I resolved this last week.

I finally had more then 15 minutes at one time to work this out and it dd work about the way I wanted it to.

here is the Python code assocated.   .... is the complete test on the page that I need to loop back thru.

for count in range(5):
            .......
            #    check for message board window by seeling all windows.
            windowArray = sel.get_all_window_names()
            Window_name = u"Window_Name"
           
            if windowArray[1] == Window_name:
                print "System Busy try test again"
                sel.select_window("Window_Name")
                for i in range(60):
                    try:
                        if sel.is_element_present("B1"): break
                    except: pass
                else: self.fail("time out")
                try: self.failUnless(sel.is_text_present("ERROR!!! ... System is busy, please try again in a few seconds"))
                except AssertionError, e: self.verificationErrors.append(str(e))
                sel.click("B1")
                sel.select_window("")
                time.sleep(10 * count)
            else:
                print "System was not busy"
                break
            print count
                  
            #end loop here
            if count == 4:
                self.fail("ran 5 times and it was buzy")
        time.sleep(1)