[elky] Do I know how to have fun or what?

From: Ray Buck <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: elky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:01:18 -0600

I shot the biggest show in the state yesterday. It's called the Cache Valley Cruise-In and is held in Logan, Ut, which is 90 miles north of me and the home of Utah State University. I shoulda listened to the little voice in my head that said, "just stay home today."

Of all the shows I've shot over the years, that particular one is the only one I really dread doing. I won't be going back. There are 3 major problems. First, the lighting. It's held at the Cache County Fairgrounds which is full of BIG trees and the variegated light makes it a bitch to get decent shots:

The front of this 61 Chevy is in shade, while the back is lit by direct sunlight. I dunno if I can do much with it or not. I used one camera to shoot with available light and another with the flash unit (the 40D does better with the flash, so I used that one and the 7D with power pack for the majority of the shots.)

The second problem is the unfettered brats running free and into one's photos (as well as adults who wander into the frame while picking their noses) and smearin their grubby mitts all over the cars.

This 34 Chevy seems to have had a little mishap. Maybe a gang of those rug rats ran headlong into it. :)

Final problem with that show is just the bad attitude so many of the people seem to have there. I won't list all the little aggravations, but let it suffice to say that there were plenty. Well, one of 'em was a guy whom I asked politely if he'd mind backing up a couple of feet so I could get a shot (I'd been waiting patiently for him to move for several minutes) and his reply was, "I hate photographers." Ohh...and one more. I ran into a guy who paid me a $20 advance for a CD of photos at the Autorama in March. I sent him email and left him voicemail telling him that it was ready, but never heard back from him. When I ran into him yesterday, I said that I had his photos and he said, "I ain't payin $100 for no pitchers." That wasn't what he told me when he wanted me to shoot 'em. I just told him that the deposit he'd made wasn't gonna be refunded and left. But I've had enough of all that stuff at that show. No more.

The absolute final straw was that happened after I decided to leave after shooting about 2/3 of the show. I stopped at a convenience store, got a 32 ounce bottle of Gatorade and headed outta town. About a mile down the road the power steering and AC quit and the engine temp started to rise rapidly. I pulled off the road (I had an idea what was going on) and opened the hood to find this:

3 of the 4 studs holding the water pump pulley in place had sheared off which allowed the pulley to wobble and toss the serp belt. Thank God for AAA (funny, I can thank God for AA and AAA, both <G>). I got a rollback to haul me and the Burb to an Autozone (where the water pump came from) and then spent 3 hours, first trying to remove the studs, then giving up and replacing the whole pump in their parking lot. I finally got it done, but not before I got this burn on my arm:

Real bad photo, but it illustrates a little inconvenience I could do without. The blisters have already broken and I hope it's on its way to healing up. Still hurts almost as much as my back from everything including bending over that damned radiator while trying to get the thing running again with very limited tools. I gotta say one good thing: The guys at Auto Zone were great. They bent over backwards to help me out by loaning tools, giving me some miscellaneous nuts and bolts and helping get the serp belt back on. I'm gonna write an email to AZ corporate praising their help...and I won't mention that it was an AZ alternator that caused the initial problem, nor the AZ water pump and studs that were the root of this one. Anyway, they were really helpful and all in all, good dudes.

Very last photo:

This is a section of I-15 about 50 miles south of the Idaho border. There were several miles of these concrete "things." I don't know what they are and all I can think of is either test strips to see how the concrete wears (it'll last forever cuz like me, everybody else had one pair of wheels on the shoulder and one between the concrete rumble strips) or implemented by some maliciously deranged UDOT engineer to make drivers even more miserable that normal on that stretch of road (the narrowest part of I-15 between Salt Lake City and the Idaho border...at least that I can think of.)

Just one more little bit of fun for the day. The new water pump and studs lasted until I got home, even with the AC running (I tested it after I'd driven quite a distance, including a 7800 ft pass...Logan itself is 4300 feet above sea level, so that pass has a fairly significant grade to it.) After I send this, I'm going out to re-tighten the nuts on those studs and I think I'll see if I can find some good grade 5 studs and replace what I think are Chinese junk (no, not the boats.) I'd left home at 9 am (I was running behind cuz I was thrashing to make the new Canon printer work with the laptop) and got home 12 hours later, somewhat worse for wear. But I lived to tell about it and it's another day today.

Do I know how to have fun or what? :)

r

[elky] Do I know how to have fun or what?

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