Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

I’m going to miss Jimmy Buffett, but otherwise everything else this week has been exceptionally good for me.

On Tuesday….I headed over to the Integris Cancer Center and had my blood drawn for my monthly labs. Big Mike, who looks likes the Philly cop Big Mike in Breaking Bad, and who is a drummer in a rock band on the side, told me how proud he was of me for how far I’ve come since he saw me the first time. I almost cried. I love Big Mike.

Then after leaving the lab, I headed over to the Phyisical Therapy room and asked the receptionist…. Shannon, if Charity was availabe for a minute. Shannon smiled and said, ” I’m pretty sure she is Michael.”

Not long after Charity stepped into the lobby and looked at me. She smiled and walked over…then said, “You look great. What’s the word?”

I said, ” I think I’m on the cusp of living and becoming a Stage 4 cander survivor quite possibly.”

She hugged me and said, ” Keep checking in with me. Okay?”

I answered, ” For sure and thank you so much for all you did. Words cannot express. Seriously…thank you.” Again..for the second time…I almost cried.

So then yesterday, it was time for my very big six month evaluation with Dr. Showalter.

Dr. Showwalter walks in with his charts, his lab results, and my two Pet Scans and smiles. He said, “This is somewhat remarkable how far you’ve come since the first time I saw you. You’re on the cusp of being cancer free. Let’s just stay on the same track, but you won’t need to see me again until mid December. We’ll stay right on the same trajectory with the monthly shots and the daily chemo prescription. We’ll still do the monthly labs, but we have turned a sizeable corner. I’m proud of how you’ve handled this.”

I have to tell you…this was a very emotional moment for me. This was the first time I cried in all of this. But these were purely tears of joy. I was so elated I walked out of the hospital and forgot to get my monthly shots in the infusion room.

I drove all the way back to Deer Creek..then realized I needed to get my shots and drove back and got my shots.

At this point…I was pretty emotionally spent so I spent the rest of the day with my wife and passed on the Barry Switzer deal at Othello’s in Norman.

But I am going to write some things about Coach Switzer sometime this week-end. And then next Monday or so…I want write some more on my cancer experience to date…because there are truly some things I want to write about all of this moving forward for me.

A huge week-end of college football tomorrow with Colorado-Nebraska, Texas-Alabama, and SMU-Oklahoma at the top of my watch list.

I think we’re almost past the brutal heat after tomorrow. Take care and enjoy the football.

MJ

I’ve slept on it and decided to not write about Mike Gundy’s self-inflicted quarterback situation even though it is clearly a debaucle as Spencer Sanders sits the bench in Oxford, Mississippi. Maybe in a couple of weeks… after the dust has settled a bit, I’ll touch on the quarterback situation at O State. I mean…Mike Gundy was the coach who gave us the iconic rant almost twenty years ago when he benched Bobby Reid for Zac Robinson. So unlike Jim Traber….I’m going to give Mike Gundy a little space on my blog for the time being.

OU beat Arkansas St. by a score of 73-0. This was basically a scrimmage in which Coach Venables will use to evaluate the depth chart rankings on his squad. So given those facts…I think it’s pointless to write much else about this season opener.

SMU comes to Norman this week-end. I expect OU’s offense to keep rolling and for the defense to be somewhat challenged by a decent SMU offense. I would think something like OU by a score of 52-19 would seem appropriate.

I joined up on the SEC Super Conference blog-messageboard this past week-end given that OU and Texas bloggers and fans were invited to do so a season before both begin play in the rugged SEC. I love it so far. You better be prepared to have your Big Boy britches intact before posting your passionate college football thoughts in place on this blog. My relationship with the LSU fans will be tenuous to say the least though.

I told Thunder Girl I was sorry about my locker room comment for which I was banished for life from the very soft, uber feckless Daily Thunder blog. I’m glad I did it because I value her friendship and it would be stupid to lose a good friend over something as weak as the current Daily Thunder. I’m to assume the next step in posting on the Daily Thunder board will be to send a vaginal swab to the three people who took over from Royce Young. Just saying.

But enough of that…as I told Thunder Girl…for MJ it’s about moving forward at this point and putting the past in the rear view mirror.

Peace and please enjoy this break in the oppressive Oklahoma heat today.

I might just head to Norman tomorrow to Othello’s for the Barry Switzer 50 Year Celebration Party. I haven’t decided as of yet.

MJ

It was a great Labor Day week-end for me minus the sad Jimmy Buffet news. I loved Jimmy Buffet. The guy in a sense was brilliant in that he created his own genre of beach music.This guy was no dummie. Unlike, Donald Trump…he was a self made billionaire and adored by people throughout the world. I can’t even tell you how many times my wife saw him live in concert. I think I saw him twice live.

