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change of plan

1954 chevy

1954 chevy

saw this chevy at the latin gents toy drive the other day. I think it belongs to the vintage ladies car club, if i remember correctly. the lady’s husband caught me on the way back to my car, to ask if i’d shot it, so yes, i guess i did.


better half has been doing so many extra hours lately. he’d expected to work all weekend, and had gone out and done his shopping super early in the morning on saturday. found himself five cans of lysol or some type of cleaning thing, which somehow makes him feel like the king of the world. he got his car washed. he called about cars without permits on our block and watched the tickets get put on the windshields.

when he logged on to start work and checked his mail about six a.m., he saw that the sob had been cancelled; stop all work. almost immediately, his body was telling him to sleep. he called me first, at my mother’s, where i’d spent the night.

he was telling me the thing had been cancelled, he was getting paid for half a day anyway, his weekend was free, he planned to relax. i half jokingly asked where should we go? then he was all about it. he started looking for hotel deals while i wrapped up whatever it was i was doing at my mom’s.

he calls back and says there are great deals in san diego, but covid is rampant there. same goes for san fran, and really he only has one night to get out of town. we finally settled on solvang, since i’d gone there the weekend his mother passed, looking for a getaway that wouldn’t be crowded with people like a big city. he hadn’t been there in years.

our favorite hotel was sold out. other hotels were too run down or had bad ratings. he finally found one that was recently renovated.

i got home an hour later, threw a change of clothes in a bag, and we were on our way. for the two and a half hour drive from whittier, we never turned the radio on. we talked the whole way there. anything and everything. we haven’t had a lot of time just us, no work, no distractions. it was nice.

solvang was busier than i’d expected, but you can still avoid the people if you want to. after checking into our hotel, the sun starting to go down, we headed over to tower pizza. we hadn’t had it since the last time we’d been there together, as it was already closed when i passed through town months ago.

we took it back to the room, as we didn’t want to sit outside. i was wearing a long sleeve jacket, but also the shorts i’d been wearing that morning, and the temp was dropping quickly down to the lower forties pretty quickly. the pizza was so good. better than i remembered it.

we thought about going out for a walk around town, but decided it would be too cold.

he fell asleep, i sat in the big bath tub of hot water for an hour and watched tv until i got tired.

in the morning, we took that walk around the town. he wanted to shop for xmas gifts for the little kids in our life. my sister wanted some handmade chocolate stuff, and after waiting for the store to open, to be told it was already sold out, was kind of a bummer. guess i need to go back. that and he has a cuckoo clock that needs repairing from the store where he bought it. if you have to, you have to… ; )


we stopped at in-n-out on whittier boulevard before we got home. spied a group of classic cars at a rite aid parking lot. better half wanted to turn around. no cameras, what’s the point. looked like a meeting anyway.

sitting in my car in the ino parking lot twenty minutes later, enjoying our food and watching the traffic on the boulevard, we see lots of classic cars driving by. those same group of cars too. at least one was from the bomb club. i guess that there is something going on at montebello park, which is not far away. better half says we might as well go look, but i say no, i don’t have my cameras.

i joked about going back after we got home, but as it was almost four in the afternoon, and i was tired from driving, i didn’t. but i saw you guys, so i was happy.

toy test

latin gents toy drive 2020-4186And9more.jpg

so i bought a couple of external hard drives the other day. better half said they were on sale at the lowest price he’d seen in a while. perhaps he was hinting that i should buy my own, instead of taking his.

i haven’t shot much in the last eight months or so, and had recently spent a lot on our trip across the country, and then getting an oil leak fixed on my car, so wasn’t too interested in spending more. but i did finally, which shocked my better half immensely.

as usual for cracking open a new drive, he said i should test them, meaning copying files on and off them, shutting them down and starting them up. i didn’t want yet another copy of files i already had, so finally got my butt up out of the lazy boy chair, and out to a car show.

i’d seen flyers online lately, but finally decided to go see what would turn up at the gents’ show. didn’t know if it would just be a drive thru thing, and therefore, nothing for me to shoot, or as the flyer noted, cars were welcome to stay and hang out.

i needed to get lunch and put gas in my car anyway, so figured i’d drive over and see what was up.

a lot of cars was what i found. hadn’t seen their show this busy for over a year, so was pleasantly surprised.

promised my better half i’d keep the mask on, but wow, it was difficult. the past week had been so cold, then today, in the eighties. so, i had to move quickly, because i can’t take the heat much, and i was wearing jeans.

was greeted warmly by a member of the latin gents. saw several guys i hadn’t seen in a while. everyone was in a good mood.

