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into the frying pan

better half and i spent last week in san diego.

busted our asses at work, for the weeks leading up to time off, lots of overtime and stress. it’s almost like we shouldn’t bother taking any time off, as we’ve already made up the week and then some by the time we go. same when we come back. we’re both getting burned out, and were so ready for time away.

should change our titles to design jugglers.

anyway, our mini vacation really started about six in the morning on a saturday, with chicano park day. first in-person show in a couple of years. heard they might limit the number of cars to something ridiculous like one-hundred and fifty. by the time we left around eleven, there was at least twice that, a hot sun, and thousands of people.

didn’t even get to shoot the cars up by the majestics’ house…just too many people. walking in front of the camera, almost knocking over our tripods, bumping into the lens…and it got so hot out. day before, and the days after…all ten degrees cooler. figures.

the illegales car club includes the car above. i’ve been acquanted with the owner for several years now, and i found him later in the day, over in the grass field surrounded by cars, and chatting with some people, as usual. i butted in to say hello.

known as el abuelo, he had two of his cars there that morning. i think he said he arrived at four a.m., and always seems to get spots by the freeway on-ramp.

here’s another shot of it from a different angle. the sun was coming up, and there is some lens flare, that sort of bugs me here.

feeling generous, so here are some other random pictures i shot until i find some time to work up some other cars to share, starting with the few people that did chat with me, or my better half.

the street was full, the lawn around the playground was full; the grass near the basketball courts, had very few cars, which was odd. i know there were plenty of cars driving round trying to get in, but either didn’t have registration or just showed up too late. just weird. all the space available is usually just crammed with cars and bikes.

also, for chuckleberries, i found us in the crowd of the headline pic in this article, better half talking with someone about his lens collection, in front of the chevy truck, in the sea of people.

on the green

it’s late. been a long week already.

here’s a car from this year’s azalea festival in south gate. before any crowd that may have come later, cars were few, but clustered together in only a few rows over the golf course.

i’d already taken one shot of this car, and then adjusted my tripod for another. in the meantime, the owner had snuck in and put up his info sign on the front bumper. so had to move a little more, to try and not see it so much.

still, a nice car, and i like this picture better.

change of plans

better half and i decided to go to the azalea festival show last weekend at the south gate golf course.

used to wake up early and be there before the sun rose, to get that early morning light on the cars waiting to get in the gate.

then there were a couple of years, where my better half couldn’t go, while he was taking care of his mother. i’d go, but there weren’t as many cars; then the gate guards wouldn’t be persuaded to let me in to take pictures before the official open time.

then another year, i went on my own again. before the sun. in the lot, in the dark before six a.m. before the people running the show and the vendors. before anyone bothered to show up, to line up, to get in. almost left, after sitting for an hour, but then, i’d already waited, so waited some more. not much went in the gate, didn’t wait until start, as they again wouldn’t let me in, so i left.

same thing last year, with my better half. we shot all the cars that bothered to be there, until they all went in, and decided it wasn’t worth the wait, and found a much better show elsewhere.

this year, same deal, but we didn’t get up early, got there after ten a.m..

i was worried we wouldn’t get a place to park. it wasn’t an issue; we were right in the lot.

we were stopped by one employee, asking if we were with the band. nope. better half strode right in the gate where the cars enter, so i followed. i thought for sure that employee would stop him, but they just walked the other way.

where once the golf course was crammed with cars to the outer fences, there were only a few rows. a stage was set up across the way, and a live band played later on.

the vendor’s truck had overpriced food, while outside the course, at the main street front, there were boy scouts selling a reasonably price breakfast for a reasonable amount of food.

also, whatever happened to the carnival part of the festival? there was just a baseball game going on in that field.

we stayed only two hours and shot everything we wanted. chatted with an old acquaintance, who said they search the cars for booze and drugs, don’t allow barbeques, or outside food, which pretty much will eventually kill off this show.

ended up in norwalk, at an easter basket drive, with a whole lot more cars.

here’s a chevy with a really amazing paint job. better half chatted with the owner for a while, who said originally he only wanted a solid color paint job. the painter convinced him it would be too plain, and that he’d be back, he went with it and here is the result.

one of those cars, where you wish you carried a ladder, because i am just too short, and the tripod isn’t tall enough.

i wonder what my better half’s pics look like, or if he’ll post them on his blog.

i don’t think we’ll be back to the south gate show.

we had thought about going to the true pride show yesterday, but those plans also changed. my younger brother had been visiting my mother for the past week. he had been dropped off, while his wife was out of state, and so we ended up in san diego, driving him home, and staying in the area for the night.

it was a good break. our jobs have been very stressful lately, with more work than usual, and we were just exhausted, without realizing it.

