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1948 chevy fleetline

i liked this car. i think i entered this picture in the fair last year, but they didn’t select it for judging. maybe they’ve had enough of my pics, and let someone else use the wall space.

it rained off and on that day, only it was chilly. had to cover the cameras once in a while.

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i find myself sitting here in chicago, at o’hare airport. weather outside is sunny and about eighty. in here, it’s very cold, and i like it.

i have three hours to kill, until i board to my next destination. the city is so close, yet just far enough there is no point in leaving the airport.

would love to get a pizza at lou manalti’s or any number of smaller, out of the way pizza slinger shops.

wouldn’t mind visiting a certain piece of sidewalk on dearborn street, and spitting on it. didn’t bring my camera, so i wouldn’t be able to take the sunset picture by the river better half had been looking for.

didn’t have a chance when we were here in may. i think my better half would rather not revisit it anyway.

now i’m here on my own, which isn’t as much fun as when he’s with me. better half doesn’t fit in airplane seats; the rows are too tight for his long legs, and he refuses to fold into a birthing position.

watched a quiet place 2 on the plane. interesting. room to continue in another movie, if they choose to do it. at least the little kid nearby was busy watching cartoons, and laughing as only kids can. the monsters would have scared him.

better half would have watched a pixar movie.

i guess i’ll take a walk for a bit, before i sit some more, and sit some more.

where i’m headed will be a hot, humid place, and the rain that is expected will make it even more yuck. is that better than a hot and dry yuck at home?

i like air conditioning. it’s my favorite.

domino

here’s an old one from the vaults. back in 2017 at the bob’s big boy on firestone in downey. a fundraiser for oscar.

people blurred through my exposures, back when i’d find a car show or two every single day. really put that camera and tripod through a workout.

shiny forty-eight buick supra. i wonder if it’s still around.

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raining today. pomona swap meet is tomorrow. probably won’t go, though the overcast would be a perfect lightbox.

been busy at work. working a lot from my mom’s house.

(tl;dr - mom fell on her ass, and got a ride to the hospital)

my daughter was in town last month, with her dogs. she had gone off to visit a friend before a lunch date with her dad. i was out to lunch myself, about twenty minutes left, when i get a panicked call from my mom saying the big doberman had managed to escape from the backyard, via a side door.

she had been expecting my younger brother to be dropped off for a visit from san diego—he can’t drive anymore—long story for another day. she was in the garage with the door open, hanging out by her car. the side door hadn’t been pushed completely shut, and out the dog went, down the street.

dog doesn’t listen, and she’s almost ninety, so no way is going to catch it.

fortunately, i wasn’t far away, and vaguely knew where that doggo was most likely to go, to the nearby park. still, i drove along another street, that i used to walk him on before going there.

i found him harassing a man and two little yappy dogs, out for a walk, near the street. i pulled up alongside, and called him (the dog, not the man) an asshole, get in the car. he wasn’t doing anything more than sniffing the ankle biters, but i’m sure the guy was afraid for his dogs.

lucky for me, dog ran around my car, and back around to the driver’s side and hopped in. unlucky for me, i didn’t have any covers on my seats, so now i have some random scratches in the finish.

he didn’t have any collar on, and i really expected to have to chase him around the park, so i was very happy he got right in. adrenaline was really going, and now was in my veins, making me shaky.

got him home, my mom, brother, and his caretaker in the driveway, having just got there. asked mom to bring me a leash, and managed to get him back in the backyard with the other beast. was only a little bit late getting back to work, and only spouted off a few expletives as i passed by the other two.

out the front window, i saw the caretaker leave. then i saw a gray truck pull up to the curb and park. didn’t think anything of it. logged into my work computer.

a minute later i hear my ex husband’s voice down the hall, calling from the laundry room door to the garage. it sounded squeaky. just called my name. weird. then again, adding, “your mom fell down!”

ran out there. brother trying to stand up, mom is on the driveway, flat on her back. told my ex, who had come to pick up our daughter, who isn’t back yet, to hold my mom’s head, don’t let her move her neck or try to get up. my brother is getting upset.

