what's up?

memories

1948 chevy fleetline

today, i'm waiting for my car, getting an oil change and tire rotation. hoping they don't find some other thing wrong with it, which seems to happen every time. sometime during the past week, while driving with the little maintenance light on, and the service message showing, my car hit two-hundred thousand miles, and passed it. i do a lot of driving, but not bad for a ten-year old car, right?

kept my last car for more than thirteen years, until every service was costing me close to a thousand every time. even after one of their guys fucked up and dropped a bolt somewhere in the engine and killed it. they gutted it, and had to put in a whole new engine. idiots.

that car went to my ex for a while, and now it sits mostly unloved in my parents' driveway.

my better half likes to talk about a thirty-nine master deluxe he saw for sale once at a car show. owner had fixed it up for his then wife, put automatic transmission in it, power steering, air conditioning, stereo system, etc.--it was modernized, with a beautiful shell outside. he was upset, because she had changed her mind, and didn't want to drive it. he was having a hard time selling it, since it wasn't original anymore.

sometimes, i think i would enjoy something like that, a hybrid, with the classic look. i hear the old cars are hard to drive, since they don't have power steering. i will need another car eventually, so i half keep an eye open when i'm at shows or the swap meet.

meanwhile, i wait to hear what the damage is with this car. also hoping they run it through a car wash. they remodeled, made the waiting area less comfortable, and management changed not too long ago, so maybe they got rid of that perk.


this car seems to have been waiting on tap here for a while, so i'll post it now. i've been so busy with my work / life lately, i've had little time for my pictures. so far behind doing anything with the last few shows' worth of shots, and hoping they don't join the many years' worth of pictures that will never see the light of day, because there is never enough time, and never will be.

between a master deluxe and a fleetline, i think i'd go with the fleetline every time. i just like the lines and curves of the car more. ask me tomorrow and i may say the same about the other.

saw this one at the crossing foursquare show last month. been there a few times; never sure which clubs will show up, or where they will park. these guys got the back yard. thought i heard someone say they were going to put dukes back there, but i never saw any while i was there.

there were some pesky port-a-potties, that are always fun to shoot around. they add so much to a picture. not. this shot, one was to the right, out of the shot, but still found it's way into the picture in the reflection. just ignore it, now that i've pointed it out.

what are you gonna do? when you gotta go, you gotta go.

schwetty

1950 chevy deluxe

i know, i know. i owe some people pictures of their cars from the last few shows. patience grasshoppa.

got up early and headed over to the car show at the crossing / four square church. roll in wasn't until eight, but i was there at seven. hoped to at least shoot the host clubs' cars. was there early, also, hoping to get in and out before the temperatures rose too high. 

well, being a bright and mostly cloud free day, it was already warm at seven, and quickly heated up. quite a change from last weekend. i'll take overcast any day. 

i'm curious how this show is run. they said it was their tenth annual show. it's near home, so easy to leave and go back, if i fill up my memory cards.

i've been to at least three, and i think a different club has hosted each year. this year was hosted by kustom oldies. they seemed efficient enough, but while i was only there until about ten thirty, and the lot did mostly fill up, it lacked a lot of the cars and clubs that i'd expect to be there.

i wrote it off to people being at the la roadster show at pomona, or one of the other nearby shows. i briefly thought about going to one in la habra, then after chugging a bottle of water in the shade where my car was parked, called my better half, instead, to see if he'd been called in to work—no—and if he wanted to go get lunch. so i did that instead.

i went round the parking lot four or five times, following the changing light and shooting new arrivals.

saw this chevy there. loved the color. the owners stopped me for a moment, wondering what i do with the pictures. the wife seemed interested in getting a t-shirt or something with a picture on it. sure i know a vendor that does shirts, mugs, stamps, lots of junk. as usual, told them to wait and see if they like the picture first. i liked this one best.


oh, better half reminded that i should mention that i got another five pictures in the oc fair again. two cars, a hood ornament, a portrait, and a landscape. i try to mix it up sometimes. and again, he says, i'm already a winner, just to have something to hang at the fair; a ribbon is just icing.

is there anybody up there?

am i the only one that loves to crunch tree bark under their feet? that satisfying brittle crackle when you find that perfectly curled and dried seed pod? didn't think i'd find that this late in the summer, but i took a walk this evening and found both my favorites, and i slowly stepped down on them, to enjoy that snap, crackle and pop. ok, i'm weird. whatever. been a long day.

going to get some sleep tonight, so won't blather on here for very long. 

first car i shot from last week's foursquare church show. sun comes up early now; i got there early, and it still got up there first. love the cloudiness surrounding the sun. i so much want to stick an alien spacecraft or pterydactyl or something bursting forth, but decided that wouldn't be appropriate blasting out near the church.

it did help to light up the inside of the car, catching the interior details. that's always nice.