Just a fabulous workout today at the MAPS Heathy Living Center in northwest Oklahoma City. Probably the best-toughest upper body weight workout I’ve done in twenty-five years. Ninety minutes total. Did thirty grueling minutes on the terrain bike to get started. Then did ten minutes on the leg press machine. Then did a few minutes of meditative breathing to reset and refocus.
I did the chest, delts, lats, back, biceps, and triceps with a dogged determination.
A black PT named Jerome who looks like he played in the NFL came over to me and said,”I’ve been watching you. I love your work ethic. If you need any guidance let me know.”
I said, ” Absolutely…I’d love to have you aboard on my team.”
He asked, “Your team?”
I answered, “Yeah, my team. I’ve already got Megan and Earl on my Beat Cancer team.”
He said, “You don’t look like you have cancer to me. I know Megan. Who’s Earl?”
‘He’s my seventy two year-old breathing and meditative guru. Charity told me how essential proper breathing is in all this.”
He smiled and asked,” Who’s Charity?”
I answered, ” My first coach over at Integris who sent me over here to take my training to the next level.”
He smiled and said,” Yeah, I’d love to be on your team, Mike. I’d consider it an honor.”
So…I’ve now filled my team with Earl, Jerome, and Megan. Just like with Integris…I have different coaches with three different voices…so to speak.
This is a whole different crowd at the Wellness Center. Most of the people are in pretty good shape, while over at Integris at the Cancer Institute it’s tough. It touches your heart. There was no music over there. Over here the music is blaring… which I love.
Melinda at the front desk told me the original goal at the facility was to sign up 3,000 members. They’re now at 7,000 members and still growing.
I can see why. This place is lit and I really don’t even know what lit really means to the millenials and Gen X’ers. But it just feels lit if that makes any sense.
I don’t see the angry white Trump crowd. I see well read, educated, successful people all around me who are very serious about their physical well being. It’s like not even being in Oklahoma. It’s like being amidst the coastal elites…almost. I feel like I could even wear a President Obama T-shirt or Klay Thompson jersey here and not get a death threat.
I love this place. I’ve included three songs on here which blared during my workout today which I can’t get out of my mind.
I think I’ll blog about Big 12 expansion tomorrow.
“There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer.” -John Wooden-
It’s Friday…hope you’ve had a great week surviving this Oklahoma little mini-heat wave. This is nothing really unless you’re a frilly soft millenial or Gen X’er from the Daily Thunder message board. I love those people. Every society in history has needed a softer side to balance the scales. In Greece, it was the Athenians balancing the hawkish Spartans. Justin and Brandon are probably eating soy, drinking herbal tea, and doing last week’s NY Times crossword as a I write this. Just sayin.
Anyway…I’m going to work out hard on the terrain bike and then work hard on the upper body today.
I have to get going and get over to the MAPS 4 physical wellness center and get to work with Earl and Megan. I’ll maybe explain Earl and Megan tomorrow.
Keep your faith…always.
‘Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.’ -St. Augustine-
What a great day to be a Sooner softball fan. I wrote about this very real possibility on My Farewell to Jordy Bahl piece not that long ago. It makes perfect sense. Kelly is from Houston. She was probably recruited by Patti Gasso when she was in high school. And both Kelly and O State collapsed down the stretch this past season.
I don’t think you needed to be smart enough to solve the Da Vinci Code to see this one coming to fruition.
I was working out with Audra at Integris the day Kelly entered the portal and simply said, ” Kelly Maxwell will end up in Norman. She’s tired of losing at the goal acheiving portion of the season. She can’t do anything more at O State.It’s the Gundy Syndrome.”
I’m sure the O State fans will be both hateful towards Kelly and OU, but as someone who Bleeds Crimson…I could honestly care less. O State fans hate OU no matter what. Despite the fact David Boren and OU hung with O State when in fact they should have joined the SEC back in 2011 when Texas A&M, Missouri, Nebraska, and Colorado left the conference. Both university presidents at A&M and Missouri literally begged OU to follow them to the SEC twelve years ago.
If O State fans are upset about Kelly’s decision….cry me a river. Seriously.
Oklahoma’s #1 moral guardian Jenni Carlson wrote in a piece today in which she wrote OU softball has become The Evil Empire of womens’ softball. I wonder if Nick Saban and Kirby Smart would equate running superb programs as being the genisis of becoming the Darth Vadar’s of college football.
Like many of Jenni Carlson’s moral guardian pieces…this one left me rolling my eyes. If Jenni doesn’t already live in North Edmond she should make the move quickly so as her youngster can play in the North Edmond Soccer Mums Touchy Feely League where you aren’t allowed to kick the ball too hard into a wide open net.