But helived a great life and lived to the ripe olf age of 76 at home..at peace within himself. I’d say that’s all pretty good.

I’m now back in mental and physical sync after the week in Denver with the grandchildren.

I absolutely killed it on my workout today. Just friggin’ killed it. Two younger guys high fived me as I left the weight room. Swear to God.

Nice little shower out here in Deer Creek this evening. Just a gorgeous sunset. Never…ever take sunsets for granted. Live your life as if every sunset could be your last.

I think tomorrow I’m going to come back on here and talk about Mike Gundy and his self-inflicted quarterback drama.

Have a lovely late summer evening. Hopefully the heat will be behind us a week from now.

MJ

The music was just absolutely great today at OKC Healthy Living Center It’s not like you might think. It’s lit for people like me in my stage in life…that being said, people who have worked hard their whole lives and don’t want to work out to some rap bullshit or some sellout country pop shit like Jason Aldean.

I was actually singing through my workout today.

Deion Sanders, dude…..I love you. If things don’t work out with Coach V…I’m sending this video to Joe C to keep in his secret drawer just in case.

You know, as a Sooner fan…it was a great day as OU smoked Arkansas St. 73-0 as they well should have. I don’t give a shit if it was Arkansas St. or O- State or Notre Dame. I liked the efficency and the competitive hubris.

But let’s put OU’s Week 1 win aside for right now and get to the matter of the fact…the fact being Deion Sanders’ Golden Buffs were just basically lit yesterday as they shocked last year’s national runnerup TCU in Fort Worth by a score of 45-42.

This was by far the best game of the day… not even close.

Deion Sanders was the lone saving grace for next year’s Big 12 football conference minus perhaps Chris Klieman’s Kansas State Wildcats.

TCU lost, Baylor lost, Texas Tech lost, West Virginia lost….and O State had to surge late with Gunnar Gundy at the helm to finally subdue Central Arkansas by a score of 27-13 in Stillwater. And keep in mind…Central Arakansas had two first half road touchdowns negated by the local friendly zebras.

This was not a great day for the new Big 12 commish with the exception of Deion and what his son’s team did in Ft. Worth yesterday.

With Deion, Utah, and BYU all being in the Big 12 West next season….Brett Yormark has himself a viable division in place for next season after the Sooners and Longhorns head to the SEC where they should have headed back in 2010 when Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, and Texas A&M left the football wise third tier Big 12.

As college football fans we get LSU vs. Florida State tonight and then Duke vs. Clemson on Monday night. Unless one of those games evolves into some sort of instant classic…Deion and his Golden Buffs playing Nebraska next week will become a national storyline of some sort.

OU plays host to SMU which should be another beatdown. But I’ll be poised like many or most college football fans to watch Colorado vs. Matt Ruhle’s Nebraska Cornhusker’s.

I would think Brett Yormark has a smile on his face as I conclude my College Football Week I report.

It was a great Week I for Deion and Brett Yormark.

This was so cool even though I was busy in Denver running with Russell Westbrook Jr. while Viktor basically romped his way to an easy championship in the Fed-Ex Cup.

I was checking on Viktor on my phone at the public course in Denver on Saturday while Little Robert was flaunting his Cherry Hills U.S. Open collared shirt on the practice range. I’m so happy for Viktor…maybe you could even call it joyous.

This kid has worked so hard on his overall game to get to the top of the heap in the world of professional golf ….. and here I sit typing Viktor Hovland…the humble Norwegian is now the No. 1 player in the world.

I love this kid and boy…. does golf need Viktor Hovland given the dubious nature of the Saudis’s leveraged takeover of the PGA.

Viktor Hovland is now that bright shining light the game of golf so sorely needs as Tiger and Phil have faded into memories.

If my favorite sports scribe of all-time Dan Jenkins were still living… he’d have a tear in his eye right now. That’s how wonderful it is Viktor Hovland along with Rory, Scottie, Brooks ‘Florida PantherBoy’ Koepka, and perhaps Jon Rahm give the game its next set of stars to keep us golfing fans interested in the game moving forward.

I usually don’t do all that much on golf on my blog, but here I am with two Viktor Hovland pieces on my cover page simultaneously. That’s how special Viktor Hovalnd has been the last several weeks.

The song is for you Vik.

Stay focused and win the Master’s next spring.

