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souvenir

1938 chevrolet master deluxe

1938 chevrolet master deluxe

throwback to an uptown whittier car show. i missed the dia de los muertos show this past weekend for reasons, so found this one on standby.

old cars are so much more elegant than cars of today. love those curves and details. i like this one parked in front of the facade of the old whittier village movie theatre.

————-

here’s a game for you. i’ve started a list of possibilities. wanting something more interesting and bad ass than what actually happened.

  • became the fifth ninja turtle, and i gave shredder the first, and last, move

  • really like freddie kruger

  • embroidered the “L” from happy days in the wrong place, while looking in a mirror

  • trampled by over-zealous chicago marathon runners

  • went one round with mike tyson

  • took up hockey

  • getting ready for halloween

  • hit by a bus

  • played patty cake with the jolly green giant

  • took a meteor shower

  • wrong side of a curveball

  • amazon prime day

  • sleepwalk into a doorway

  • participated on one of those game shows with rotating obstacles

  • a cane corso thought i was dinner - i’m not ramsey bolton

  • opened up a can of whoop-ass accidently

  • turns out i’m not a gymnast

  • you should see the other guy

  • shuttlecock

  • here’s a piece of my mind

  • t-rex attacked

  • caught the tshirt at a baseball game

  • edward scissorhands is my friend

  • embraced by a facehugger

  • lobotomy

  • got in the way of a touchdown/excessive end zone celebration

  • enter the dragon - i didn’t win

  • tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch

  • started a buffalo stampede

  • took a long walk off a short pier

  • godzilla!

  • none of the above

graphic warning - avert your eyes if you’re squeamish.

ouch

nothing that exciting. get your coffee, if you have nothing better to do than read this account. snippets of memory.

tl;dr: i tripped and fell on a sidewalk

recently visited chicago with my better half. he wanted to take pictures of boats at sunset, playing with the lenses he brought with him. he wanted to see beautiful bokeh of twinkling lights.

we were staying in a hotel in the loop, near union station. the walk towards the riverwalk and navy pier was about a mile away, maybe a twenty minute walk.

i didn’t feel like shooting, so was tagging along. my back was tired from carrying a camera around the previous days, at the science and industry museum, architectural tour via boat, and earlier in the day, the field museum.

i’d wanted to get out earlier, and have dinner first, then thought better of it, that we might miss sunset, so were going to the river first and pick up dinner on the way back.

we hadn’t quite reached the iconic chicago theatre sign, it’s neon lights already on. chatting about nothing.

then, i felt my shoe catch, an uneven sidewalk crack, and in spite of another step to try and avoid a fall, it was inevitable. i don’t think i quite windmilled my arms. i just remember a steel grate coming towards my face.

yup, a header into a serated sidewalk grate over an air vent. better half describes it as an industrial-strength cheese grater.

better half says i passed out for a few seconds. he and the three people behind us on the street got me turned over and sat me up. says i was a blood fountain. when i came around, i remembered i had saved some extra napkins from breakfast, so was able to apply pressure to my head, while better half and the other people tried to think best what to do. i wanted to just walk back to hotel, but after he showed me a picture of my head, i knew i needed to see a doctor.

then the question was ambulance or uber. i’m still just sitting on the ground meantime. probably in shock. better half called for an uber to the nearest hospital. better half has used uber maybe once, long ago.

better half and the older guy in the group of three got me up off the ground. no way i was getting up otherwise. my knees are scraped…i can feel it…but don’t seem broken.

he spots the black suv uber xl across the one-way street. they gimp me over there, profusely thanking the people for helping and waiting with us.

the car gets rolling while we buckle up. off we go. better half is asking if the driver can hurry and get us to the hospital.

when i hear the driver ask if we’d changed the destination, followed by “is your name mike?,” i already knew he got us in the wrong car.

driver refused taking us to the hospital, that his customers were waiting and that he would be fired. we’d only gone a couple of blocks, so a couple of turns later, we were back where we started. our uber was waiting for us, since better half had called to explain.

that driver was good. skipped the high traffic route and opted for lower-level streets and tunnels to the other side of the river. made it to the emergency room door in under ten minutes.

let me take a breath, and sip this strawberry-banana smoothie my better half brought me…

where was i? we arrived about seven p.m. usual city hospital on a saturday evening—busy. triage. people with sneezes, broken bones that have been temporarily set, homeless people looking for something, random aches, and here’s me with a butchered head. temp and blood pressure taken, and sent to find a seat.