fuck, left my phone in the house.

she has one of those systems for if she falls and no one is around, so went inside and slapped the big red button on the main box. they took a minute to finally get on the intercom. explained the situation, and please send an ambulance. they still took another few minutes and called me back on my cell phone to let me know help was coming. i guess they also sent out calls to my sister and other brother.

i think it would have been faster to just call 9-1-1. but it worked.

back out on the driveway, mom is crying and understandably scared, but also more worried that the neighbors were going to see her in such a state. strangely, no one on the street seems to be home, not that it mattered. she didn’t want the attention, didn’t want all the fuss. she seemed to be ok, but at her age, falling on cement, we’re getting her checked over.

ambulance and big fire trucks arrive and fill the street in front of the house.

i guess the story was that my brother had gone to the refrigerator for a bottle of snapple or can of coke, and had tripped over a bag of dog food that i’d placed at the front of the garage, to go back home with my daughter and her beasts.

as my brother tripped, and realized he was falling toward the car, and my mom, he screamed, as he knocked my mom down, like a domino. he landed on top of her, and she on her back, feet in the garage, head down the incline of the driveway.

he’s upset, thinking he’s killed her. she somehow, has only whacked her head, and is only bleeding from a cut on the back. she’s crying and upset.

daughter shows up, with a wtf happened on her face.

mom got a ride to the hospital, with all the hot emergency guys. (i got a pain in my chesh too…) we all got left behind to organize next steps. i am to gather her info, and it was going to take half an hour before i needed to be there.

i call my sister, who is a quarter of the way down ortega highway toward elsinore, she’s turning around. called my better half, then the caretaker, and texted my sister-in-law to quickly tell them what happened. better half was going to head to the hospital, but i told him they wouldn’t let him in, so maybe pick up some food for my brother and daughter.

caretaker hadn’t gotten very far away and came back quickly, in case my brother needed to go back home.

daughter didn’t get her lunch date. her dad left, after being the hero. couldn’t deal with what happened. i guess he’d dealt with similar issues with his parents, and it was too much. doesn’t like the sight of blood.

i sent the caretaker off to her weekend. put daughter in charge of my brother, to distract him with tv shows.

i tried calling one coworker, then another, to tell them i had to go to the hospital, etc.

i gathered mom’s purse and other info doctors would need, and drove over to the hospital.

after all that hullaballoo on the driveway, turns out she had one of the emergency buttons in her pocket the whole time. i guess not the type that feels a fall and sends help, but one you would have to push. would have saved a minute of me running back in the house, but oh well.

fortunately, my sister arrived about half an hour later, since she deals with more of the medical appointments, and could better answer questions regarding meds.

overall, she got x-rays and a ct scan. she was super lucky, as she had no broken bones, maybe a slight concussion, and a cut on the back of her head. they used her hair and glue to close it. i mean, they braided hair from either side of the cut to hold it closed, and put glue over the cut and the hair, which should dissolve in a couple of weeks. her neck is sore, and has other random aches, but that’s to be expected.

i got a text from my better half that he’d rang the bell at the house and knocked, and no answer, so had left the food on the porch and gone back home. called my daughter to let her know…the tv was set to my mom’s preferred level of volume—100%, and they hadn’t heard the door. the dogs were still outside, barking crazily, but she thought nothing of it.

about five hours later, i had to go back to get my mom’s car, which would be easier for her to get in. thanked my kid for watching my brother. they’d been watching some reptile documentaries or something. she packed up her stuff and dogs and left, while i took my brother back to the hospital to pick up mom.

sister got back in her car, and headed back to ortega highway and her weekend.

my brother has only complained about his knees and back, but otherwise seems to gotten back to normal. he had an interesting first night, walking in his sleep, but with his eyes open. mom found him getting dressed about midnight, and was afraid he would walk out the door to who knows where and get lost.

her voice woke me up, and finding the situation, i told him to go back to sleep, and he actually did.

i ended up being at mom’s all weekend, and have been over there more frequently since. she’s going to be all right, will be happier when the glue falls out and she can do her hair again.

my brother notes that we have each fallen this past year, and now we are the three wobbly musketeers. how did we get so old, so fast?

so tempted to ask the neighbor across the street if his security cameras picked up everything, just to see what happened, and how they fell, what hit first, etc., but too shy to actually knock on the door. have yet to catch them outside to ask.

i think that’s enough story time for tonight.

hot in the city

here’s a more recent car, from chicano park day. i know of a similar one, but it is a convertible, (not quite twins, basil. twins). this one is very clean. almost like it just rolled off the lot.