MJ

Just got back from Denver and I had a wonderful time with my family. Little Robert tried to wear me down, but proudly I write… MJ never succombed holding up nicely to the week long onslaught of physicality delievered by Bad Little Dude Jr. I swear… if this kid isn’t the second coming of Russell Westbrook…then I don’t who could be. The mercurial mood shifts combined with the off the charts energy. It’s scary.

I got to see Robert at his first golf practice which was at a public course not far from the University of Denver. Robert, the youngest of the fifteen students at age 3.11… strolled up to the head instructor named Thomas and gives this kid in his mid twenties a fist pump wearing his brand new U.S. Open Cherry Hills collared shirt.

Thomas gives me this WTF look and I then replied, ” Good luck with this one. He’s got some Westbrook in him, but his other grandfather is a helluva golfer. I think the kid could be a nice golfer if you can slow him down. If you need me to calm him down during the next hour…wave me over.”

Thomas smiled and then said, ” I’ll keep that in mind, sir.”

Anyway…the golf lesson went well as did the week as I feel much refreshed after my week long escape from rogue red Oklahoma. Going from the mini-ranch in Deer Creek to the lit/wokeness of Denver in the Bonnie Brae part of Denver is pretty like going from rural Mississippi to Amsterdam…if you follow my drift.

In one locale they now ban and burn books, while in another…they read books. Can I be any clearer?

I literally did not watch one sporting event during the course of a week for the first time in my life since I was probably two years old. Little Robert and his younger sister Aubrey had my full attention…and it was wonderful.

I did watch Brent Venables’ first Game 1 week presser of the season. Long story short for OU this season… they have the easiest schedule OU has had in a very long time. Anything less than 10-2 or 9-3 will be viewed as a failed season for Coach Venables.

The OU defense has to be much improved and they should be given the added personnel after last season’s very poor performance on that side of the ball. This is not complex…6-7 at OU is not going to cut it. Period.

On a very personal note…I heard that Coach V’s wife was recently diagnosed with cancer and that saddens me, yet at the same time I suspect with the excellent support she’s going to get from her husband and entire family… she’ll somehow how find a way to work through this.

On every count, I’m praying for Coach V and his family.

Good luck, Coach.

MJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xi7CSnuG-U

Eight words. Gregg Popovich is the best NBA coach ever. Period.

This will be my last blog post for a bit as I spend some high quality time with my grandkids in Denver.

Gregg Popovich is the best basketball coach ever for the same reason Vince Lombardi is the namesake of the Super Bowl Trophy. That reason being…any guy off a corner can do X’s and O’s, but it is that rare coach who can motivate his players and make them not only better players, but better human beings who tends to win a lot of games in clutch situations.

The end.

I’m not dying. I’ll be back in a bit to give my take on the GOP without Trump debate on Wednesday night after I puke for a couple of days or however long it takes me to rid myself of that debacle,

Be kind to people and dogs in this heat.

MJ

‘A person consists of his faith. Whatever his faith, even so is he.’ Proverb

After I realized how stupid it was of me not to watch the final round of the BMW Classic in Chicago…… I corrected myself and got over to CBS to watch the last two hours of coverage.

Why should I penalize myself from watching the golfers I like such as Viktor, Rory, Scottie, Ricky, and others just because Phil Mickleson and his group of mercenaries sold out American ownership of the PGA?

And the answer is….I shouldn’t. Viktor, Rory, Scottie, and Ricky didn’t take the Saudi money.

So I’m glad I did watch the final round of the BMW Classic even if next year it will be called the Jared Kushner BMW Grifter Invitational Classic.

Think of some of the tournment names next year…the Vlad Putin Masters, the Hunter Biden Rocket Mortgage Classic, the Melania Trump John Deere Invitational, and Donald Trump’s Saudi Arabian World Series of Golf where players are encouraged to openly cheat on every hole. Just close your eyes and imagine the branding possibilities.

But yesterday it was just golf… and one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf I’ve watched in quite some time as Viktor overtook both Rory and Scottie down the stretch with a record setting 61 which included an un earthly 29 on the back side.

So….now we move on to Atlanta for the last leg of the Fed Ex Classic of which no one knows what it will be called next summer.

I’m proud of Viktor though. This could be that break through moment for Vik where he makes his next statement as the golfer to be at the top of the heap for the next decade or so. He’s that good. He just needs to win his first major now that he’s got his short game in order.

I’ll be in lit/woke Denver next Sunday… frolicking with my other world champion Denver Nuggets’ fan…. but for certain, I’ll be keeping an eye on the final round of the Fed-Ex Classic with Viktor, Rory, and Scottie vying for the last real American golf title.