they called me back for a second triage session two hours later. also to determine if better half had something to do with the injuries. he had no scrapes or other “evidence” so took me at my word. sent back to waiting room.

had better half call my mother. said she cried. was my sister’s birthday, so he talked to her later. i let my kids know first via text. i didn’t feel like talking.

hour four, there was a fight outside the er door, all security guards outside to break it up.

they came for me at hour five, put me in a wheelchair, as my knees were really stiff by then, and put us in a room. it’s a hive of activity behind the scenes.

a nurse came by to take some notes. another nurse rolled me out for a ct scan, since i landed on my head. only minimal scrapes on one hand, so i stopped my fall mostly with my forehead. i got uncontrollable shivers…adrenaline coming down, i suppose.

an hour later, they came for xrays of my knees.

soon after, the doctor came by to shoot up the cuts so it could be cleaned out and to decide which way to repair it. no concussion or broken bones. could have been so much worse. i have thought of an assortment of different endings, but better half doesn’t want to flounder in those thoughts.

about that time, five gunshot victims were heading in, so they had to move me out to the hallway, my forehead numbed and ready. waiting. dude was rolled into my previous location. he’d been shot by the girlfriend. she rolled in down the hall, screaming. he’d shot her in the foot. he wanted his phone to call her. then to call his mom and dad. then his people. denied. denied. denied. both were ultimately “relaxed” so work could be done.

i could only see the girl’s room. her screaming lasted ten minutes before they put her out. didn’t sound like it felt good. better half said the guy had a quick chat with the cops before he started telling a nurse about flowers growing out of his hand and quieting down.

nurse came by after a couple of hours and most of the craziness had died down. gave me some jello to eat. i got a tetanus shot in the hallway. i had to have more lidocaine shots in my head as too much time had passed. got the cuts cleaned of dirt and hair and dried blood.

two doctors consulted and decided crazy glue for skin would be best in this case. going to have a lovely scar.

finally released at sixish in the morning. over eleven hours. no dinner. still dark.

better half called an uber. security had blocked the driveway to the door, so we limped down to the sidewalk. watched the map say he was nine minutes away. then twelve. then nine. then eight. then three. and wouldn’t you know it, he pulled up to the opposite side of the driveway. gimped over there.

remember i mentioned the chicago marathon? yup, every which way this guy tried to go was blocked. after ten minutes of u-turns, we ended the ride, opting to walk.

had to climb up some stairs to street level. we were close to navy pier, and got our bearings. surrounded by people heading towrds the starting line, coming back in search of coffee or friends. and there we were, me stiff-zombie walking, a big bandage covering my forehead and dried blood in my hair, and my big, long haired better half…my hero.

i pointed out, that here we are crossing a bridge over the river, at sunrise. look at the lights on the boats. the twinkling in the water. the warming light. there. there was the shot he was looking for yesterday, i giggled. he still had the cameras with him. there was an empty viewing space in front of us.

he didn’t take the shot. he was tired and stressed, and wasn’t interested anymore. just wanted to get me back safely. it would have been perfect. oh well.

took about an hour to get to the hotel. i can’t remember if we got lunch before or after we crashed in bed for several hours of sleep.

the past couple of days, the swelling has moved south, giving me black eyes. when we’ve finally headed out for meals, better half has been getting big stink-eye from people. they only half believe the story, and i am not being beaten.

we ultimately decided to continue with our planned and paid for return home on the train. i wouldn’t have been able to stand bending my knees for that long on a plane, and better half can’t fit a plane seat, being so tall. thought about driving, and stopping as needed, sleeping in real beds each night. he thought there were too many stretches of nothing, had there been an emergency.

figured we could get off a train at a major stop for help or to get to an airport if needed.

i have to work monday, and my eyes are already opening up again, so i guess i will work, back into the frying pan…

so i have a permanent souvenir of our short-lived vacation.

in the kitchen with dyna

another from the bomb club show. the owner told us he’d won a prize. said it was mostly original, except for the record player he’d installed, though he said it was of the same period, and played forty-fives.

he popped the hood to show my better half the engine. i don’t usually bother shooting under the hood, but it was pretty clean, and he was taking to time to chat, so why not?