Whatever.
When Lincoln Riley left…I never said all that much escept I played the final scene from Body Heat on here.
When Caleb Williams followed Lincoln to LA….. I praised Caleb for being an outstanding young man.
When Jordy Bahl recently left Norman to go back home…. I cried because a good source told me she was in love with a guy back home. And being that I’m the kind of guy who voted twice for Barack Obama and loves classic chick flick endings…what Jordy did genuinely teared me up.
Granted…I wish Kelly was a five star who played power forward and was coming here to help Porter Moser find his groove in the Big 12. Big time college sports are Darwinian. It is what it is.
Kelly Maxwell… I love the fact you’re coming to Norman to help the Sooners chase a fourpeat.
WTF is ESPN doing with their NBA coverage? I mean…I can see getting rid of Mark Jackson….he’s been dead weight around their necks forever…but to terminate Jeff van Gundy is absurd.
ESPN already ruined GameDay with the inclusion of that moron Pat McAfee…now this.
This now only leaves Mike Breen left standing on what I considered the best NBA broadcast team. I mean, clearly Chuck, Ernie, Kenny, and Shaq have always evisterated ESPN on postgame coverage shows, but Breen and JVG were a breath of breath of fresh air on ESPN.
I was a fan of Scott van Pelt as well…so for me right now in all honesty…TNT, Fox, and maybe even CBS are all ahead of ESPN as far as on on air coverage.
I wish there was some way TNT could incorporate Coach van Gundy into their panel. Maybe they will.
The word is Doris Burke and Doc Rivers will now surround Mike Breen on the ESPN ‘A’ Team. This does little for me. Very little, and from what I’ve read from Mike Breen on all of this….it doesn’t do much for him either.
I had a great day at the OKC North Wellness Center today. I did twenty-five minutes on the terrain bike and did the toughest upper body weight workout I’ve done in thirty years. That’s the thing about being vegan….there’s so little inflamation the recovery time for body recovery is amazing.
I’ll be hitting the North Park Mall tomorrow for my first 1.25 mile walk. I hope to be hitting the 3.25 mile walk track at Mitch Park over there in the heart of The Beautiful People by September 1. They’ve been redoing the asphalt…so I’m hoping the work is completed by then.
Here’s the deal over there at North Park…it’s like an interstate highway. Slow people should stay to the right and not congest the left lane. Stay to the damn right and let the faster walkers pass on the left. I had a liitle problem with a couple on this last time. I’m prepared to start nudging people with the frame of the OBN-Vive1033 and passing on the right if that’s what I have to do.
Love and peace are around us 24/7 if we only take the time to appreciate the beauty of every day.
I’m tired right now and need to refresh before I begin to address this indictment. Unless your brain was removed and has been soaking in a bucket of diesel……I cannot fathom how any human being could view these indictments against the criminal Donald Trump and six of his co-conspirators as a surprise of any sort.
Donald Trump is a punk and a criminal. Period. He will go down in history as the most disgraceful figure in American history to ever serve the office of the United States’ presidency.
If you MAGA people are still on board with this bullshit….I have no idea what to say to you people at this juncture. Except please move outside the borders of the United States.
I hope the previous paragraph wasn’t too vague or ambiguous.
Donald Trump reaks pure human sewage to such an extent that he makes Richard Nixon ‘almost’ appear Lincolnesque.
Although… I disgree with Liz Cheney on many things…. we are one as far as what we think of the criminal, punk, grifter….Donald Trump.
Liz Cheney got routed in her Republican primary. Her political career is over I would think.
Liz Cheney and I disagree on many things, but in my book for this stance which she took which she knew would make her toxic in the delusional world of the MAGA Trump human rabble crowd…. she has my admiration and respect.
Thank you, Liz Cheney and Adam Kensinger because I don’t think maybe minus Nancy Pelosi, Hakeem Jeffries, and Jaime Raskin… the Dems would have had the balls or the hubris to get these crimes to this juncture in our judicial process.
God bless America and democracy. It’s still standing
I didn’t blog yesterday because I was exhausted. Started at the new gym-wellness center on Monday morning. I wish could take Charity with me over there, but it is what it is.
Then I had to attend an HOA meeting out here in Deer Creek-North Edmond. I was so emotionally spent after the meeting ….. I came home and collapsed. Hence…Motivational Monday on Tuesday.
