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baby, it's cold outside

twenty-sixth of may, cold, rainy, gray. i love it. memorial day weekend, and haven’t really ventured very far from the house, except for my search for avocados yesterday.

i don’t want to deal with holiday traffic, so typically don’t travel to anywhere. better half can’t hardly get out to the supermarket while tending to his mom, so i feel guilty when i just take off to do whatever.

my kid seems to hit up solvang for an overnight every memorial day. something about picnics at vineyards. not sure if he went this year or not, since it was supposed to rain. i only know that he didn’t ask me to watch his dog, and if they did go, it was going with them.

other kid supposed to hang out with my mom for a few hours, so i don’t feel under pressure to not leave her alone for all three days this weekend.

trying to talk her into going to vegas later this summer, but really she’d be on her own there for several hours a day, while i attend some classes.

i want to take a vacation, but don’t want to go alone. i mean it’s great to go off on your own, and sleep in or do whatever without taking into consideration of another person. but there’s that desire to share the experience with someone else, and pictures don’t do whatever justice when you get back.

i’m feeling the itch to go back to canada, climb the mountains, sit in the meadow and look down over one of the many turquoise blue lakes. wondering how many more trips i have in me.

corvette hood from last year’s old memories pancake breakfast in montebello. used to be one of my favorite kind of cars as a kid, nothing unique.

was an overcast day there as well, but the clouds had a little more definition than today.

pretty sure i was attracted by the reflection for this shot at the time.

driving without cameras

was out driving around earlier. got lunch, went in search of ripe avocados. had a craving for guacamole. didn’t make it to a car show, but a few came to me, as in i saw them as i drove around.

passed an old veteran (was wearing one of those black and gold hats…you know the kind) on painter and whittier…his old buick or some such seemed to have stopped running at the light. hadn’t put on the emergency lights yet.

saw a chopped rag top merc cruising through la habra. did see an old chevy deluxe in the parking lot in la habra, and turned around and stopped for a picture with my phone camera.

had lunch at in-n-out, and just outside the door, sat a veteranos club car. was he with the wedding party inside?

saw the back end of thirty-four driving through uptown, but he got away. and an impala heading up hadley…

busy day for not hitting up a car show.

i did find my avocados, and am in possession of a fresh batch of guac.

saw this master deluxe last year at manny’s el loco. for all i know, it was there today at a vendor fest. seems to be shows there every weekend. just didn’t make it out today. didn’t have my cameras with me, when i had the chance.

hump day

i’ve worked three twelve-hour days so far this week. sometimes being salaried is a bitch. not gonna lie, i’m a tired mother—

strange and interesting things going on around me; stars must be aligning. awesome cold rainy weather for late may…even snow on the mountains.

and game of thrones…my watch has ended. man did they rush most of the loose ends. spent all the budget on the visuals, and they were pretty cool.

———-

meanwhile, here’s a car in the right place at the right time, in front of my lens, in front of one of the many murals at chicano park.

light sprinkles

not my usual shot my better half said. not a car i typically bother with is what he meant.

it caught my eye at the time, and i still like the picture months later, so whatever. probably was the pinstriping on the hood that got me.

———-

rained last night. still sprinkly and drab out—love this weather. hate summer heat.

feeling out of sorts lately and suddenly very busy at work. my younger brother has been in town visiting mom, so i’ve been trying to juggle my time to spend some with him before he leaves on tuesday.

i’ve missed a lot of car shows i’d normally be all over, but it’s beyond my control…

stood up

instead of going to dino’s cinco de mayo show at lincoln park, i ended up out in long beach, at a little car show in a church parking lot. no idea what types of cars would show up. my reason for going there is that my daughter is living out there somewhere with her boyfriend and her dog. in a room at his grandmother’s house. her stuff lives in my condo, which at this point is just an expensive storage unit that smells of stale dog piss. but that’s another rant for another day.

i figured since i was over there, we could do lunch. talked to her the day before and she said she’d “be down for that.”

got a text message that morning saying they’d been up late, she couldn’t sleep and was too tired to come over. sort of typical.

made the best of the situation. not knowing what to expect, and show hours said starting at nine a.m., i was there about an hour or so early, so i could get parking. thought cars would already be arriving for roll-in, as you do. nope. bunch of vendors setting up, but no old cars.