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today has been a repeat of the last few days: up early, hoof it a mile to the meeting rooms, same bfast everyday (scrambled eggs, some variation of potato cubes, and some fruit). again passed on the unappetizing vat of oatmeal, sausages or pale patties of mystery meat, and the starbucks coffee.

to a change it up, i took the plate of food and a drink over to the main meeting room to sit in on an early presentation. i’d managed to walk a city block with my hands full without spilling a drop, only to splash the juice all over the tablecloth when i sat down and bumped the table leg. tried to blot it a little with my cloth napkin, but now i just had two wet cloths in front of me. ate my food and left the room. i assume the staff changed out the cover during the extended break, when they split the space up with divider walls.

—————

i feel like i’m getting strung out on the constant availability of sugary snacks and sodas that are always just outside the door. pretty sure that i haven’t lost any weight in spite of the mileage of walking around this place.

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got out of the last morning class a bit before the surge to the free lunch. yesterday included mac n cheese and a drumstick, and today was rice and vomit. i mean it was chef prepared vomit on a lovely serving tray. the little sign said it was chicken and broccoli, but i swear i saw the same come out of my old dog when i was a kid.

i ate the artisan dinner roll. my lunch took about five minutes. managed to leave the room, just as the hoarde was lining up at the buffet tables. i was not in the mood to network. i dashed out a side door, into the hot sun.

i’m really not sure who thought it was a good idea to put astroturf in this particular area, in a desert—it smells vaguely of melting plastic in the heat, while being gently sernaded by a recorded loop of wavery indian reed flute music.

—————

my dinner adventure started with a quail family that ran that across the road in front of my car. i’m really hoping the tiny baby ran fast enough—they are colored similar to the pavement, and i couldn’t see it in my rearview mirror. i did see the bigger parents running back, with the black head feathers bobbing. they run really fast on those little stick legs.

i decided to get mexican food. looked around on google maps, and selected a random place, that was easy to get to, three miles away. was more of a fast food place, though a huge step up from taco bell. i wanted carne asada, but apparently my mouth said carnitas, since that’s what i got. super shredded up, with a bit too much onions and tomatoes atop the pile. i’m not sure if it was too salty or just too spicy. they had a line out the door by the time i left, so it’s very popular at a minimum.

i also didn’t notice there was a small step down into the inside table/dining area, and almost twisted my ankle, or at least almost fell on my ass, but i recovered it nicely, and pulled off a smooth i meant to do that face, i don’t think anyone noticed, or even cared. lol.

by the time i got back to the hotel, it had gotten to a more reasonable upper eighties degrees, so i decided to take a long walk back to my room, around the outer perimeter of the building. it has two long wings, that follow along a river. there is an interesting variety of birds, lizards, tiny prairie dogs, and cacti.

between the wings, they have three swimming pools. if you’ve ever watched bride and prejudice, you’d giggle a bit at the thought. also a couple of small, kiddie pools, i assume. i doubt they have heated jacuzzis.

hardly anyone in the pools. must be casino time.

i noticed some brave souls out there earlier in the day (from the air-conditioned comfort of the lobby window), i can imagine the sunburn. and heatstroke.

kids don’t care. they’ll jump in ice water if you say they can go swimming.

at night, the pools are lit up, turquoise jewels in a sea of darkness. and all of the rooms and lobby-side restaurant can watch you perform your underwater ballet, like you’re in a flick with esther williams.

i’d really like to go swimming, but feel too much like a potato in a swimsuit to go. i bet if my better half were here, he’d ask the front desk if the pool was heated.