he was very proud of the car. congrats to you.


on the home front, still no car for me. sort of a stalemate until it passes smog and light tests. pretty sure it has a bad bulb or socket. the shop has found a couple of things so far. hoping there is nothing further to at least get it back on the road. i know there are a few other issues to deal with, expected with an older car.

been borrowing mom’s van or my better half has been driving me to lunch and/or getting me to and from my mom’s if she isn’t doing the same.

took the opportunity to donate a couple of van loads full of junk from storage, and rearrange things, to get rid of one of my storage units. yay. one less thing to pay for.

new beginning

1938 buick

1938 buick

i’m in a mood. things on my mind. gloomy outside. change is in the air.

starting with a new camera and lens. the brownie points program at work has informed us that we were going to have to use it or lose it, as it’s being revamped. they use this instead of just handing out cash when you get commended for working hard.

well, i’d saved up quite a large number of points, and wasn’t about to get screwed over that way, so finally was forced to get something. most of the stuff up for offer is crap, but they do have some slightly out of date camera gear. so i picked up a sony a7r iii body. really not my fave, but sony seems to be moving to this smaller size thing.

then, my birthday was a week ago, so my better half got me a new wide angle lens.

took this set up out for a test drive this past friday, out to ruby’s, since the season has started.

the main feature i hate is the screen doesn’t flip and twist like my old cameras. so when i set it up high on my tripod, i really need to stand on tip toes or a curb to see the screen somewhat. or just shoot blind.

still not too sure about the lens. going to have to shoot some more, and get a bit more pissed at it. at least, my better half says that’s what happens every time i get new equipment.

i think i need to tweak the settings as well. some images came out fairly in focus, and others just missed it. makes me want to bust out the other camera i have in the bag, but i need to break this thing in, while i can still return it.

and the files are so big, i’m going to need a bigger boat, err, hard drive/more back up drives.

i dunno. it didn’t seem to like being pointed into the sunset, as you can see. the lens distorts a bit, so will have to go find a lens profile for it.

next up, in the summer of fun, will be finishing packing, and moving soon. not too far.

one thing at a time. one thing at a time.

half gone

1938 chevy master deluxe

1938 chevy master deluxe

my company office was closed for the week. so, half-way through a pseudo vacation.

had to take better half’s car back to the repair shop. after everything they did to the car on monday, some type of liquid puddled out from under the car yesterday. and now it’s stuck there until friday, while they wait for the right parts.

hoping to see my grandkid tomorrow, supposedly stopping by my mom’s house. who knows where i’ll end up tomorrow for dinner, not that it’s any big deal. i doubt better half will go to my mom’s with me, as my daughter’s doberman doesn’t seem to like him. at least last time, the first time they met, the dog wanted to make a meal out of his crotch.

anyway, happy early thanksgiving, in case i’m away from my puter tomorrow.


saw this car on the outskirts of the toy drive. i want to say it said tovars on it somewhere, but probably from the back, and i didn’t shoot that.

plenty of scratches on that paint; i wonder what story it would tell.

rumble on

1938 chevy coupe

1938 chevy coupe

quick post, as my eyes are burning from staring at computer screens and staying awake too long today.

thought i’d have lots of time to work on pictures, being stuck here at my mom’s house. but nooooo. if i’m not putting in eight hours or more of actual paid work, i’m walking a dog, digging up weeds, sifting through dad’s stuff, thinking about listing said stuff online, laundry, shopping, etc. then after all that, my kid always wants someone to watch netflix with her. right now, she wants me to watch community, which i managed to miss when it was originally on. turns out it was quite funny. each episode seems to be prefaced by, “this is my favorite…”

told her no tonight, wanted to play with my pictures. she was fine with that, as she does her own art, but she has the luxury of no set schedule, no job, and stays up all night, sleeps half the day. especially today. she celebrated four-twenty a bit too happily, and at least she’s been in a good mood all day.

aside from that, being back full-time in a house i’d lived in since we moved here in the seventies is both comforting and weird. it makes strange noises. not just a settling creaking. the front rooms rumble intermittently throughout the day. sometimes the living room, but lately, mostly the garage.

i have to go out to the garage to get dog food, some random thing from a shelf or the fridge. rumble rumble. i joke that godzilla is in the attic, but manage not to be curious enough to climb the stairs out there. at the very least there are spiders up there. maybe it’s shelob, and i have no sword to face it, unless the mini sting letter opener counts.