Being diagnosed with a Stage 4 cancer is a walk in the park compared to the dehumanizing experience of being an Edmond HOA president, Vice-President…or just a member. I mean…like wow….. it’s something in between an Alex Jones podcast and a Federalist Society Convention.
Beating Stage 4 cancer is a walk in the park compared to that bullshit. Just saying.
Got up this morning, ate my fruit, drank my hibiscus tea…and then touched my lucky penny from the kid which I placed on top of a small box with Pauli’s ashes.
North Park is a great place to walk when it’s either extremely hot or cold. Unbelievable place to walk or then just have a coffee or tea or eats at Ron’s Burgers or Hacienda Tacos.
I worked hard today. Very hard.
Did a mile today. Then some core and leg strengthening.
Then a black coffee at Ron’s.
On my first walk in the mall…I was pretty much in the slower third pacewise. Second time….probably middle third. Today… I determined a top third pace couple and nudged them at the finish line as I heard Charity’s voice exulting me on, “Go Mike, you go. You can do this …. just like Secretariat.”
This song I posted atop by Chris Cross was was blaring on the loud speaker system while I jostled for the lead at the wire and won by a nose.
It was a great day for me.
Be content and stay out of the heat during the afternoon.
A wonderful week-end of rest and relaxation out here at the Deer Creek Ranch on Saturday, then at my wife’s family ranch in Seminole. I’m totally at peace. It was a good week, maybe my best in seven months or so.
My first day at the Wellness Center gym begins tomorrow. I’m stoked even though I will sorely miss Charity, Audra, and Tyler. There was a human connection there in my darkest hours which will always be with me….as in forever. I plan on touching base with them in early September when I have my next set of labs and my monthly consultation with Dr. S.
We were going to see the movie Oppenheimer this week-end, but decided to push it back to next week-end when the purported Canadian northerner brings us down out of the dog days of successive one-hundred degrees temperature.Next week, my Smerconish Question of the Week will delve into Truman’s decision to drop the A-bombs.
I watched Smerconish yesterday morning. It was one one of the worst shows I’ve seen from Michael in quite some time. Very weak. It would appear Trump Fatigue and the pathetic life of Hunter Biden have worn him out. He’s now gone on vacation and based on what I observed yesterday… he at the minimum should take three weeks off away from all of this bullshit. I sent his website staff an email telling them not to fret…that MJ in Deer Creek, Oklahoma will be carrying the torch while he’s taking a sabbatical.
Now…with no further delay…this week’s Question of the Week is….. of the following four choices which poses the greatest threat to the continuation of American demcocracy?
a. Xi Jipeng
b. Mr. Pillow
c. Vlad Putin
d. Donald Trump
My answers went in this order….1 Donald Trump, 2 Xi Jipeng, 3 Vlad Putin, and 4 Mr. Pillow. I wanted to throw in the obvious easy one with Mr. Pillow so as the average Trump fan who stumbles onto my blog…..isn’t overwhelmed and at least gets one right.
Why did I pick Trump at 1? Fairly obvious unless you’ve been concussed recently. See the video below and I think that should explain my reasoning.
The decision between Putin and Jipeng was somewhat difficult though. I ultimately though had to go with Jipeng because China is both an economic super power and a military power, while Russia is an oil and gas country with nuclear power with no real diversification in their economy.
That’s it for me until next Sunday when we delve into Oppenheimer and Harry S. Truman.
The rise of Austin Reaves to being the LA Lakers’ third most important player this past season was very personal for me as a hoops fan. I love Austin.
I’m an oddity in Oklahoma in that even though I Bleed Crimson and love the Sooners’ athletic programs… OU mens’ basketball is my first love. I love the football and womens’ softball squads and all the other teams managed by Joe C… but Sooner hoops has always been my first love.
OU basketball is my first love dating back to my junior high days when Johnny Mac coached the Sooners and OU was usually the second best team in the old Big 8 competing with Kansas and K State atop the league.
Johnny Mac went on to head coach the Phoenix Suns and got his Suns to an NBA Finals versus the Boston Celtics. The series went six games with the Celtics finally winning the series, but this series will forever be remembered as one of the greatest NBA Finals for Game 5… which went to the Celtics in triple overtime. Just an iconic basketball game.
Dave Bliss, a Bobby Knight protege from Army, followed Johnny Mac and won a Big 8 championship in 1979. Unfortunately… Coach Bliss left to take what at then was considered a better basketball job at New Mexico. A dumb decison as it turned out for Dave Bliss.
