he suffered...they had him sedated.

retired navy. married to my mom for sixty-three years. four kids...all here for xmas because of him. glad my brothers were able to fly in on time.

i just can’t...

tired of hospitals

sitting in yet another hospital. my dad, again. and this time i'm not so sure he will go home again.

my mom's birthday. well, technically it was yesterday, since it's after midnight.

this just sucks.

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don't have the energy to say much about this car. love it. envious. maybe someday i'll buy one.

back home

finally made it home yesterday night. quite sure, i’ve completely used up my time off with pay for the year and then some. but an emergency is an emergency, and i am glad that i was there to help.

my brother is back home, physically all right. still a little on the loopy side, but hoping that will go away after he gets back on his regular schedule.

he has a lovely hospital bed smack in the middle of his office now, and will be visited daily by nurses or therapists or some such personnel.

hopefully i will not feel scared enough for him to have to fly back, but i would.

one more from dolphin park last week. isn’t it lovely?

delay delay delay delay

so far, my return flight has been delayed four times. almost ten pm now before we take off. i'll be heading straight to work at this point. i won't have any sleep. no one at the desk to ask about changing flights. gotta ask my brother, a pilot for another airlines if its weather related. guessing not, since i just heard a flight called for san diego.

now my flight has dropped off the board altogether. shit.

sunny here, unlike the skies in this pic from a few months ago.

recovering

sitting here in florida, in an icu room, while my brother sleeps. surgery went ok, but he did have some somewhat scary complications, so i finally booked a flight to come see what was going on myself.

he’s going to be ok, but will be moving to a rehab facility for some period of time when they release him from the hospital. already booked a flight back in a few days, so he better keep improving.

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i did see an old chevy on the ride between the house and the hospital, but sister-in-law didn’t stop to let me take a pic. not really top priority for her, as she needed to be somewhere and has other things on her mind. i have her car for an hour or so, but i don’t think i’d find my way back to where the chevy was. oh well.

it’s pretty cold here, for florida. nephew says because of a storm or hurricane coming in a few states north. pretty much feels like california now, at about seventy degrees in the daytime. almost nice, but i know the other three-hundred and sixty das of the year are mostly sweltering humidity, with some windy hurricane excitement thrown in. nah, i wouldn’t live here. i’ll stick with the occasional earthquake for one-hundred, alex.

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posted this car up on instagram before i headed to the airport the other day. i know i’ve seen it elsewhere, and probably posted it. it may or may not be the same one owned by someone who chatted up my better half once in anaheim, talking about hand sanding the pieces until flour would just slide right off it before taking it in for painting, or else there is another super purple master deluxe driving around. this one has some glitter in the paint, and i can’t remember about the other one.

contemplating

i went out for a few hours to the toy drive at dolphin park.

i expect a lot of people were at mooneyes xmas party. never been there, wouldn’t know where to park, didn’t feel like getting up that early, and also, too many people.

my younger brother, on the east coast, had gone into the hospital the night before. needed his gallbladder out, but no surgeons were available. so about the time i was wandering around the park, they’d finally got him in to have it removed.

so really, the show was just a distraction.

today, he seems to be in and out of icu, having some unidentified complications. i’ve offered to fly out there to give her a break, but his wife has sort of said not needed yet.

yet her updates seem to be getting more unsettling. i’m about ready to book a flight, but my mom says i should wait for test results. so i’ll just sit here and pretend that it isn’t bothering me, and putter around with my pictures, and watching my mother-in-law while my better half is out shopping.

so, here’s a chevy from yesterday. i heard there were about a hundred cars that had come through or were parked in the lot. admittedly, i didn’t expect to see so many, cuz, mooneyes.

i’d also never been to this park. not so very big. parked down the street, around the corner. wondered where they’d put the cars earlier in the year for a show there as well.

this chevy was one of the first few i encountered on the edge of the park, under the trees. i do love how trees can frame a car.

still around

went out to the just memories/kustom classics toy drive last night in bellflower. i’m a bit rusty, as i haven’t been out as much.

got there about four-thirty, before the official start time. really just some of the club cars there, and mostly the hopper types. shrugged and just went with it, since i was there.

figured i try to remember how to do night shots like i used to when i’d go to the broiler. have you noticed how fast the sun takes a dive this time of year? just blink and it’s dark early, too.

no one really bothered me, while i skuttled around trying to stay out of the way, as more cars did show up eventually. the lot got pretty full by the time i left three hours later.

i did run into one friendly face, who did chat for a bit. apparently he had heard i’d been in a bad accident, hit by a car or something. first i’d heard of it. wasn’t me, obviously, as i was there chatting with him, but fun story anyway. i was expecting to start hearing stuff, since i don’t go out much—family obligations get priority—can only juggle so much.

this was the last shot of the night. i’d done one more look around, and saw this one sitting in front of carl’s. i’d shot it from the other side, as there were a couple of guys sitting where i’d set my tripod on the other side, but then the owner, i presume, said he liked it better from the other side. i saw that it had the spare tire on it, so i agreed. told him there were dudes there and didn’t want to bother them, whereupon, he got them to move.

it turned out ok, in spite of people that did walk through my long exposures.

to the wordsmith that felt the need to send me the email “ur dumb” with the three word message: “this website sucks,”… i applaud your economy of words; precise and to the point, yet lacking in any real constructive criticism. be still my heart. what shall i do?

no one is keeping you here. perhaps you should stick to the instagram page—no reading necessary.

and then i got on with my life…