25th - 31st May

Once again, the week has whizzed by, only this time I have a good excuse for not noticing. Wednesday night I worked the ticket booth for Lisa, who had been to the dentist for a tooth extraction and was confined to bed. The Wed. night street legal racers are a neat bunch...mostly young folk, who are so very polite and friendly. I'm kinda liking being called ma'am. Over here it's not in an old fashion/Queen sort of way, but more a Southern/Elvis kind of thing. A respectful term that kinda makes an old Kiwi girl feel pretty special! Later, we devoured many Alaskan crab legs and even took time out to take a shot of a couple that failed to escape my clutches.


Thursday saw a trip to the outskirts of Sacramento to a huge electronics outlet called Fry's. This place is 'man heaven' with every gadget and appliance you could think of, in every size, and all complete with their own remote controls. Oh bliss!!! I spent my time watching a free showing of the movie Madagasca on the biggest screen I've ever seen outside a picture theatre, before trying out four different massage chairs. These too have remotes, with temperature control, chair adjustment...oh...and of course every possible kind of massage movement built into the chair, with options for the length of time and pressure of each movement.

On Friday, I was once again called on to man the gates for the test and tune racers. As far as I can make out...this is where all the problems started. After we closed the gates...there was money to count. In the course of counting it, I stupidly licked my fingers a few times to get a better grip. Somewhere amongst those notes lurked a virus of such momentous proportions, I spent the next 3 days in bed!

Now I've had bugs before...in fact many bugs over the years, but this one surpassed anything I had ever had the misfortune to come across. By Saturday night, the troops here were all ready to rush me to the emergency room. I was running a high fever, was so desperately cold that 3 hot water bottles and one electric blanket on high failed to make the slightest difference. The stomach pain was such that for a while we thought I was having a combination of peritonitis, bleeding stomach ulcer and heart attack all rolled into one! I won't go into the indignaties the poor toilet bowl suffered, but suffice to say, we had to replace the toilet rolls twice!

Then there was the vomiting! For those of you reading this who have spent time with me at various parties searching out my tooth bridge...well I have to tell you this will no longer be necessary. The said bridge now rests quietly somewhere in the bowels of...oh no...let's not use that word...somewhere at the bottom of the Sacramento sewerage system. I was so sick I didn't even care about losing it! Now that it's all over...all I feel is relief that I don't have to worry about losing it all the time. This has been a constant worry for me for the past 5 years! Yesterday (Tuesday) I was able to get a little soup down me, and things are even better today. Boy...I never want to go through that again, although on the bright side...I have lost 5lb in the last 5 days!

We were all set to go to the National Nitro boat drags on Sunday, but seeing as I couldn't even raise my head off the pillow, let alone raise any enthusiasm for motor sport (see...I really WAS sick!), just Colin and Dave went. They returned later in the day announcing they had just witnessed a new world record. Colin took a video of it all thinking I'd be keen to view it when they got home. Silly boy!

Have been displaying the roadster at the strip here on big race days. Also set up a book sales area with it. Lots of interest...especially in the paint job...hey Willie...you reading this???


While I'm on the subject...Jerry...here's the details you wanted :
Barb and Colin
c/- Sacramento Raceway Park
5305 Excelsior Rd
Sacramento
Ca 95827
Our phone number while we're here is 916 968 5627
email : kiwibarbs@hotmail.com

Monday was Memorial Day here...the closest thing we have to that is Anzac Day. Everyone gets all patriotic, goes camping, goes to the river, goes to another town, has cook outs and then it's all over. Colin decided I needed some fresh air, so we went for a quiet drive to an Op shop that was having a 50% off sale. Man did we get some bargains! Made me feel a lot better and I decided maybe there really is something in this 'retail therapy' thing after all. Yesterday I continued to heal, while Colin worked on Dave's '56 Ford truck. He's doing another motor transplant in exchange for goodies. The two of us went to a market today, and once again, found some wonderful bargains. I think bargain hunting is almost better than fishing!


FOOTNOTE ... Have just heard from daughter Kelly. Told her about my lost bridge...she says, "I can just see some old sewer rat cruising around like the King Pin, sporting a new set of choppers".