one more day. one day more…

rinse and repeat

a nice fleetmaster from one of my better half’s favorite shows last year by old school bombs car club. it’s almost the same color of the bougainvillea behind it, just not as pinkish.

a last minute follow-up to a disappointing show we had driven to earlier in the day, we were happy to have found a bunch of our favorite cars jammed together in this small parking lot in anaheim.

here we are, another sunday. another edition of “i don’t want to work tomorrow” whine. for my better half, overtime killing off his ambition to get to walking ten thousand steps a day again.

time changed, spring ahead, so tomorrow will be extra whiny waking up essentially an hour earlier than we’re used to.

but i can look forward to more rain on tuesday. working and staring out the window. i’ll be working from my house on tuesday, so i get that extra entertainment of watching the traffic zooming by, the possibility of an accident or someone simply parking in front of the fire hydrant and getting a ticket, plays to my schadenfreude. so many jerks speeding in their mustangs or dodges around here, no matter the condition of the street.

anyhew, one day is getting the same as another. maybe i’m just depressed. happened to have had turned my computer on to do some insurance stuff, which leads me to my pictures. pretty much, if i have a reason to be on my computer, i’m going to post something. i also am keeping myself from turning on my work computer and doing a job that i wouldn’t be paid for, but want to get off my to-do list. so busy at work, i’m about willing to do it.

i guess i’ll hang out with my better half while he’s on a break, then head to my mom’s for the night, and working there tomorrow.

not much happening

missing a few shows coming up. think i will be needing a new camera soon. don’t really like the sony e-mount cameras, but my big a-mounts are supposed to be discontinued. really hate the 6300 i have in my bag. mostly the user, but the glass i generally have on it is average.

taking a short vacation from the job. better half’s first get away in five years. thirteenth anniversary for us. bosses hope we come back.

not a lot of signal here in the middle of nowhere, so currently probably just chatting with myself. better half has earphones plugged in and actually posting on his blog again. been so long since we’ve traveled together, combined with he can’t understand what i say half the time, makes for some awkward misunderstandings. whatever. still having fun.

hoping to post some new pics from the road, but for now, here’s an old one from my archives. fleetline from the oc viejitos show last year. fewer cars showed up, which didn’t matter this early anyway. miss the morning light. i should really get my ass outta bed before the sun on weekends and go shooting again.

autobahn

somehow managed to have to drive up to whittier and back two days in a row. had yesterday as a scheduled day off from work that never got cancelled. would have been on my way back from a weekend in san diego, with a camera full of snaps from chicano park day, but noooo. thanks corona virus, and fuck you too.

i did get up for an important conference call, and intended to go back to sleep. unfortunately, the dog woke up, did his thing and ate, but didn’t go back up as usual to sleep a few more hours.

so i took him out to a local bark park, where it was just him and one other dog in a big enclosed space. was quite nice and cool out at seven a.m. tired him out, so he was settling in on the couch expecting me to work, when i decided to go to costco to gas up my mom’s car. expected it to be a wait at the pump, and as long as i was there, to get inside.

so wrong. on a monday morning after eight, there was no lines at the pumps. rolled right up and got some relatively cheap gas. doubt it will ever get down below a dollar a gallon, not like the eighties.

expected a line to get in and shop, and would have not bothered in that case. temp was to hit ninety by noon. but there was no one—no old people special time waiting, no waiting at all. the place was empty compared to the last time i went, which was probably november.

cool cool cool.

called the better half to ask if they needed anything, since he doesn’t get out much, and complains some foods are hard to get in los angeles right now. he was set for tp, but did want kleenex for his mom. all that stuff has been relocated to the very back, and it seemed to be the travel destination. workers must get tired of the same damn questions of, “when do you expect to get more…,” as there where no flushable paper goods to be had.

i picked up most of the other items on his list, and a few things for my mom. walked straight up to the register to check out, so essentially the best shopping day there in what is usually a hell hole.

drove back to mom’s, where the dog had been moping about my disappearance. he will suffer most when things go back to something resembling normal.

