Up for the Count

I was born on the turn of a page in history. The War to End all Wars (ha) had just ended and those who survived it were in the throws of creating a whole new league of little soldiers to combat the next evil villain on the horizon. Those tiny school desks I mentioned earlier were being built by the thousands to help protect us should the evil ones, we were on the frigid front with, decide to drop the big one in our neighborhood. By the time I was old enough to walk, talk, and try to learn to whistle we had a phone on a party line shared by several in the neighborhood. The milk and brushes and cleaning supplies and ice were delivered to you door...I found the ice man to be the most interesting...with his nasty looking hooks that he would slam into the sides of the ice block to carry into the ice box in the kitchen...and his ice pick that he sheathed in a leather case on the side of his belt ....I would find this instrument far more exciting in the years to come after we got television and it became the focus of many a horror movie.

At that time the Friday night fights were near religion as Howard Cosell pounded out his classic play by play over the radio and eventually on the television that followed suit with the radios of the day in having a round face to stare back at you as you stared at it. The screens weren't all that big back then and when the test pattern was on prior and post transmission it did look very much to a kid like a face watching from across the room.

My father had been a Golden Gloves Boxer so we never missed a Friday night at Madison Square Garden. The fighters were tiny on that Philco and there were no close ups or artsy fartsy angles by the camera man...just the raw footage of a stationary camera that allowed you to watch every punch on that little screen...and although the fighters looked small they were good and many became legends we hear of today. But back then they were just Friday night and everyone would gather around the TV and yell for their favorite as the rounds pounded on until one of the valiant went "down for the count"...the exact place he had no plans on being at the start of the night...which is exactly where I find myself today!...(how was that for a segway!!...I have actually found a place that rents them to ride through the backwoods...photo to follow!)...not down for the count but in a place I had no idea I would be spending even one Friday Night!...as for the counts...we received some great news this past week...my numbers are great!

I have been following the diet in the book I mentioned Anti Cancer a new way of life and the blood samples they take (and they are many) are showing that all of my levels (hemoglobin, white cells, etc.) are all still within the normal range...even for someone who isn't being Kriptonited!...except for my platelets which were low to begin with and have been historically low and who stubbornly remain low...damn those platelets!...but the doc says that this is tolerable (he doesn't have to live with low platelet shame) and with the other numbers I am putting up a good fight. We also got a call from the genetic folks who look at your DNA and genetic links...at least from the way they explained it, that is what I think they do...and we were told that if any of those genetic markers came back positive I would be in a much more serious situation. The surgeons would most likely take everything from the top of my descending colon to my exit! Did I mention before that this was serious shit! Anyway...(dramatic drum roll) I am up for the count! NO positives on my double helix, all of my blood work looks good and except for a few of the expected side effects of being in this kind of a fight...I'm lookin' pretty good for the fourth round!...with twelve more treatment sessions to go! Keep cheering me on and I promise to keep the play by play up to date...sorry about the game delay...must have been a commercial break.