Below is the new flower bed that Veronica and I have been working on the last few weekends. It took a lot of blood, sweat & beers ...(there was gatoraide, popsicles, several gallons of tea, and a few spontaneous dips in the pool mixed in there too).



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I spoke with by daughter yesterday over the phone. As I was visiting with her, she was sunning on the roof top of her apartment in New York, watching the clouds go by. I had just come in from mowing the yard in the 98 degree heat. Prior to that, I had planted some kind of “Aussie” plant and some Caladiums in the back yard.. Prior to that, I laid out about 35 feet of flat rocks that had to fit together like puzzle pieces for a flower bed border. So needless to say, I was a little out of breath and my back was killing me from unloading 3 yards of top soil and a ½ yard of river gravel out of the back of my pick-up into a wheelbarrow on Saturday. Have I ever told you just how much a ½ yard of rocks is? IT’S A LOTTA ROCKS!.... I digress…. Anyway, Beth starts telling me that I’m not getting old. She has me repeating after her (between gasps of air),” I’m not old, I’m not old, I’m not old…”.
When I hung up, I collapsed on the couch.
Coincedently, I received what’s below in an e-mail this morning:

PERKS OF BEING 50 or OLDER

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.
2. In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.
3. No one expects you to run--anywhere.
4. People call at 9 pm and ask, "Did I wake you ????"
5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
7. Things you buy now won't wear out.
8. You can eat dinner at 4 pm.
9. You can live without sex but not your glasses.
10. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.
11. You no longer think of speed limits as challenge.
12. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room.
13. You sing along with elevator music.
14. Your eyes won't get much worse.
15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.
16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.
17. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.
18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.
19. You can't remember who sent you this list.


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The other day I was surfing thru the numerous race track sights that I routinely visit, and our home track in Angleton had this post:

“Track management needs a few racecars to be in a photoshoot for an add going in the Facts next week. If you have an interest in your car participating, please contact Brian C. at the track friday night, or call and leave a message on the track phone and he will get back with you.”

I & several other racers thought this was a great idea to promote the track, and we responded to the post that we’d be there. The “shoot” was scheduled last nite, so I put a soapy rag on the ‘Stang, polished her up real good, and Veronica headed out, with team shirts and all.

When we arrived, there were several other cars unloaded, and a photographer was setting up in the burn-out box. I walked over to check things out, & that’s when I saw them…….. about a dozen corn fed young men wearing colored uniforms. That’s right, football players……

As it turned out, the photoshoot was to be of the pick of the litter of high school football players in Brazoria County, and us racers were only there to provide smoke and a back-drop. Yep, we smoked the tires and they came walking out of it lookin’ all mean & stuff. Then they did individual poses with our lil’ pony as the main back-drop. There’s gonna be a magazine published that will come out as an insert in the B’port Facts in early September, and the pix should be in it.

The photographer took a really nice pic of Veronica & I, & he’s supposed to e-mail it to us. If he does, I’ll post it. We didn’t really promote the track (or Wild Cherry Racing), but oh well, we had fun……. Then went to the Ice House for a cold beer & burger.


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Its been a while since I posted. Chalk it up to being busy, or lazy, or a little bit of both.
Nevertheless, I’ll try and catch y'all up.

Friday nite, July 7th
WCR set out to finally flip the switch over on the N2O. All the weak links seemed to have been resolved, & we were settin’ on go. We made the first pass as a motor pass, just for a routine shake-down pass. Everything looked good as the car ran a 6.90 @ 104 mph. The car was doing good, but the driver was suffering from heat stress and a splitting headache. The time came to push the button as I did a good burn-out, then purged, and then….nothing. The car ran a motor pass as the nitrous didn’t activate with the TB switch. With a now pounding head and sweat running out of me like Niagra Falls, I discovered the WOT (wide open throttle) switch was out of adjustment & not making up.
Pass #3: No nitrous activation again. The pass right behind me was between Tommy Kersh and one of the Twins driving Anderson’s (can’t remember his 1st name) Camaro. The Camaro got loose, hit one wall, and went over the other wall out into the “ruff”. That shut the track down for a while, and combined with our no nitrous car and my splittin’ head was enuff to put the Mustang on the trailer and head for home. I was sick all weekend, and when I finally got to feeling good enuff to trouble-shoot the car, I found the WTO switch to be un-plugged where I un-plugged it to make adjustments in the pits. Some days, its just better (and cheaper) to just stay in bed.

