what's up?

waiting game

life seems to be a waiting game.

mother-in-law is back home. she got out of the hospital at seven in the evening earlier in the week, and was back in the emergency room next morning at two a.m. her test numbers weren’t high enough to keep her there. they popped a shot of morphine in her and sent us home.

after sleeping most of the day, and a lot the rest of the week, she’s mostly gone back to what was normal for her. only an occasional twinge of an ache in her side, but a slight change in her diet seems to have helped.

so it’s back to a limbo, wondering when the next ache becomes more than gas.

right now, i’m sitting in my car at legg lake. black widows are having a picnic today. main entrance at rosemead is closed at the entry booth, so had to drive to the other end to get in. flyer said to use rosemead, so it should be interesting to see what happens when clubs show up and need to turn around on that tiny roadway.

followed in not long after the club got here and waiting for them to finish setting up, and to close the trunks, and for more cars ro show up. literally there are maybe six cars.

a ranger just pulled up to chat with them. wonder what he’s saying.

he got back in his car after ten minutes. he stopped briefly behind my car but i guess i didn’t look too shady.

gonna leave if more cars don’t show, as it’s already hot and i don’t think i’ll last long.

————

i like pontiacs. they are a little clunkier than their chevy counterparts, but they do have some pretty cool hood ornaments.

this one was at a fundraiser for a baby i never knew, for a family i don’t know, but i donated anyway.

labor day weekend

computer still down, but just as well—hanging out at the hospital anyway. mother-in-law took a ride in an ambulance last night.

relatives in town with a little kid, so i guess we will be taking turns watching the kid vs grannie. kid not coming to hospital. fun times.

needless to say, no car shows, no new pics this weekend.

at least my car seems to be working. if the light comes on again, they say the part is four hundred bucks to replace.

——

saw this car at my one visit at ruby’s friday night last month. wasn’t really much there, and was able to get around the cars easily for the most part.

fucksticks

the moon in retrograde or mercury doing a thing to the tea leaves? these past couple of weeks have just been so stupid. best i didn’t place any bets in vegas…

first my car, in for a simple maintenance, now just a continuing issue to be solved. was again put on eternal hold twice before i was connected to the service manager this afternoon.

check engine light was still on when i took it back this afternoon, so at least they can’t say i’m making it up. left work an hour early, hoping to not get in stop and go traffic, and possibly stalling out on the freeway. finally lost my nerve about beach boulevard, and took surface streets the rest of the way to avoid all the freeway construction slowing things down toward the 605. red light intersections are only slightly less nerve wracking. didn’t use the air conditioner either, since it seemed to make the stalling sensation worse.

at least they saved me a loaner car.

next, work waited for me to get back, so it’s piled up, and more added. i especially like the rush jobs needed by thursday, mostly i suspect because of the holiday weekend.

so i’m pushing back what i can, finding out who is crying wolf on deadlines. otherwise, i’ll either work late if possible with the car sitch, or work the weekend.

now, figuring i’m in whittier, i might as well play with my pictures. no can do. my computer has decided to fuck up, and wants a boot disk we cannot find to make it happy. better half says he’s going to order me an upgrade of the software and a new ssd drive. basically, i’m down until they arrive in the mail, then for the period getting reloaded with all my software and tweaking the preferences for how i like to work. at least a week, if not more, given our schedules.

maybe i can get to a car show this weekend, but unable to download and process anything. frustrating it will be. humpf.

well, i can get back to posting a few of my old pictures on my ipad anyway.

back end of a riviera from mooneyes open house several years ago. amazing paint job; another that needs a ladder or scaffolding to get up above it to capture it better, but this is the best i can do with my tripod.

when i put it out on instagram, someone got sad because one of the people in the shot had passed away since then.

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…”

fetch

long day of meetings. five and a half miles of walking. nbd. see if i can keep that going when i get home.

back from the mile to the ice machine in the other “wing” of the building. me and my little metal pail…la la. la la la. call me jill.

real creepy long halls, waiting for the kid on his pedal bike.

didn’t sleep well last night, only to wake up to no hot water. could be worse—another lady in the elevator had to switch rooms, as there was water leaking from the light fixtures in her bathroom ceiling.

keep running into people i see every couple of years for these meetings. kind of think we need a secret handshake or to yell nanu nanu.

——-

here’s a sideview of an increasingly well-known chevy, distinguished by it’s wood paneling. it was on a very busy whittier boulevard, so sort of difficult to shoot it from the other side. that, and i was pretty tired by the time i got to it.

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.

11,579

so much walking around here, i’ve done just under five miles, or 11,579 steps.

was just stepping into my meeting, when my phone rings. had to step out to take the call. it was the guy from the rental car agency asking a favor. he was wondering if i might go to the car and check to see if there happened to be a passport in the glovebox, left by the previous renter of the car. the renter was in tears, going crazy since he needed it for his travels. told him i’d look later. he asked how far away i was, in case i did find it, and coincidently, the weepy guy is also here in vegas, in case it was in the car.

so about halfway through my meeting, during a break, i had to go back to my room, get the keys from the safe, and hike out to the car. hot furnace blast of hot air heading outside to the parking garage. hundred and six this afternoon, so quite a shock, coming out of this air-conditioned haven. up the elevator, too early for parking sharks, past some dude sitting in his car smoking some devil’s weed.

i get the rental guy on the phone and check the glovebox, center console, under the seats, and in the trunk. no luck. feel sorry for the guy.

late, i rushed back to my meeting, now overheating, to find they have continued without me. no big, they didn’t notice.

anyway, back in my room, watching the weather channel, thinking about sleep.