what creeps me out, is going out there late in the evening. as you approach the door, you hear the crickets creak creaking happily. once you step foot out, and turn on the light they momentarily stop, but then get going chirping again. but often, they stop again, completely. total silence. the way animals go silent in the forest in movies, when something bad is about to happen to the hapless human among them. my mind goes to the alien queen is about to drop from the eaves in the ceiling, or the dilophosorus that bursts from my mom’s vehicle and spits slime into my eyes, blinding me and chomping on my guts whilst that dog beasts sits down the hall because he wasn’t an idiot, and stayed inside. so mad dash to get back inside the house and lock the door. lol.

seriously, though, something is rumbling the house. ex says hot water heater, which is old. but that damn thing shouldn’t rumble the whole house like that. he doesn’t seem worried enough to come check it out, and i haven’t been able to record it, as it happens on no particular schedule.

i’d like to know if the house is about to blow, since my mom’s room is the closest to the garage. maybe we’re on an unknown fault line.

the furnace is inside the house, so doubt it’s that. hopefully, we’re all still alive when this pandemic is over and rodan hatches and bursts through the roof.


here’s another car pulled from the past. 2012, original mike’s in santa ana. back when i’d be crazy enough to hit up two or three smaller shows in one day.

turns out to be a bridgetown oldie, a bit far from home, if you ask me.

lil josh fundraiser

1938 buick eight

1938 buick eight

got my taxes done saturday morning. always gets my stomach up in knots prepping for the yearly appointment. no reason. always have everything ready sorted, the important papers in a large envelope, relatively painless. write the check, carry on.

i haven’t been out to a show since early january, and even then, not that often recently. mostly have sat in the house on weekends, bingeing the sopranos, and wondering when the xmas tree would be coming down. sort of don’t care, since i’m hardly ever at home. just a lot of stuff going on on the homefront and at work, i’m just kind of numb by the time i get to a weekend.

got a granddaughter coming this week for sure, so there’s a bright light for this week. a happier reason for a hospital visit than the last couple of months.

timing of this year’s tax appointment coincided with the start time for a fundraiser for a kid i’d never met. originally planned months ago as a fundraiser to help the boy in his fight against cancer, it became a memorial fundraiser instead.

roll-in wasn’t until well after sunrise, so i didn’t bother to get up early, only to have to leave when cars would show up. so, got up, ate breakfast and headed off to my thing. was not feeling well on the way there, and made a pit stop on the way back.

thought i’d drive by the show, see how i felt, and decide then whether to stay or go. it was pretty busy, and i lucked out and got a parking spot quickly. so i went through the motions, and got my bag out of the trunk, and headed over. paid my donation at the front table.

figured i’d stay until my stomach started to bother me, since it was close enough to home.

the show had a good turn-out, even though it was already several hours into it.

owner of this car said i’d shot his car previously, and was hoping i’d shoot this one that he’d bought for his wife. said he’d found it online, from the state of rhode island, i think it was. most everything was still original to the car, and in excellent condition. someone must have hidden it away in a garage. lucky find.

had several people come over and say hi, whom i hadn’t seen for a while. it is nice that people still remember conversations they’d had with my better half years before, come up and send him greetings. that is why he is my better half, he is memorable and diplomatic and a social butterfly. it comes easy to him, and people like him.

i do miss him going to shows with me, but he has other responsibilities right now. he gets to see all the pictures you never see, so he gets a virtual car show when i do go out.

nice to know there are those of you who keep an eye out for me when i’m out there by myself. thank you. you know who you are.

the air was cool, though i felt warm, and i managed to shoot most of the cars i wanted before i really started to feel faint. there were a few i missed, but i was there long enough to hear most of speech the boy’s parents gave, thanking everyone and recalling stories of their son.

i seem to do some calculated gambling on how far my car is from where i am and how long i can keep shooting and still get back to the car. somehow, if i can make it to the car, i can get myself home and be ok. probably the main reason i don’t go out much. also, what fun is it to have all these pictures and not have them with me to fiddle with at my mom’s house. wouldn’t be able to do much anyway with the big dog there wanting attention all evening.

i’m just feeling in a morbid mood this evening. i think i’ll stop here for now.