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.

fundraiser for big manny

has it already been three weeks? time is flying.

better half had an itch to go play with his new lenses he bought used online. needed to find out if they worked or send’em back. only thing i could think of was a fundraiser that i’d seen a flyer for on instagram.

garden grove isn’t crazy far for us to get to, even though we didn’t leave the house until almost noon. the typical fundraiser has a lot of the memorialized person’s friends and family showing up in their rides, meeting up for food and memories of the dearly beloved.

this particular meet up was at a small neighborhood bar, in a little industrial hood. though i used to have relatives in santa ana/garden grove, i can’t say that i’d ever been in this area. it wasn’t bad, as compared to some neighborhoods i’ve accidently turned into.

the parking lot was small, and there was a post office we parked in, just across the street.

as we drove up, we only saw a few cars. good enough. i always feel a tad odd showing up for some of these fundraisers. i didn’t know the person much, if at all, but i am fairly sure that i’d seen them, their car or club in the past. better half made a donation toward the collection for the funeral expenses, and gave our regards.

i haven’t seen my better half’s shots, and it’s been a while since he had a chance to turn on his computer, and not be working on work work versus fun work. he still has the lenses, so i’m guessing they performed as expected.

instead of just posting one car, i’ll post a few of the handful that were there, and maybe add more if i get a chance. people seemed to have just shown up, which is of course, more important to the family than whether they came to a fundraiser in their classic cars.

what holiday?

so i’ve been sick since my mom’s birthday on the twenty-first. better half got sick after getting back from visiting his sister, so he sent me over to stay at my mom’s house.

then come xmas eve, she wasn’t feeling good, so i mentioned she should take a covid test. she didn’t really want to stick a stick up her nose, but she finally did. yup. positive. so no matter how i was feeling, i was stuck in quarantine with her. didn’t want her to be alone anyhew.

so, cancel xmas, xmas dinner, new year’s dinner. better half started feeling better, so would drop off food for us, and any groceries needed.

sister and brothers couldn’t drop in cuz we had cooties.

sort of narrowed down her covid to a church function she attended. best we can figure. hallelujah and amen. another reason to stay away from that stuff for me.

so many phone calls from relatives, checking on my mom. she had a mild case, so she got lucky.

i never did test positive, but she officially tested negative today, new year’s day. she’ll still stay in for a few days, but i finally went home, still with a cough.

i’m sure the house is much quieter without me coughing in it.

i was supposed to have the week off. i was supposed to have fun. i was supposed to book a trip somewhere and drive away, but nooooo. sick sick sick.

it was fun sleeping all day, and staying up watching stupid movies with my mom until late in the night. i sort of got on her usual late schedule.

it’s going to suck on tuesday, when i have to start work at six am again.

now i’m home again, backing up files. finally back to playing with pictures from ramble on the ranch a couple of weeks ago.

hoping to post a few pics, but i sort of liked this one right now. i like how the shot is framed up. i like the car, the branches of the tree above it, and the pizza place…really good pizza. kinda sorry i didn’t get any that day.

did see one grandkid, my son and his wife. the doggo yowled, and went for a ride with me to pick up lunch before the show. the other kid slept the whole time. oh well.

i'm tired

i’m thinking that i need a new computer and more hard drive space. hoping to get to more shows in the future, and this camera pops out big files—but not as big as the files on my better half’s new camera. he’s already got himself a new gift for the holidays, and hopes to join me at some car shows.

he came with me to the bomb club show in october, and had a good time. was using his old camera with a lens he hadn’t used in a while.

we both shot this car. i just saw it over his shoulder, on his computer. he’s thinking about posting again on his website, which he’s ignored for far too long. not sure when or if he’ll share his version, but i like mine.

cars are moving in the background, and the owner is in the car, so this from the end of the show and drive out.