and did i mention it was a sunday? church was holding mass. nah, didn’t go in, but did splash some holy water on my forehead. very least religion i can do.

i wandered around until i found a bathroom. walked through the little garden area and looked at the various altars and statues. went back to my car and listened to music.

about the time i said i’d give it five more minutes, an old chevy truck showed up. told myself i’d at least get a picture of that one. by the time i found him parked he’d already popped the hood. shit.

then an old ford galaxie pulled up, so i settled for that. by the time i was down with that one, i noticed the owner of the truck and his daughter were going to walk away, and they closed the hood. got that one too.

closer to ten cars finally started showing up. but there was only a small area coned off for them. who plans a car show at a church on a sunday? so as mass ended, they started shufling cars and casually pushing cones further out.

sun was already high, and i figured i’d never find parking at lincoln park, so i stayed for a couple of hours and shot all the cars i liked.

seen this cadillac before, at an xmas toy drive late one evening in december. it was dark, and it wasn’t the best location. here it is again, in a circle, center of attention. interesting use of pinstriping and painted on “cadillac,” as well as metal flake paint. liked it well enough.

did i also mention there was a stage? when the live “band” (i only remember seeing a singer and a guitarist) started screeching out some zz top lyrics, i totally laughed at the dichotomy of the harpy belting out rock tunes and knowing the mass was going, with the side door open. no way the priest and parishoners couldn’t hear the profanity as they got their dose of gospel.

i couldn’t take the singer’s voice any longer, and just had to leave. headed over to the together car club picnic, since it was close to home.

magnet

was slowly easing my way around cars at the front sight show a few weeks ago. run into tudy, who asks if i’d shot his friend’s zephyr yet, as they are about to head out to another show.

nope, i was starting at the back of the show and working to the front, which happens to be where that car is parked. so i finished the car i was focused on and headed on over.

sure it is a beautiful car. beautiful cars attract people, which were surrounding it like metal to a magnet. i guess it could be a chick magnet, but i’ll just be crude and also call it a dick magnet, there were so many guys admiring it.

the owner was following behind me slowly, so i set up to shoot a few of whatever i could get before he got there to drive away.

the other shots are ok, cliche even. i sort of just like the front here for now. that’s the owner, there, just about ready to get in and disappear.

busy busy

been out shooting pics the last couple of weekends, but away from my computer more often than not. maybe i should move it to my mom’s house. hoping to get a few more posted up the next couple of days from recent shows.

maybe i should just throw up some pics straight from the camera and call it a day?

—————

here’s an impala from a latin gents show last year…i’m so far behind… i wonder how ernie’s doing?

should i just upload all seventy+ pics sitting in draft, waiting for me to have something to say?

gotta get to bed. weird schedule the next couple of days, but will be home in whittier, watching for old cars driving by…

my shady side

i’ve shot this car before. it’s really a beautiful car. owner has a long story about the paint color if you ask, but it ends up being some year of honda and some year of nissan greens, with a bit of pearlescent thrown in. really catches the light.

as i listened to him telling the tale of the paint to another random photographer/spectator and myself, the sun hit it just so, and it really was glowing.

unfortunately, i was busy listening, and not set up to take a shot then.

i’d already been by and found it earlier (above), and it just isn’t doing it justice. i mean i like the angle, the sky, the everything…it just isn’t catching the color. maybe the yellow car next to it is reflecting too much, and i’m on the shady side, (he was parked under the overpass but you can’t tell from this angle) but it just isn’t there.

oh well. posting this, and hoping maybe i’ll see it again sometime this summer. there’s always next year at chicano park…

hammered

sorry i’ve been away from home for a while, and away from my computer. finally had a chance to go home for a night on wednesday. got dishes washed (better half has been sick and some had piled up), and had my dinner. packed my bag for the next day or two away.

finally, i was able to get to my computer. the power button is failing, but it started. had to do some tweaks to some artwork for my boy, who has quit his job and has decided to partner up with a fellow grad to start their own law firm. lemme know if you need an attorney or two—they specialize in personal injury and taxes, but can also do the usual contracts, wills, etc. that need legal attention.

that took some time out of the evening, but finally i could get back to my pictures.

i’d been to chicano park a couple of weeks ago, and took a couple thousand pics in the five hours that i was there. still sifting through those, and have only posted a couple.