did i mention i’d chopped off my hair again? was half-way down my back, and just getting thrashed by seat belts, and hair-ties, so i had it cut to just below my shoulders. went back to red too. i started to imagine that i was sweating so much that the red was dripping down my face. it wasn’t, but it should have. haven’t decided if i should go shorter, but didn’t want to look too much like a karen, so i’ll just leave it for a while.

saw this green truck in the corner. i don’t remember if i’d shot it before, so waited for some guys to move out of the way so i could take some pics. it belonged to one of the guys, and he hurried to move a towel and some junk to the back of the truck, out of my shot. thank you. nice truck, nice guys.

after that, i really started to skip cars i would have otherwise have shot. hadn’t had lunch yet, and the heat was making my head swimmy. and the damn mask didn’t help.

woulda shoulda stayed longer, but headed out instead. blasting the air conditioner, and hoping tomorrow will be cold again.


hard drives are working so far…

road tripped out

route 66-3099And9more.jpg

quick post, as we’re just back from a two-week, five-thousand+ mile trip to there and back: up the coast, across the country and back on route 66. i may get into more details on the trip later, but keeping in mind that i only post cars on this here bloggy, here’s a quick story.

we were driving about three-hundred miles a day sometimes, and i was typically booking a hotel randomly about an hour or two before sunset, depending on how tired we were.

this was last saturday, and as we pull into springfield, missouri, on the main drag, the sun had already set, i thought i heard engines revving. turning onto the road leading up to the hotel, i spy a yellow thirty-four ford hot rod going the other direction. hmm. random, i thought.

passing a few hotel parking lots, i see several classic cars sitting in the dark. wth. then, as we turn into our hotel’s portico, i saw this beauty sitting off to the right of the hotel entrance.

we unloaded the rental car quickly, got checked in. better half settled in to look at pictures on his ipad, that he’d taken earlier in the day. told him i’d walk down the hill with my brother, to pick up some food from the steak ‘n shake i’d seen there. seeing that i’d grabbed my tripod and big camera, i’m sure he didn’t expect to get food any time soon. i was excited to see a bunch of classic cars here at a randomly selected hotel was a total surprise. i haven’t taken any pictures of old cars in months, and i didn’t realize how much i missed it.

i didn’t shoot everything i saw, but also thought they all might just drive away before i got them. a lot of what i initially saw on the way up the street did leave, but many remained. i was in a hurry to get to the food, so didn’t shoot as many as i would have liked.

we did finally get down the hill to the food place, only to find they’d closed the dining room ten minutes earlier. had to head back to the room, to get my better half to drive us down the hill and through the drive-thru for dinner.

after a look around on the internet, i found out it was the aftermath of the mid-america street rod nationals at ozark empire fairgrounds. the two-day show was over, and these were just people too tired to drive home, and had booked up hotels, and were doing some cruising on the main street.

i guess my better half is right, that i can stumble across a car show anywhere. sorry, d.

for those of you interested in a more thoughtful daily post of our random trip, please check out my better half’s blog. i was mostly just along for the ride anyway.

not much happening

1948 chevy fleetline

1948 chevy fleetline

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.

party on

1964 chevrolet impala

1964 chevrolet impala

it’s after one a.m. and the neighbors are still having a very loud party. or maybe it’s just several very loud drunk people. yelling about the dumbest things, while a couple of drunk women cackle like hyenas, and hip hop plays in the background.

their parties usually wind down about three in the morning with loud goodbyes in the street.

really just big a$$holes.

——

oh dear, the cops just showed up and they all ran inside and turned the lights off.

——-

here’s the tail end of an impala from a show last year at the roadhouse in whittier.

——-

party over theoretically, but they are now cackling and howling in the house. i guess i’m tired enough to sleep now.

2012 | SHARP

1960 cadillac coupe de ville

1960 cadillac coupe de ville

supposed to get some furniture delivered this weekend. we’ve been using better half’s mother’s mattress and mountain of pillows as a sofa for the past few weeks. would rather it was in her room, with her still sitting on it, watching her tv, but…

he has declined my offer to get a kitchen table and chairs from my storage unit, as we will only have to move it again in a year. so, tray tables and a desk, if i want to get fancy. but i am still going to be using her good silverware. so, another empty room for the time being. maybe i’ll bring my trampoline back here and put it where the dining table had been.

a little less busy at work, but only minutely so. i’ve done a few projects that will get some notice around the offices and online, but then, i could say that about most things i work on. seems like all the jobs are becoming more of a competition, or at least, team efforts lately. it’s a good thing. spreads the stress around, divide and conquer. learn from others.