front street, behind me

front st 1-610And9morehdr.jpg

woke up reluctantly and headed out to front street. when i had been to this show previously, it was in the parking lot of norwalk records. something about not getting the permits pulled in time as it turns out.

this time, it was properly on front street, the full length of it.

so, after several power outtages today, i’m finally able to post a picture. unless it goes out now. only got around to this one. i was asked to shoot it, as these cars are all “deluxe,” as is the building.

it was nicely overcast for a couple of hours, allowing me to get from one end of front street to the other. admittedly, i spent too much time shooting some cars, that the sun had begun coming out before i was totally done. it also allowed time for more hoods to go up. there was one i especially had wanted to shoot after i saw it drive thru. alas, the hood was up, and it was crammed in between other cars too closely. and i didn’t like the color so much after the sun hit it; it was somehow less appealing then.

not today

1938 buick

1938 buick

imperials show was today. intended to go. better half says when i wake up arguing with myself about going to a show, he already knows i’m not going, and goes back to sleep, no need to walk me out to the car. so, ya, one of those days.

stayed in town. went back to sleep after breakfast, instead of driving away. decided to go for a walk when i woke up. unfortunately, it would have been an ideal day at the show, as it stayed overcast until about one p.m., at least in whittier. walking uptown, i noticed some sort of thing going on a block up philadelphia, tents and vendors selling stuff. took a detour from my walk to check it out. whatever it was, they’re terrible at advertising it.

1956 chevrolet bel air

1956 chevrolet bel air

going with casita del pueblo running it, as it was all latin culture sort of stuff for sale, t-shirts with skulls and aztec symbols, paper mache art, jewelry and food trucks.

at least, i wasn’t the only one who missed the imperials’ show – lo and behold, the “mayor” was there, with his fifty-six.

he said he was invited, but was unable to go. i guess i just wasn’t up to hoping they’d let me in early.


pretty buick from the other day in cypress. nevada plates, but a boyle heights flag or whatever you call those metal things. so confused.

hay chihuahua

1938 lincoln continental

1938 lincoln continental

sometimes i think my better half’s height is a detriment. his eyeballs looking out from six and a half feet from the ground, often give him huge blind spots of things i can see, but he can’t. something gets in the way, and he can’t see it without bending over.

i imagine it as sort of like sitting up in the mezzanine at the play “wicked,” able to see the decorative mechanical dragon set motif above the stage, but unable to see the backdrops and other action going on too far in on the stage. can hear the dialogue and songs, but just don’t see what’s going on in front of you.

he used to wonder how i would get pictures of things when we used to go out shooting together, that he never saw. i’d always say, “didn’t you see it?” oh, he can say the same for me, from his lofty height.

then again, i can be so focused on getting a shot, that i will literally not see the people walking around it. not being rude; just have them tuned out on my radar. i am a weird creature.

be very, very quiet…i’m hunting wabbit. ha ha ha ha ha.

— elmer fudd

today, the blind spot was at the back of a refrigerator shelf. he’d chopped up some fresh green onions to add to his mom’s meal, and what i later used for guacamole.

he hadn’t noticed the two containers of previously chopped green or yellow onions, from last week. pretty sure onions don’t grow hair that pretty normally, fine as silk, and growing from several dark spots, nor is it useful as penicillin.

whatever it was, didn’t want to let go of the container even after i dumped the food out. had to soak it with some lysol, followed up with antibacterial soap. i won in the end.


this lincoln looked familiar as it drove into the small lot at the fairgrounds. looking back through my posted images, at the show i thought i’d seen it at so long ago, i instead found another one, same year, but not a convertible, and green not black.

well, otherwise, i’m not finding it in this year’s photos.

i had gotten one clear shot, with no one in it. for this one, i’d changed the height of my tripod and framed it up, when the owner and his friends came back from whichever vendor they’d gotten drinks from, and proceeded to clink glasses, in a cheers maneuver, behind it. oh well. you can see them just above the car’s front window, if you look closely. it’s their car, so i’m not going to make a big deal about it. i had other places to be, so didn’t have time to wait them out.

i liked the big inflatable dog in the background. wished they had set out some brown and black bean bags near it, and then all i’d have seen would be a much relieved pup, had that been the case. people could have “shat” down on the soft lumps with their drinks. lol.

driving without cameras

1938 chevy master deluxe

1938 chevy master deluxe

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.