last weekend, while most people were at the la puente kiwanis show, i was out at the front sight car show in diamond bar. apart from enjoying smaller shows because they aren’t as crowded, i was mostly there because the owner of this here car asked me to stop by. it was for a good cause…in honor of a veteran who had committed suicide, and to offer help to other veterans to prevent more joining him in the afterlife.

actually, most of the people i did talk to said they were there because tudy had asked them, or otherwise twisted their arms to be there. he’s a good guy, they were happy to stop by, but generally all were on their way to other shows shortly thereafter—la puente or one of several high school fundraisers.

back to the picture…let me explain. i’d spent almost a couple of hours fiddling with this car, getting the color as i liked it, spit shining the chrome, and adding my copyright to it. i saved the file, and had started an export so i could post it…

we live in an older place in whittier. his mother gets cold, so there’s a space heater near her bed. then the tvs are on in her room and the front room. i’m working at my computer with a fan running next to me, cuz i just overheat all the time. better half probably had his computer on, even though i think he had been napping.

his mom gave up coffee, and is now a big tea drinker. she sips at the same cup of tea for several hours, requiring multiple reheats through the day. not my cup of tea but whatever.

in the back of my mind i register the buttons on the microwave beeping as he punches in the time. he hits start and wanders off into the laundry room. thought nothing of it, as i’m overheating as usual. did not realize his mom had gotten chilled again, and had cranked up the heater.

yet again, the perfect storm of me saving out a picture and him overloading the circuits, and boom blows a fuse, and the lights go out.

he ain’t no dummy, that man o’mine. my computer has a battery backup. but either i’ve got the plugs on the wrong sockets, or it isn’t working, and my computer crashes. it used to happen so often, and the profuse profanity that would come out of me at high volume would make any sailor proud. now i just shrug, wait for him to reset the breaker, and turn the thing back on.

yup the file wasn’t done exporting, and both the export and the file i’d just spent precious time polishing were corrupted. the export wouldn’t open at all, and my source file was now flattened and only three-fourths there. just black at the bottom. so here it is, with a little embellishment, of what would have been a lovely picture of tudy’s chevy. not sure if i’ll rework it from scratch. i have so many other cars to look forward to sharing. oh well.

gotta kick that battery backup this weekend. one good thing i noticed though, was that the power switch seemed to be working properly again. maybe it got hammered the last time the system crashed, and this one cleared the problem up.

dammit anyway.

xman

made it to san diego on my own. took a train. it’s really difficult dragging two bags up and down the stairs on a moving train. my weak ass arms did ok on the way there, and getting them into the overhead bin.

today coming back, after yesterday’s carrying a tripod and camera for five hours, i just couldn’t do it. the conductor helped me get my bags on-board. i sat on the lower level, reserved for disabled peeps. figured i’d move if they made me. they left me alone, and no one sat next to me either.

arrived on friday afternoon, rode the little red city train to my hotel, and got settled. got an upgrade to a better room, but being on my own, i didn’t get the bigger room i had last year. was so missing the big bath tub, but then, i worried that i would have had a hard time getting out of it.

the sun was still up after i had some dinner, so i took the red train down to barrio logan, to see if anything was going on. pretty much the last few years, nothing happens, as the cops are there making sure nothing happens. as it was, there was only one old chevy truck there, and only because there was a family having a picnic.

i wandered around the park, took a few shots of the murals, and headed back to the train. usually, i’d get some carnitas over at the northgate market, but i’d already eaten, so oh well.

i got up before the sun on saturday. typically, i’d be at the park before the sun, but this year i was a little unsure. i don’t know why. last year i took the train. had to switch to another train to the park. lots of homeless people on whatever poison of their choice mill about that early. better half insisted i take an uber this time. so i waited until just after sunrise this year.

cars were already rolling in by the time i turned the corner to the park. early this year. overall, it was organized a little different than past years as far as roll-in. so many beautiful cars.

i decided to start up on the far street, by the majestics club house. found this car up there. the owner chatted a bit. he’d hung a banner advertising his podcast on the club fence, but wondered if it would be better on another bit of fence. he asked my opinion. i thought the club might not want it on their fence. he thought maybe it would be in more pictures on the other bit. i took my couple of shots of his car, and saw he was already chatting up the owner of the car now in front of his banner.

no idea if his podcast is any good, but since he took the time to chat, shout out to him and go check out xmanradio.com.