Thru the next week, there were some things going on w/my health that I wasn’t comfortable with, so I had some blood work done, and scheduled an appt. w/the doctor.
Prior to the appointment, I had a friend of mine (same age as myself) die of a heart attack while mowing his yard. This got me to thinking, and I took the next Friday nite off from the race car until I at least visited the Doc.

Monday, July 17th
Doc sez I might have had a small stroke or a virus that affected my brain that Friday nite at the track, but it was small enuff to totally recover in a short period of time. Additionally, I was diagnosed with Hypogloxemia, and my cholesterol was thru the roof. I’m now on a daily ^%#@$##@!! pill schedule. I didn’t feel old until I went to the doctor…Oh well, at least the pills aren’t blue.....................yet.

Saturday, July 29th
Two good friends of ours, Paul Blinka & Sonja Barnett, were married by another good friend, Pastor Dwayne Manes. Paul and Sonja are currently honeymooning in Playa Del Carma, Mexico, as I write this. Congratulations Paul & Sonja!

Thursday, August 3rd
It looks like I lost my racing partner for a while. Joey has been thinking about it for some time, and on Thursday, August 3rd, he joined the United States Air Force. I didn’t see this one coming. Veronica & I have mixed emotions about all this with the state of the world affairs and all, but I’ve always been proud of him and I’ll continue to support him whatever path he and Loni decide to take. The last few weeks have been kind of a “downer” for me. I’ve had a lot of focus my health, and said a lot of prayers for my son & his wife. The car hasn’t left the shop since the nite I got sick.. Things just don't seem to be the same. I’ts Hell gettin’ old.

However, I heard it somewhere said, “I’m not as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was”.


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It was a loooooooooooooooong day last Saturday. Angleton Raceway held their 1st annual “Index Shoot-out” race. The gates opened at 10 AM, and we rolled up around 10:30 so as to get a decent place in the pits. The temp was already in the 90’s at that time. We got the car off the trailer, set up some shade, and prepared to run a couple of time trials prior to the first qualifying round scheduled for 1PM….. 1 PM came and went, with folks still prepping the track….. 2 PM came and went, and the ‘Stang never cranked.

Finally, almost 3 PM, they opened the track for some T&T, but because of the track conditions (over 140 deg.F), they delayed the 1st qualifier until 5:30. We made a couple of passes, to try to dial the car BACK to a 7.0, but it was pointless because the conditions would drastically change by the time we would race. Nevertheless, I was comatose at the tree, and couldn’t seem to get the car dialed in. Then they delayed the 1st qualifier AGAIN…6:30PM.

The 1st qualifier finally happened around 7PM, and afterwards I found myself at the bottom of the ladder bracket, with a terrible reaction time to boot. The second qualifier came and went, & after breaking out miserably both times, I was next to dead last in the field of 8 racers in the 7.0 class.
The ladder works like this: The best time races the worst time, the next best time races the next to worst time, etc.etc….So with that I found my “too fast of a car & too slow of a reaction time” paired up against Mike Denton, who’s been running 7.02’s & 7.03’s all nite…. Just great….. I figured I’d be home in the pool by 8:30, right??? WRONG! I cut a terrific light in the first round, and Denton broke out trying to catch my 7.07 run! As I patted the gas a little, I think that I figured out what I needed to do to win this thing! Next round, I pulled the same trick on Wally Scott & his 7.02 Chevelle. After that came Mike Kenemore and his flamin’ pony, only he was playing the same game that I was. He expected me to run it out the back door, but I lifted 50’ before the lights and surprised him. We were in the finals! How the Hell did we get here? And what time is it? Its now 12:30AM.....very, very, very long day, folks.

Chris Hurta & I were matched up pretty even in the final round, with both of us having our own bag of tricks, but he tree’ed me on the launch, & I couldn’t make it up without breaking out.

Oh well, I runner’d up. The neat thing is Chris & I agreed to split the $600 pot prior to the final round, so the last pass was just for braggin’ rights anyway. Chris is a good guy. Hell, they’re all good guys. Veronica & I got our picture taken, broke camp, loaded the car, and headed for home about 1AM. That 1st beer was a good one. It had been a
long, looooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnng day.


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