The story behind the willowsprings photos

The race pictures I posted earlier this week have a story. They're
from three weekends ago when Russ raced his car at the Redline Attack
in Willowsprings, which is located out by Russ' old stomping grounds
in Palmdale. Baxter and I went with him to cheer him on.

It was really exciting to watch the cars do their practice runs in
lieu of the big Sunday race. From the sidelines you could tell the
cars were going fast, but it didn't look too crazy.

After a few small protests, Russ talked me into going in a practice
run with him. I was a little worried, but really I had no clue what I
was getting myself into. I went and signed my life away on the
passenger rider form, borrowed a helmet from one of Russ' race buddies
and strapped myself into the car. The the little flag waived and all I
could see was my life flashing before my eyes.

I can tell you that I have honestly never felt fear like that before.
It took every ounce of strengh in my being to hold on tight and yell
at Russ that I wanted out and I wanted nothing else to do with the car
on the race track.

As I felt my body forced side to side and I experienced him turn
corners on the absoute tightest turns going at 60 miles an hour, all I
could see was the car rolling off the track and and I could feel every
muscle in my body strain. And the straightaways? Forget it. All I saw
was us going 100mph with a 60mph curve coming up and the only feeling
I had was- get out!

The most unfortunate part is that before we started Russ talked me
into holding the a video camera that taped this experience. I'm sure
once he edits it down it'll make it's debut on the blog.

Anyway, as I finally talked him into taking me off the track (I only
lasted 2 laps), I peeled my hand off of the door handle. I have never
in my lifetime seen a hand as red as mine as totally dripping with
pure white sweat as I saw mine that day. Even Russ was shocked when I
pulled my hand off.

It was an experience I will never attempt again, unless I am driving
and in control of the vehicle. Actually, maybe never that either.

And now poor Russ knows that I know exactly what he's out there doing
at each race and that makes me scared for his life. Well now I know
that a life insurance policy is indefinate for him!

All in all if you take out the nightmare I experienced on the course,
it was a goodtime. It was fun to hang out with all of Russ car
friends, enjoy the desert heat. We took some shots when I first got
there. (The mini never touched the course.) If you notice, Russ has a
fire suit on which had all of the bells and whistles down to the
little elf looking shoes he wears-which I made fun of relentlesly.
Isn't he a handsome driver?

So that's the story behind the picture.

Sent from my iPhone

Redline Willowsprings Race

Big Guys In A Little Car!

So what happens when Russ and his friend get stuck in a car trailer with no way out? They attempt to go through the window! The first guy, I don't know how he does it, becomes a human pretzel and uses his leg (where does it come from?) to finally push himself out. Russ, a little less coordinated looks like he's being birthed from the car (breach is more like it) and wiggles himself out. This is a must see!!!

Banging bangs

Finally! I got my hair done! The last time was in February right
before went to Hawaii. That was way too long in between. This time I
added full bangs! Here's a shot of me in the car today.

California puts new water laws into act, Russ boycotts

So yesterday, California put new water laws into act. I listened to this on 89.3 on way home from work. What do I find when I come home from work? Well let’s preface this a little.

The day we went to London, my mom came to pick me up at our house. She warned Russ. She said that she had a dream the night before that while we were in London, Russ overflowed the pool and it was a disaster. She couldn’t sleep that night.

Nothing happened when we were in London and Russ joked about it when we got back.

Then yesterday happened.

I came home from work, and walked into the kitchen. I could hear water running and I was confused. All of a sudden I looked outside. The pool was over flowing! I ran out and quickly turned the water off. I tried desperately to get Russ on the phone. My neighbor came and rang the doorbell. They told us that water was draining into the street and they wanted to know if everything was okay. I was out of breath and I told him everything was okay. I tried desperately to call Russ again. Finally he answered. He was close by and would be home in a few minutes. I went back outside again to survey the damage. It wasn’t too bad. It must have just started to overflow, because one side of the pool was draining onto the concrete that had drainage in it, and the drainage was going out to the street. Russ came home and per my instruction, grabbed a hose and tried to cipher the water out. No luck. I told him I was going to call my mom to see what to do. He started freaking out and saying, if you’re dad finds out he’s going to kill me!

He then stripped down and got gallon pitchers and was heaving the water into the drains. I told him he just didn’t look right so I ran up and got him some board shorts to wear. A few minutes later, my mom appeared in the backyard. She was going to meet a neighbor that night to walk around the neighborhood and she noticed all of the water going into the street. She wanted to make sure everything was okay. I said a silent thank you that I had brought down Russ’ board shorts… my mom would have gotten a little more of a surprise than the flooded pool. Russ looked like a kid caught stealing candy. He knew his life was over now that he was caught. He felt so bad he started apologizing left and right. I told my mom to let him have it… but she was too kind. She said he might as well leave the water in there, since we paid for it. Her dream came true—crazy huh?

Of course this all had to happen on the day that California raised water rates. Go figure, right? Our normal water bill is about $40.00. So we’ll see what this month is like. The radio said that if you go over your limit you would be paying as much as 40% more for each gallon of water. I’ll have to keep you posted. Russ is going to have to front the extra.

Here are some pictures of the event.

Russ looking at the pool in despair.
Russ trying to cypher the pool. Didn't work, but it looked funny.
The over spill. Baxter excited that his waterbowl just got a little larger. Normally he fears the pool, but today, when I let him in the backyard, he ran right over to it and started drinking.

Russ, with his pitcher trying to drain the pool.