Sick Dude

By kiki

Old Jim Rogers had been feeling funky, so he went to see Dr. Feel Good. Tests were taken, and Dr. Feel Good told Jim that he would have the results in a few days and to make an appointment for the following week with the good-looking gal in the waiting room, done!

The following week Jim and his wife Betty went back to Dr. Feel Good’s office to get the results. The good doctor called Jim into his office but told Betty that he would like to talk to Jim along. In the office, the doctor told Jim that he was really sick with a rare disease, but, fortunately, there was a cure for it “so what is the cure?” Jim asked the doctor, “the cure is sex; you need to have lots and lots of sex, day and night. If you don’t do that, you will die!” Jim told the doctor he could handle that “good, let me talk to your wife” Jim walked out of the doctor’s office and told Betty, “the doctor would like to talk to you” While Betty was in the doctor’s office, Jim is thinking about all the great sex he and Betty were going to have. About 15 minutes later, Betty walked out of the doctor’s office “what did the doctor say?” Jim asked Betty, “that you are going to die!” Betty replied

Boxing Books

By kiki

In the last few weeks, I've read two great booking books. Let me say here that I am not a big fan of boxing books because there is not much I can learn from them, after all, I’ve been around the sport for over 65 Years, first as a very young fan, then as an amateur boxer, amateur/pro trainer/manager, amateur matchmaker, Vice-President of the Southern California Coaches and Managers Association, head coach of the Los Angeles national Golden Gloves team, and the list goes on.

Now the books: first I read “Mexican American Boxing in Los Angeles” authored by Gene Aguilera. Gene’s book is a pictorial of Mexican-American boxers that practiced their trade in Los Angeles and Southern California rings. Gene book covers Los Angeles Mexican American boxing from the 1900’s to 1990’s. I was most interested in reading the 1940-’50-’60-’70 and 80’s chapters because that was my time in boxing...I read about many of the now forgotten fighters that I grew up watching at venues like the Olympic Auditorium, Hollywood Legion Stadium and the Ocean Park Arena et al….Gene did a great job researching the lives and careers of the boxers he covered in his book. Gene’s book is not about one boxer or anyone fight in particular. He also didn’t give us his opinion on any boxer or their fights that he wrote about, I liked that.

I next read “Becoming Taz: Writing from the Southpaw stance” authored by former professional boxer, Jeff Bumpus. In his book, Jeff writes about his career as a pro boxer. He tells us what he went through in trying to be a champion in a very tough sport, only to fall short of his goal….He digs deep into every nook and cranny of the boxing business, he finds that as a prospect you are catered to, only to lose favor as your career starts sliding down…What I liked about Jeff’s book is the human element he inserted into his narrative. His sister ready to stand up to some loud mouth “motherfucker”, his dad banging his fist on the ring apron ready to take on any sonofabitch that bad mouth his son. Yes, the book is about the sport of boxing, but its also about the human side of the sport. 

As you open Jeff’s book you’ll find after the title page a page with this ‘To the dreamers and the journeymen’ Like all of us, Jeff, you might have been a dreamer, but you were not a journeyman fighter, you beat some top prospects, who were also dreamers, you fought great champions and some good contenders, you won some and lost some, and that my friend does not make you a journeyman boxer, what it does make you is a quality fighter.

I highly recommend both books.

Posting Music on Facebook’s Music and Cigar Lounge

Posting Music on Facebook’s Music and Cigar Lounge

Go to Youtube and find the song you want to post on the music room. Highlight the ‘Https’ on top of the Facebook page by left-clicking on it right click on it and then left click on ‘copy’. Go to Facebook’s ‘Music and Cigar Lounge, left click on ‘write something’ then right click, left click on ‘paste’, left click on ‘post’ that should do it. It’s really easy.

Diabetic Coma

By kiki

                                              

7-2-14

I just woke up from a nap, and earlier this morning, I woke up from a diabetic coma. Fortunately for me, my son James was still home to call the paramedics who helped me cheat the Grim Reaper; pity him!

7-3-14

Yesterday life threw me a curve as a reminder not to take it for granted. Unfortunately, the curve came in the form of a diabetic coma around 5:00 in the AM after giving myself 38 units of insulin.

