what's up?

out of touch

hello. just to be dull and repetitive, super busy at work, so nothing too much interesting to write about just now. back behind the orange curtain, leaves nothing but either souped-up hot rods or packards fixed up to showroom perfection. basically, i’m jonesing for the classics.

lots of changes at work, with people leaving, fewer joining. big workload. probably most people dos-si-do-ing to better employment options for a while. working half at the office and half at home sort of does suck, but better than all at the office.

yet, i still see no time to get to any shows for a few weeks. i’ve yet to set up my computer at home still, so there’s that problem. i think i’m just burned out from work, and just can’t.

flipping through some oldies, and found this shot from a show three years ago in montebello, which i missed today. mmm. master deluxes.

benefit show for the christian school, it usually fills the front and back parking lots.

i’d have gotten there when they are still setting up, and the sun barely rising. shoot the cars in the street, then inside the fence as it filled up. outta there by ten, when it would get too hot.

oh, and the pancakes…let’s just say, not my favorite, the one year i ate them.

i also popped or strained my leg at this show once too, so it kinda gives me the heebeejeebees if i think about it. made it hard to walk for a while. probably just pulling the camera bag into or out of my trunk did it. i dunno. the thing is kinda heavy when it’s loaded up.

hoping to get to a ruby’s show, or even the wednesday show in norwalk in the next couple of weeks. promised someone i’d shoot their car, but they didn’t show up last time i was there back in may.

i might have to do jury duty in santa ana, so i’d be halfway there already. i do not miss that afternoon drive…

when the lights go down in the city...

long exposures, streaky freaky lights. that’s what happens.

some you can fix, mostly, why bother. they are kinda cool sometimes.

down low, trying to hide the people or some other odd thing behind the car. it is what it is.

groundhog

days seem to go by quicker lately, different, but strangely the same. i need to break up the routine somehow. it’s killing me. i live out of a suitcase. see my better half two days a week, if i’m lucky, or determined.

i need a vacation. somewhere with trees and cold. have a trip coming up, not of my doing—my older bro’s planning, and devious way to get my mom to go somewhere, anywhere—and she would only agree to go, if i came along. so there’s that to look forward to, i guess. assuming it doesn’t get cancelled due to the nasty virus going around.

super busy at work, as always, but more stressed. there’s a new boss in town, and haven’t been able to tell yet whether they are a good one or not. already started off on the wrong foot, entirely not on purpose, and a simple misunderstanding, probably due to my social ineptness.

not going to dwell on that. things either will or won’t work out, and i’ll just carry on.

did get a lovely valentine’s gift—a new granddaughter—born on valentine’s day, and whose middle name was changed to valentina because of it. full head of dark hair, and blue blue eyes, just like her mom. tiny little thing. don’t remember my own being that small, but they were. captured her daddy’s heart from the moment she arrived.

i want to sleep, but i should answer an email first. someone likes my pictures and has questions. they took time out of their day to write a lengthy and nice email; i should take some time and respond in kind.

here’s one of the veterano’s cars, at their cruise night back in january. got there early, while the light was still warm enough, and the people were still few and far between enough. better half and i used to discuss which chevy we would prefer—the thirty-nine master deluxe or the forty-seven/forty-eight fleetline. i think we settled on one of each, as we really couldn’t decide. we can dream, right?

fish out of water

third day here in sin city. so out of my comfort zone. the filtration system in the hotel seems non-existent compared to other hotels here. my lungs are burning and seem to take an hour in my room before i feel they’ve de-smoked.

otherwise, it’s been an uneventful day for a change.

briefly thought about seeing one of the cirque de soliel shows, but decided to keep my money and sleep instead. two more days of meetings. only car shows i’ve seen listed are the pns cars like lambos and mazzeratis, and i don’t want to lose my parking space for them. might as well go to a showroom. not even going to the cars and coffee i usually catch on the way out of here. just want to go home.

went to another hotel for dinner. after eight p.m., and it’s still one-hundred and two degrees, cooling down to eighty in the middle of the night.

