Rusty Racer

This weather has been crazy! Nearly a month of rain so far with just a couple of days of sunshine.

Yesterday we had our first really cold day in the new house. The sleet built up around the windows giving that traditional frosted Christmas window look.

My health has been a bit weird lately. I increased my steroid dose just in case the chest infection/ asthma I had been suffering was a relapse of the COP (Cryptogenic Organising Pneumonia) and that made me feel really good. However I've been afflicted by a viral infection in my left arm.

I'd mentioned in a previous post that the haematology doctor wanted me to take an anti-viral drug daily on a permanent basis. I declined. He told me to be on the watch for the first sign of Shingles. A tingling of the skin in a band around my chest. If this happened I needed to go on the antiviral immediately.

A few weeks back I had a burning sensation in my left wrist, much like a chemical burn would feel. I figured I'd got petrol on my skin. Last week I started to experience numbness in the fingers of my left hand and just assumed it was a pinched nerve, something I've had on and off for years.

Then last weekend I developed pain in my left armpit and shooting pains in my fingers. Last night I took a look at my armpit and found it had a series of small red blisters. I also have a few welts on the palm of my left hand.

I know enough to realise that it can only be a viral infection, and that it's following the nerve endings down my arm. I see my GP tomorrow, but I know he's not going to be able to do anything as we missed the 72 hour window for the antiviral drugs to be of any use. It should clear up in 3-5 weeks all by itself.

There is a risk that it can spread to the lungs in someone with a compromised immune system such as myself, however I think this would have happened by now if it were going to. At least I'll know the symptoms for next time.

Who would have thought it would have appeared in just one arm?? At least it wasn't on my face, which is fairly common.

The EVO race car is once more a thing of beauty thanks to the team at D.E McMillan panel. They tell me that there is a slight difference in the colour of the doors to the body work as they were painted at different times. I couldn't see it myself, but they tell me they are going to remedy it before I pick the car up early next week.

From there I have to put all the interior back together along with quite a number of mechanical repairs.

I have a hillclimb event in early July that I'd like to enter, however the engine is supposed to be stripped and rebuilt as part of it's Post Targa service. I may put that off till after the event.

The car looks so good that I may be too scared to drive it hard just in case I scratch it again! .. I wouldn't want to break the hearts of the team of panel-beaters that fixed it!  ;o)

I've finished the storage room under the house and made myself a lot more space in the workshop. However with the Evo returning home that will leave me very little room, so Sarah and I are looking at building another garage to store the two race cars. I'm not sure who's the most spoilt.. me or the cars!  ;o)  We never really expected that I'd be putting so many customers cars through the workshop and it's just not really a good idea to be driving the Evo in and out everyday as I put cars on and off the hoist. The short running will destroy the engine and the race clutch in no time and they cost more than a garage to build.

The insurance company has paid out on both the stolen mountain bike and the race wheels. In fact they wanted to pay me too much for the race wheels and I had to decline their cheque. They somehow thought that $1500 was a fair price for the wheels. I pointed out that I could buy another set for half that. I don't think I should be making a profit from the theft, so have asked them to reduce the figure.

Having said that I've now spent quite a bit of it on a new security system. Monitored alarm and cameras. There should be enough left over to buy a new bike too. So maybe there is a silver lining to it all.

..Ron