Denver and my grandkids on my mind. I can’t wait to get out of this heat.

MJ

I need to get in gear this morning and get the mini-ranch in Deer Creek mowed before we crest at 106 degrees later today. I just watched Kasie Hunt on State of the Union on fake news CNN and she was her usual solid self. This is all the prep work I need to get centered for the GOP debate in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

It’s so damn hot….I think I’ll wait to feed the fish in our two ponds till right at dusk this evening. I had this great canteloupe growing and it appears a raccoon absconded with it last night. Que sera…at least now I don’t have to worry about keeping it watered while were in Colorado next week.

What perfect scheduling…to get out of Oklahoma this week and spend my time in lit and woke Denver strolling through Washington Park with my NBA Denver Nugget Championship ball cap and my Warriors’ t-shirt with Klay showing off his four rings.

Oh my God….the hapless Thunder. Bless their hearts. Maybe this will be their post Kevin Durant breakout season and they win 45 games and then get swept in the first round. Sigh…oh, ThunderGirl. Bless your heart.

I’m not sure if I’m going to watch the BMW Open later today. Except for the four majors…I don’t think I’m going to be watching all that much golf moving forward under this Saudi leveraged version of the PGA. The Donald Trump transactional greed which has overtaken our country truly sickens me. Phil Mickelson….what a pathetic joke you and Greg Norman truly are.

Be careful out there in the heat running those fence-lines today, Hank.

Have a solid Sunday. Make your own mini-miracle happen.

MJ

Even though it was a blistering hot 106 degrees today in Seminole, my wife (who has told me never to mention her by name on this blog) and I spent the day there at the family two-hundred acre ranch. It was too hot to even think about fishing, but that didn’t matter. It was a great day.

We had a very nice lunch of shrimp creole, egg rolls, salad, cantelope, and watermelon. Myself and Brigadier General Regis Augustus Francis Urschler split a bottle of merlot. Dr. Showalter said it was okay now and again for me to have a cold beer or the occasional glass of wine…..so today was my splurge day.

After lunch we took up our standing conversational viewpoints of why we hate Donald Trump and tried to decipher who was/is the most villanous felon in contemporary American history….it came down to a three way tie between OJ Simpson, Donald Trump, and Ted Bundy. I know some will say, “But Trump never actually killed anyone.”

But I always counter with, “Give me a break. On live national television he tried to murder Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. Give the dude credit…that would have been the most dubious double homicide in the anals of mankind. He gets a A+++++ for mens rea criminal intent.”

Grudgingly….heads nodded around the living room.

Then drama occured as one of my sister-in-law’s stud roosters got out of hand and was given a death sentence because of Trumplike criminal activity out here at the ranch in recent days. ‘Little Donald Trump’ or LDT was sentenced to death for acts of serial bullying and pecking some of the grandchildren out here. Quite frankly, some of these grandchildren appear to be somewhat soft to me…and not anything like Little Robert….aka Bad Little Dude.

So using my best legal techniques from my days at the Bob Jackson School of Street Law…I pleaded leniency for my client… LDT, and was granted a stay of execution after a kind man on Facebook agreed to take the rooster. I have to tell you…I think it was some of my best lawyering ever.

Then…with it so hot today…four of the ranch’s five dogs spent the day inside with us. The only omission today was from the pathetic little pissant Yorky named Jackson. He knows how he I feel about him and he stays away from me when we visit… which is good for both of us.

So where was I? So… the other dogs… who I’ve pretty much all come to love. There’s two solid white Great Pyrenees named Siri and Dakota…both very cool dogs. Then there’s Callie an Australian Sheep Dog who’s probably my second favorite of the four dogs given Jackson is more what I would describe as a rodent.

My favorite dog by far has become Hank. Hank is a mix of a collie and a Great Pyrenees. I’d say Hank weighs maybe 85 lbs. He has the facial coloring of a collie with the pure white body the classic Great Pyrenees. Hank has gradually stolen my heart.

Hank was an abandoned dog who gradually became accepted to the family as he hung around the outer fencelines of the property looking for food and love. Through time, Hank has showed himself to be the alpha dog of the bunch. He has everything you look for in the soul of a dog.

He’s smart, loyal, loving, and courageous. Hank reminds me of the dog Buck in the Jack London classic Call of the Wild. As time has passed since Pauli’s death… it’s as if Hank knows of the hurt in my heart and has week by week been more accepting of me. It is truly amazing how the love of a dog can heal your heart.

So that’s it for me today as far as original OKC Thunder content on my Golden State Warriors’ blog.

Have a blessed Sunday.

MJ