I just remember bringing Sammie the turtle from outside where I had put him to eat and putting him back in his 20-gallon water tank, and as I did that, I remember toppling the water cooler that sits next to the tank. The next thing I remember was waking up with a blurring vision and seeing James and a bunch of strangers, men, and women, looking at me as I lay in bed. Still. not entirely out of the coma, I asked James, "James, who the hell are these people?" he replied, "Pops, these people are paramedics; you went into a diabetic coma because your sugar level dropped to 30" I couldn't believe that so I said, "James if my sugar was 30 I wouldn't be talking to you right now!" 

A paramedic then told me, "sir, (I hate it when people call me 'sir') your sugar level was indeed 30; so I gave you a shot to bring your sugar level up, but that shot will wear off fast, so you need to drink some orange juice and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I told him that I would drink the orange juice and eat a jelly sandwich, but no peanut butter, I hate the stuff. Luckily we had both, and James fetched them for me …One of the paramedics told me they would like to take me to the hospital, so I nixed that idea. He then handed me a paper to sign stating that I refused to go to the hospital; I signed the paper. As the paramedics were leaving after making sure I was going to be alright, one said, "call us again if you have any more trouble" "Thanks, we will," James replied

I then asked James what had happened and how and where he found me. He told me that he had, like he does every morning open the door to our bedroom so that Chata, our English bulldog, could go out to the backyard to do her personal business (a sliding door in our bedroom faces the backyard). He said he noticed that I wasn't in bed with my laptop but thought I might be on the patio computer. He said he had closed the door, but that something just didn't seem right to him, so he opened the door again and looked around the room (our bedroom is good size, so it's not hard to get lost in it, especially with all the junk we have in it) as he looked around he noticed me draped over Sammie's water tank. He dragged me to bed and, simultaneously, yelled out to his wife Veronika to call 911, she did, and that's why I am here to write this today.

I want to thank James and Veronika for calling the paramedics who saved my life and my wife Connie for looking after me, but most of all, I want to thank God for giving me another round at life so I can spend it with my family and friends, Thanks, God!

P.S

What caused my sugar level to go down so low? I suspect that perhaps I shot myself with the wrong insulin; not sure, but I can't think of anything else that could cause my sugar level to go that low…I use two different types of insulins. I inject 38 units of Lantus, which is slow-acting insulin, first thing in the morning, and that is supposed to work all day. Then, I inject HumulinR, fast-acting insulin, before every meal, six, ten, and sixteen units, respectively…

I suspect I injected the HumlinR instead of the Lantus first thing in the morning…Gotta be more careful with that stuff!!!

Summer School Programs

By kiki

In my years at Vail Elementary School in Simons (late '40's), the schools were open during the summers with different programs for the kids to partake in. We had marble, tops, basketball, and fastpitch softball et al. tournaments with the other schools in the district. For two years (5^th & 6^th grade), I won the Top tourney, came in last in marbles, but I had lots of fun losing my grandma's marbles. Grandma Lupe had a bucket full of marbles for my cousins and me to play with; she always had to be refilling the bucket.

Same two years, we won the district fastpitch softball tournament trophy. Our grade school was a segregated school from the wrong side of the tracks. Poor because the district wouldn't spend any money on it, but plenty of money went into the schools on the right side of the tracks, so when we would play against the other schools, we looked like a bunch of ragtag kids, whereas the other teams were in nice team uniforms. But ragtag's or not, we had an ace in the hole, our pitcher, little Raulito Martinez. Raulito was small for his age, but he was the fastest pitcher in the district, and with no rules about how many days he could pitch, we won every game in those two years. And even though we always had to play in the other team's home fields, we were undefeated for two years straight! Finally, it got so bad with the kids trying to hit Raulito that the coaches from the other teams started challenging his age; they asked that he produce his birth certificate; he was legal, so he had one. Thus, he was allowed to play, and so we won!!

Bring back the summer school programs to keep the kids off the streets!!

Later in the summer months of the late '50s, when we were in our late teens or just out of our teen years, and with roughly the same grade school ragtag team. Some of the guys with the closing of the Simons Brickyard had moved out of the area, we would play the older guys, guys 25 years and under got to play with the younger guys, over 25 play with the Vetranos (older guys). We would play for beer, with the losing team buying. As with our grade school team, Raulito Martinez was our ace pitcher. Thus most of the time, we drank beer on the Vetrano's dime.