Lalo Rojas, 59, laughs painfully: “I caught a fish with my face.”
He was the boater mentioned in my Tuesday column who was smacked in the face by a mullet that literally jumped into his jet boat as he rode near De Anza Cove last month.
“I was worried my brother-in-law, who's with LAPD, would ticket me for fishing without a license,” he adds. The mullet now lies in his freezer, and Rojas plans to stuff it and mount it over his fireplace.
He can laugh about it today, but his injuries were devastating. The 24-inch-long fish briefly knocked him out and crushed his right eye socket, cheekbone and nose.
He was in Scripps Memorial Hospital for a week. Surgeons implanted two titanium plates to restructure his face. He still has no feeling above his teeth, his right eye feels like someone is pressing a thumb into it, and his retina was partially detached.
Rojas, a 6-foot 2-inch, 220-pound construction worker from Ontario, was visiting family in Chula Vista when the accident occurred.
“I've been hit in the head by a 2-by-4 before, and I've been hit by a fastball pitch that broke my nose, but I've never been hit as hard as this fish hit me,” Rojas says.
It's the latest in a string of bad luck, he adds. In 2001 he ripped his Achilles tendon. In 2004 a mosquito bit him, and he contracted the West Nile virus and nearly died. Two years ago he had surgery for kidney stones. Now he's been attacked by a fish.
San Diego scene
Billionaire Warren Buffett, whose company bought $3 billion of preferred General Electric stock Wednesday, was at the Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad that evening. Guests were barred from the patio area while CNN interviewed him about the world's most powerful women. One passer-by, a local teacher singled out in 2007 for her exemplary performance, wisecracked: “I guess he didn't get the memo on my award last year.”
Oops
When Westfield Corp.'s rendering of a proposed $50 million makeover of Horton Plaza was published in Wednesday's Metro section, something bothered one sharp-eyed reader. Mounted high on the facade was a fictitious tenant name: “Tequilla Sunrise.”
“Sure enough, there were two 'l's' in tequila,” reports reader Dick Pennick, of Casa de Oro.
That was news to Westfield's Jonathan Bradhurst, senior VP of development, who said no one had noticed the error. “Can I tell you the truth?” he chuckled. “The rendering was done in China.”
Campus news
Four out of five of this year's winners of San Diego County “Teachers of the Year” honors hold degrees from San Diego State: Theodosia Ballard, Alex Kajitani, Bill Dean Kvitli and Tom Waldron. Plus, the fifth, Patricia Blome, attended SDSU but earned her degree from National University.
A tortoise comes home
Several calls came in to Jeff Birren, of Jamul, after a column item ran about the recovery of Clark, one of his two pet African tortoises on the loose. The other escapee, George, remained missing.
One caller reported finding a 2-foot-long tortoise, weighing about 50 pounds, near Buckman Springs Road. Alas, it was too far away to be Birren's pet. Another had lost a smaller tortoise, measuring about 1 foot across. Birren had recently been contacted by someone who had found one the same size, so he put them in touch with each other.
Finally, George, missing since March, wandered onto the property of another Jamul resident last week. None the worse for wear, the giant tortoise is now safely back with Birren, a member of an S.D. Turtle and Tortoise Society rescue team. He currently keeps six of the giants, which often outlive their owners.
Diane Bell's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Fax items to (619) 260-5009, call (619) 293-1518 or e-mail to diane.bell@uniontrib.com.