———

here’s a hot rod from mooneyes, for something different.

locked out

i think i’ve already walked a mile and a half this morning, these hotels are so huge.

had a non-working toilet when i checked-in, so i’m glad i make a habit of flushing it before i use it when i first arrive. it will soon be an issue, so i call the front desk and wait almost an hour for the engineer.

it’s one of these eco tanks, and taking a peek inside, is a big black plastic receptical and lots of hoses; just no water. was hoping for a room upgrade, as i hadn’t unpacked yet, but he got it “working” in about five minutes. when i say “working,” it’s because it takes at least three flushes to get the paper to go down. going to be asking the owl on how many flushes on the tootsie rolls.

was going to put my own water in the fridge, but it seems to have a combo lock on it…must be an honor bar thing…i see snacks through the little bit it will open.

woke up at seven, couldn’t sleep, so went down to breakfast. got served someone else’s plate, but knew it, and didn’t touch it. belonged to the guy at the next table.

was charging it to my room, but there seemed to be some issue, so i just said i’d use my own card. after that they finally brought my food.

afterwards, i hike back up to my room, which feels like a mile from the elevator, but probably only about a football field, to make a call in privacy to the credit card company to see what’s up. only to find none of the cards to my door will work. means a hike back to the front desk, which already had a line of people to check out that early. concierge was able to help me, without any explanation of the issue.

spent ten minutes on hold before chatting with someone in the credit card’s fraud department. then another five confirming my identity and that i was the one making the charges. this is going to be a pita expense report when i get back. they better accept my justification for a charge at in-n-out for lunch on the way. 😄

meeting at one, housekeeper wanted to come in, but says she will come back later. my stomach is upset. probably the pizza i ate last night from an overly expensive place. wants to claim the food is exactly like the food in italy. well, yes and no on the pizza. it did taste very similar, but was waaaaayyy to salty for no reason. over priced, with fake-friendly service. i give it a six out of ten.

i want to lay down, but i may not want to get up, so i best not try it.

——-

another shot from front street. i usually don’t fiddle with effects like this, but for this car, this shot, it was all about that front grille. ran into the owner this past sunday, who had seen it up on instagram. she liked it, which is always nice to hear.

in hell

made it to vegas, where it was at least one-hundred and four at some point today.

started by picking up a rental car, then a stop at the shop to see what the hell was wrong with my car, and to express my extreme displeasure about missing a baseball game and having to uber all weekend, and managed to do so without sounding like a karen. told him i was already supposed to be on my way to vegas, but would only be able to wait a couple of hours max, or they have to keep it until saturday. he opted for the week, since preliminary eval was giving them a code of some sort. basically, they fucked up a valve job in some way. they offered to give me a loaner car, but i already had one. was running perfectly fine before, so they better make it right.

first meeting tomorrow afternoon. i’d rather not go, but i will. gonna sleep in tho. definitely don’t need a buffet breakfast, i’m getting so big on these steroids as it is. definitely need to find another solution.

———

dunno what the deal with the kustom oldies club is, but saw something dino’s bomb club put up, calling them out for having some pervert amongst them. no specific chapter, just a general no association shout out. sort of like this roadblock at this foursquare church/crossing show…no salvation here.

read a post from harbor area guys saying not them, and that someone was no longer with the other chapter or something. i hope dinos will announce when they have cleaned house and done penance, or i just won’t post any more of their pics.

like that other club, with the guy that grabbed my ass. they can keep fucking off until he goes away. he hangs out with other clubs so i have to be polite when i run into him. asshole. wow i’m still pissed even a year later. nuff said and time for bed.

as i’m typing i can see the volcano going off at the mirage, so this somehow seems appropriate with all the fiery explosions.

what a lame display, btw.

pissed

picked up my car. drove about ten minutes, halfway to the freeway, when my check engine light came on. pulled over, called the shop and ask if that’s to be expected. they said bring it on back.

note it was just about four when i called, which was their closing time.

by the time i get back there, the service office is closed, though there is a woman inside fiddling with paperwork. i stare at her for a bit, and stare at some guys still wandering around the work bays. lady comes out a side door asking if i needed something.

told her i literally picked my car up after they had it all effing day, etcetera…and she says they all left and all i can do is come back monday. fucksticks. back in the car and pull over just a block away, the car sounds wrong and the body shimmies. turned it off to tell better half i was heading back home, but now didn’t think the car would make it, and was returning to the shop.

then it didn’t want to stay on when i turned the key. started the next try, but sounded like it would die if i eased off the gas, so quickly did a u-turn and back to car drop off. found an open door, same lady. said to fill out the night drop envelope and leave the car and key for first thing monday. can’t even get a loaner car for my troubles, cuz no one there to help with that.

called my mom to cancel on the game, so now no one is using the tickets at all, it’s too late, even if i ubered direct to the stadium. and monday i was meant to drive up to vegas, but now i have to deal with my car.

misunderstanding with text messages to my better half resulted in me getting an uber back to the house instead of him coming back for me.

so circle jerk of a day, and i’ll be lucky if i get as far as montebello park in the morning…def can’t get to san fernando. 😞

monday should be interesting anyway. i feel sorry for the manager i’ll be yelling at in an ever so polite way. better half expects i’ll be calling a fatwa on the place if they don’t make it right asap. it’s what i get for taking it to this place for convenience of the location instead of better shops closer to my office. better half would have just taken it to pep boys.

anyway, i’m in a better mood now and my better half can’t understand what i am saying, since his head is under the air conditioner in the window and has a fan pointed at him, both blowing at top speed. he repeats back what he thought i said, which is most definitely incorrect, but thoroughly entertaining.

———

heres an old chopped huddie from last year for your troubles. let’s put them behind us as well.