i’ve had a cold since thanksgiving. probably a bit earlier than that, when i complained to my doctor about my earache. earache, my eye. she said nothing was wrong then. nothing is ever wrong when i bother to go to a doctor’s office.

this thing moved from behind my eyes down to my throat and has pretty much stayed there. i’m coughing up a lung, even after two weeks, though i have no other symptoms. tested negative for covid at least four times now, so just a boring old cold, i guess.

i’m hoping to shake it off before the next vail headquarters car show in a couple of weeks. all the better reason to go out and see my grandkids there in temecula.

as you would expect, if you’ve read this blog for a few years, i’m not in the mood for xmas, and haven’t even looked at buying gifts yet, if at all. i’ve got some time off coming up, so maybe we’ll get out of the house, or help my mom put the decorations away after the holidays.

can’t believe my dad will have been gone four years come xmas eve.

wildfire

last shot i promised to post. also the last shot of the night, from the field.

almost gave up, as a group of people kept milling around behind it. finally just said screw it, and shot a couple of sets of exposures. people walking through the shots come out as blurred figures, but at least they were behind the car.

the owner had originally been in the driver’s seat, getting the car started, to get in line to exit the park. seeing me set up my tripod, and basically stand there waiting on the exposures for several minutes, got him to turn on the lights, and out of the car.

he spent the time chatting with my better half, who always seems to explain what i’m doing. most people are happy to give me some minutes to shoot. my better half is more chatty than i, and better at it, anyway.

i like the glow, hence the game of thrones reference. better than “pyromancer’s piss.”

cool burn

i’m just going to post up a few pics that i’d promised from the bomb club show, then sift through others that i liked.

here’s the third one we had a chat with before we left. i should write these stories down within the day of the event, as the details start eluding me rather quickly.

what i think she said was that they’d just gotten this truck back from either getting the paint job and / or other body work, and that otherwise, they only take it out for car shows. i believe it wasn’t a daily driver; better half thinks she said it was a daily driver. looking at that paint, i’m more sure it isn’t.

beautiful flame paint. driving it would put too many chips in it, i would think.

better late than never

after being at work for a week, following a two week vacation, i decided to sleep in. my better half was up and running early, as he usually is, and had already been out for a walk, before i got out of bed. he was then off to do some shopping as i sat and read flipboard, emails, and tried to wake up.

better half got back a little after noon. i decided i wanted to go to a car show. i’d known that huffarama and the bomb club show were both going on.

having moved away from whittier has makes it more difficult to get out to as many shows as we’d used to go. ultimately decided to go to the bomb club show at santa anita, as it was closer, and it was already early afternoon.

he said he’d like to join me, so we both got about preparing our gear. fortunately, there was still juice in the camera batteries from vacation, though one of the cameras needed the date and time reset, from disuse.

after taking the quickest route, per the gps, we arrived close to two in the afternoon. had run into traffic, and it seemed to have taken forever.

i guess he hadn’t gone with me last time, during one of the summer blasts, so he was happily surprised at the location and turnout. i really loved that it was overcast and cold. it gets so hot in the summer, that i usually am out the door by noon, before i melt in the heat. was only sad that we hadn’t gone earlier.

we ended up not leaving until close to seven in the evening, when cars were driving out through the tunnel. we made one more turn around the grounds. better half was playing with a couple of lenses he hadn’t used in a while, so was enjoying shooting the cars, lights, and people.

saw this chevy sitting with his lights on, waiting for his friends to join the line to get out.

we recently took a two week vacation back east; a few days in chicago; a few days in dc. weather was perfect, and rain only came to both cities, the days we were leaving. overall, it was a much needed break, and was great. we only got short changed with our feet giving out much too soon each day, from so much walking.

i’d returned to find that some asshole had stolen the catalytic converter from my car, which i’d parked in front of my mother’s house. the neighbor has cameras, and found they’d done it during the first week we’d been gone, about five-thirty in the morning. needless to say, many expletives later, i’d had triple-a confirm my opinion, then began with the insurance company.

so, i’ve been busily getting estimates for the repair all week, only to have the insurance company declare it a total loss, and mark the title a salvage. a week of arguing with them about an otherwise perfectly functional car with new tires, has made me very tired. i’ve decided to get it fixed, for a settlement lower than i would have to just scrap it. i should have just fixed it in the first place and saved all the headache insurance has cost me.

the car show was a lovely diversion.