there’s a sad looking guy dressed in a tattered mickey mouse costumes on the sidewalk, i can’t imagine how he can stand it or what it must smell like in there.

there seems to also be several clusters of wanna be showgirls, half naked and befeathered out there too. some too fat, some too skinny to heve the requisite jugs; all look too harsh and tatted up to be real. just posers for pictures for cash. drunk guys will go for anything it seems.

haven’t been up and out late enough (or early enough) to see the drunk girls being led astray —

“…these pigs are ready”
- the sweetest thing

————

here’s an old buick i saw the one time i made it out to lincoln park for the blessing of the cars, several years ago. don’t see many like that out there.

front street, behind me

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.

on a cloudy day

hiding in the house today. except for the couple of hours i went to the mall to buy a few things that i’ve been talking about buying for months. i really hate shopping that much. and traffic near the mall…let’s just say some people don’t drive very well.

took a turn around the mall, might as well make use of the nice air conditioning to get some exercise. not to mention it smelled like the cinnabon in the middle of the place…no worries…i resisted. though i really wanted one.

got home and didn’t feel very good, so going to just sit here on my ass and play with my pictures for a bit.

i’ve seen this lincoln several times in the past, and just recently at mooneyes. maybe i’ll even post that one some time. but it really looks like the same shot some of the other photographers have posted, so it isn’t really that important to post it.

i am partial to a cloudy sky. reminds me of growing up back east, with a thunderstorm rolling in. this one was from the street coverage bbq in montebello park in 2018.

trickery

at my mom’s tonight. she accused me of playing a trick on her. said there were several phone calls today that she didn’t answer. she screens her calls…so many robocalls come in.

these calls popped up with my dad’s name. calling from the house phone. sort of creepy to say the least. told her it was probably a spoof call.

for chuckles, i had the phone call it back, which got the “number has been disconnected” message…a “dead” line. lol.

told her it was dad, just playing a joke on her. wouldn’t put it past him if there was a way to do it from whatever/wherever you go after this life. welcome to the twight zone. dun dun dun.

you always wish to hear their voice again…but what would you do if you really did? don’t answer the phone mom…

——-

one of the bomb club’s own, front and center, er, off center, on the grass. pretty blue thirty-nine.

so many spindly palm trees though; if you don’t shoot up from down low, you get a lot of pictures with what appear to be random-looking lines in the background.

spring has sprung, fall has fell...

…now it’s summer, it’s hotter than h-e-double toothpicks, as my better half would say.

where have my gloomy, cool days gone? just last week it was in the sixties and sprinkly. this week has legit hit the nineties. eff that. hate summer. i should just become a hermit, and stay in a darkened air-conditioned room until winter.

but then i’d miss all the car shows. so i will again have to play the game of rolling out of bed far too early to catch cars before the sun makes it unbearable, or evening shows, which late summer makes no difference.

doctor always says to lose weight. maybe if i drop some of this blubber, it wouldn’t be so bad. and if i drop the medicine that helps keep it right where it is. youth is wasted on the young, truly.

did not go anywhere this weekend. worked late friday, so had to stay down at my mom’s. she hates when i leave. got home late afternoon on saturday and made guacamole again.

currently waiting for a big pan of homemade lasagna to finish melting the cheese so i can satisfy this craving.

master deluxe i saw down in san diego, waiting to get in chicano park. had a little black mini car hanging off the back of it.

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.

tut tut

looks like rain.

two hour drive home and out for a quick dinner so my better half can go shopping.

bro flew home today. hope he made his connection. hope he can figure out uber since no one in his fam wants to drive to the airport at midnight. if i could, i would have gone with, just to be sure he’s ok.

kid called wanting to do dinner , i.e., have me buy, but not down there tonight, so she’ll hit up gramma.

snagged a bottle of vino someone brought back to work from a meeting. i don’t drink, but my daughter-in-law does. she said she’ll take it.

pretty paint combo on this thirty-nine out at pomona a couple of months ago. so late in the morning, and a relatively empty parking lot, still surprises me.