better half used to look forward to me asking, “why the hell are you doing it that way?,” when i used to work with him, as i would glance at what was on his screen. he’d also tell you that was my way of saying “i like you” to him, or some other nonsense.

looks like the earliest i’ll be back at the office will be sometime before year-end. have been there several times this past couple of weeks, and it is pretty much a ghost town. it did make it ideal for a photo shoot i had to do of a bike, with no interruptions, and no issue getting the room i wanted to shoot in. only problem was the key to where we store our lighting equipment was at home with another designer, who had shot some video the week prior. fortunately, the receptionist had a spare.

i’d rather be shooting a car…

———-

my niece finally went home, so i was able to get to my computer the other day. only had a couple of hard drives there, so pulled up some old files, shot with my old cameras and better half’s lens. he’d say he lent it to me, and never got it back until i’d worn out the parts in it.

pretty sure i posted a similar shot of reine’s cadillac, but i haven’t seen it for a while, and it was in the first bunch of pics i saw on the hard drive, from 2012. back when the whittier uptown show was packed with cars waiting in staging areas for several blocks, before the sun came up. it was my favorite car for the longest time. such pointy back fins, and ghost flames on glittery paint.

his cadillac was one of the first i shot, in the early 2010, over at the broiler in downey. that place used to be where i’d be every wednesday evening for a for at least a year. good times.

all the time

1940 chevy special deluxe

1940 chevy special deluxe

really nothing of interest to share here. still kickin’. still so very extraordinarily busy at work. sort of hating it right now.

landlords slightly freaking out as they have been told that we will probably be moving within a year. then there was a rented trailer outside the house. saw the landlord drive by a few times, but we’re not leaving yet; just relatives taking away some furniture and such.

from the street, the place seems pretty empty tho. lol. we just haven’t caught them on the porch, peeking in the window. yet.

————

here’s a shot from last year’s chicano park day. cute lil special deluxe just down the street from the blue majestics’ house, waiting in line to get in. there are several colorful murals down that way, and this one just looks out over the cars and the park.

i don’t recall things being as hectic as usual. maybe it was better organized than previous years?

get on with it

1947 chevy fleetmaster

1947 chevy fleetmaster

hoping the bomb club show at santa anita won’t have to be postponed again. [edit — as of 7/29 this show has been cancelled] october usually means travel, celebrating our anniversary. lucky number thirteen coming up.

at least the weather then can be so unpredictable, and hopefully not so summer hellish hot.

this topless babe is from a couple of years ago, early morning overcast. i do love that.

—————

my mother-in-law died a month ago. she was a month shy of ninety-three.

a long time coming, it happened too fast, after all.

the house is quiet.

better half was directed to not “dawdle,” and take care of her personal effects quickly. going through papers, boxes, and items stored in the garage. a lifetime of living doesn’t disappear fast enough.

the xmas tree finally had to come down; won’t be able to get her furniture out the front door otherwise. ten thousand lights took five evenings to unwind off the branches. how will we be able to navigate the streets, without that fruity beacon in the dark?

now we are free to travel, yet we cannot go anywhere. every day is exhausting. there is a piece missing.

we each hear her call to us in the middle of the night, as she used to; better half gets down the hall to her doorway, only to realize the room is empty of the life that was his constant companion these past few years, these past half dozen decades.

so you might say we’ve been a bit preoccupied. you’d think there would not be enough water inside yourself, to produce all of the tears. they are less sad, and more the happy memory variety now, but those have been hard won. just have to let them have their way with you, and get on with it.

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goodbye, enedina. you were well loved, and sorely missed…

once upon a time…

1949 chevy deluxe

1949 chevy deluxe

hi. my name is kathy. i used to photograph classic cars.

then the world went to hell.

i have not used my cameras in so long, the internal batteries are dead. i wonder if i will remember what to do, like riding a bike. i don’t turn on my personal computer much. i work so much overtime, followed by time spent with family and an attention seeking dog beast, i just don’t have the energy.

i think i’m burned out. i know i am at work. i’m. just. tired.

so i’m on a short road trip. to clear my head. on my own.

better half is taking care of things at home. and whether i am there or not, he knows i am thinking about him.

i have one camera with me, the one i hate. i probably won’t even go outside, and rather sit in a hot bath, and next to a big fireplace. if i can figure out how to work a fireplace without filling the room with carbon monoxide. he usually takes care of that.

——-

here’s one of the older pics i have sitting in the draft queue. from a show in la palma. decent turnout for a high school fundraiser.

i liked the paint color, and the car within a car, with that reflection.

autobahn

1948 chevrolet fleetline convertible

1948 chevrolet fleetline convertible

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.

————

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?