transferred stuff to my car. chilled some refrigerated stuff for a bit and took a break.

headed to whittier with his shopping.

i had noticed as far back as january, that there were more muscle cars revving down the streets. weekend warriors had satisfied mid-life crises, and were now racing to see who had the biggest penises…they are all dicks, btw. and they say women can’t drive; i’d say right now, these idiots take the cake. too often almost taking off my fenders, cutting so close on lane changes.

now, with freeways empty, rich dudes are bringing out their ferraris, lambos, mazzerattis, etcetera, and driving like they are on an autobahn. same dickheads, nicer cars. douchebags.

anyway, better half seems exhausted as usual, working full-time on both work and caring for his mom on his own. got him some lunch from in-n-out, as the local places seem to just be totally closed.

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had my computer on, to do some scanning for my kid, so worked on a picture. missing the classics. if i do see any around here, they are fifty-five / -six bel aires, pimped out to hot rods <yawn>, though the neighbor did have a visitor in a fifty-eight ford fairlane a couple days ago.

yummy fleetline from the veteranos’ cruise night in west covina, january i think. should have gone to more shows, but who would have known we were all going into lockdown?

first of the new year

i really hadn’t gone to too many shows the last few months. which was a good thing in a way, because i think i had a pulled muscle or sprain, so it apparently had time to heal.

started off this year at the veteranos’ cruise night in west covina. didn’t officially start until three-thirty, so i figured i’d get there an hour early, and shoot whatever was there while they were setting up. knew i’d be racing the sun for light later anyway.

well, no show cars were there. momentarily thought i had the wrong date or location, but when i decided i’d at least go inside and get some pizza, there were four of the veteranos at a table having a meal. apparently neither of the couples had brought their own cars to the show.

by the time i was done and went to get my gear from my car, vendors and cars had begun settling in. i had a couple of hours with varied degrees of light, and increasing numbers of people, before it got hard to get clean shots. i ended up staying about four hours, since my better half said he was not going to be able to get out to the market anyway. i think it was more about encouraging me to get back to taking pics, especially since i was actually having a lot of fun.

saw several people i hadn’t chatted with in a while, so happy new year to them, was nice see them.

had an asian man wander through the show ask me how they were monetizing it, if it’s just in a parking lot. wtf. not everything is about money, and he was free to participate in the raffle.

i’ve seen this car before. interesting color combo. makes me want some sherbet. parked against a curb, but pretty close to the dj booth area, it had a lot of people and car traffic in the way. i took the chance that a car wouldn’t need to get by for a few minutes during my exposure. still had to take several, so i could blend out the people. still have a blur, and a random shadow on the car. it was late, and maybe i’ll clean it up later, but i thought it already looked presentable enough to share.

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went to a memorial service for a former boss the other day. he’d had a heart attack xmas day, and never regained consciousness; he died on the second day of the new year.

he’d only retired a year or two before, so didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy it. hearing the memories shared, he had a good life, was a good man. enjoyed rock and roll, guitars, and mott the hoople. his eldest son looked like a carbon copy of how i remembered him, except with dark hair. he was a good boss. worked his way up at the same company for forty years.

saw several former coworkers, and many other faces i recognized, but couldn’t place the name. everyone has gotten so old, but then, so have i. told my other former boss, i guess i’ll see you again at the next funeral.

sraining

hiding out at my condo, rain pounding, checking to see if there are any leaks in the roof. kid has been here off and on the past week packing her things finally. place seems somehow deflated the emptier it gets, but i will better see what needs doing, fixing, replacing without all the stuff in the way.

last rainy thanksgiving i can remember was in the early eighties, the year my sister got married.

my ear is aching and my eye is puffy and itchy. wondering what new problems await me to finish out the year.

turkey day. time for reminders from last year’s memories of my dad’s last year.

he’d just gotten out of a month-long stay in a hospital the day before thanksgiving. was super tired and only came downstairs to the dinner table last minute, and sat at my mom’s seat instead of his place at the far end. didn’t eat much, went back to bed early.

pretty sure my mom has set one extra place, not just for symmetry in place settings.

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here’s a chevy from last year. a con stilo club picnic, at a park not far from the house, on a cloudy day. small lot of cars, shot most of them before i had to leave. wonder if this car still looks like this, or if it was a work in progress.

good to be home

got back from vegas yesterday morning. nice drive, though i hate waking up that early, but had a rental car to return by one o’clock.

briefly thought, i could briefly stop at one of a few shows on the way, in cucamonga, fontana, and places i would normally not get out to, but then thought better of it. the image of my better half on my shoulder saying, “no, kathy. you’ll never get back on time…” vs the devil on the other shoulder saying, “fuck it. work will pay for the additional hours overdue.” i didn’t, but wished i had anyway.

as it was, i stopped by the house and dropped off my bags, then had to go out and get some lunch for my mother-in-law. better half would have done it, but since his car doesn’t have a functioning air conditioner, except the roll-down kind, i thought i’d do him a favor. sort of felt like a hi and bye though.

brought the food back, and headed to drop off the car. got it back with about an hour to spare, so that part worked out fine. the guy there apologized again about calling me earlier in the week to search the car for the previous renter’s passport. turns out the guy had cleaned out a bag of trash when he dropped the car off. the other employee remembered seeing a bag in the trash can, which they checked, and found the passport after all that trouble. the guy was fortunate the trash hadn’t been picked up yet, and they overnighted to him, and they assume he was able to fly out, as he hadn’t called back.

then i called an uber to get a ride to the shop for my car. better half would have driven me, but i thought it was such a short distance from the rental place, it made no sense. took the drive about eight minutes to get there. watching the app, i knew he was hitting every red light on the way. he confirmed that was the case, and that his day was filled with red lights and closed freeway on-ramps that weren’t showing up on his phone. so my trip was a relatively easy one.

dropped me at the curb, and the guy i was supposed to deal with had the day off. they’d had my car all week, so the other guy basically said no charge, and had the car brought out. they even washed it, and had time to get the brake dust off the wheels. great. long overdue.

decided to drive to la habra to pick up some honeybaked ham for my mother-in-law. about ten minutes that direction, the check engine light came on again. fuck. called the shop back and was placed on eternal hold. got to the ham place, and finally hung up and got my order. figured i’d call again, and just start heading back to the shop while on hold.

finally got through to the same dipshit that gave me the car earlier and told him the light was back on. if they could just reaffirm that it was perfectly normal for it to come on for a period of time after a valve job, i’d be ok with that, but they don’t seem confident or competent enough to say that. i ask if i can again drop it off, and get a loaner car, as the other guy had offered, but this one said they didn’t have any. asked if the car was running ok, which it seemed to be. he asked if i could bring it in on monday or tuesday. i can’t, i have to have a car, i have to get to work and a doctor’s appointment, and at that point i gave up on being polite, and might have let some profanity hit his delicate ears.

so, monday, i’m going to drive it down to work, and if i get stuck on the freeway, will either have it towed all the way back or just take it to the closest shop AAA recommends and have them pay for the repair. fuckers. maybe i’ll head to my mom’s later, and take the surface streets. longer drive, but if i break down, less stressful for me.

an unreliable car, also means, i’m not going to a show today, though i saw only two days ago, a flyer for the legends car show by the sea, which i would have been interested in going to…you guys need to work on your advertising…i hope you got some cars to show up.

now my better half is making fun of me writing up my story for the day…”and there i was in vegas…”

bag lady

ya ya. i rarely post anymore. i live out of a suitcase, shuttling between the house of my mother and the home of my mother-in-law. my computer stays put. so if you’re looking for your car from a show, i apologize. it may take a while, but i do mark the few i have promised and do them first.

the owner of this car is sitting behind it, at an angle i’m purposely hiding him. he said hello, so i’ll post his car today.

my own car, meanwhile, is on mile 249,998, and is asking to be serviced. so my question is to have it serviced this weekend and miss big shows, or say fuck it, it can wait until i get back from vegas, and hit up a show on saturday.

i should look up anything going on in vegas, aside from the cars and coffee on my way back.