Joe Ramsey did okay for a brief spell and was then replaced by Lester Lane. A promising hire who never coached a game at OU due to a heart attack. A genuine tragedy because everyone around the OU program was stoked about Les Lane taking over the program.
Then it happened…an unknown William ‘Billy Tubbs’ from little Lamar University was hired and the Sooners’ then came to own the Big 8 for a decade or so. The Sooners even made it to the ’88 National Championship Game where they lost a true road game to Danny Manning and the Miracles at Kemper Arena by a score of 83-79.
OU had already trounced the Jayhawks twice that season, but it’s tough to win on the road inside of a Kemper Arena full of Jayhawk crazies with zebra Ed Hightower protecting Danny Manning in the second half. But it is what it was.
Billy eventually got worn out with the Sooners, took the TCU job, and was replaced by Kelvin Sampson who got two Sooner teams to an Elite 8 and one Final Four.
Jeff Capel from Duke who was Coach K’s second in command, then took over and got the Sooners to back to back NCAA Tournaments and an Elite 8 appearance. The Sooners lost to a loaded North Carolina team which went on to win Roy Williams a national championship.
Coach Capel stayed at OU for several more years before he was fired by Joe C and David Boren after the Sooners’ flattened after the exit of Blake Griffin. Coach Capel went back to Duke for awhile and has now been the head coach at Pitt for several seasons. I like Coach Capel and was truely sorry to see him not stay longer in Norman.
Joe C then made the prescient hire of Hall of Famer Lon Kruger. Lon did a great job of stabilizing the program. Two if his teams made Sweet 16s and the Buddy Hield-Isiah Cousins group made it it to a Final Four.
Lon retired three years ago and was replaced by Porter Moser who was considered the hottest national hire at the time. I still think it was a good hire. Porter has struggled with 17-15 and 15-16 teams his first two seasons.
But it was a terrible time to take over a new program in the rugged Big 12 given Covid, the transfer portal, and the Wild West days of NIL. I feel confidant Joe C and Porter will figure it all out. I definitely wouldn’t knee jerk after two seasons. I’ve sat behind Porter’s bench several times…he can flat out coach. He just needs an overachieving kid like Austin who wants the ball in his hands the last four minutes of a tight game. A leader who leads by his play.
So if you’re counting and include OU’s 1947 team which lost to Holy Cross in the Finals…six different OU basketball coaches including Bruce Drake from the ’47 team have had significant national success leading the OU mens’ hoop program.
I think Porter will be okay. He’s added two more four stars and five players in the portal. And I think with OU going to the softer teams in the SEC the Sooners will be okay. I mean, in Porter’s first two seasons, he’s already beaten the top two teams in Alabama and Arkansas with double digit wins. The Big 12 is a killer basketball league and soon to be a third tier football conference. Give Porter the time and resources he needs.
I love Austin Reaves and what he stands for as an NBA player. The video above chronicles how this skinny white kid from Arakansas who played at the 3A level in high school went undrafted and became the LeBron Whisperer.
Of course…..OKC’s basketball savant who acquired the Daily Thunder and I shall not list on this post passed on Austin and made such shrewd swing player picks as Terrance Ferguson, Darius Bazely, Ty Jerome, Theo Maledon, Lindy Waters, and Jared Butler. Sigh.
Let’s do a hypothetical before I sign off for today so as I can finish Herman Melville’s novelette Billy Budd. Let’s say El Prez was GM’ing the current roster of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Let’s say I just acquired Austin. Where would I rank Austin on this Thunder team?
I’d go…… 1 Shai, 2 JDub, 3 Chet, 4 Giddey, 5 Austin, 6 Lu Dort, 7 Aaron Wiggins, 8 JWill, 9 Tre Mann, *a second center TBD, 10 Cason Wallace, 11 Isiah Joe, 12 Poku, and 13 Jared Butler.
Sam Presti needs a physical second center to mitigate Chet’s frailness.
That’s it for today.
Be smart about the heat for the next nine or so days.
This is beautiful. There are times I wanted to strangle Russell Westbrook as a Thunder fan/blogger. But as a person… I’ve always loved Russell and his loyalty to his family and inner circle. I’m glad Austin made these comments as he did.
This is an absolute no brainer even in God forsaken Oklahoma. If Oklahoma screws this up there is virtually no hope whatsoever for this desolate state which John Steinbeck addressed in his iconic novel The Grapes of Wrath.
It’s a yes vote. Duh.
Why in the hell would you send Clay Bennett to ‘borrow’ the Seattle franchise and move it to Oklahoma City if you weren’t prepared to eventually build an arena comporable to the other venues in the NBA?
You wanna be seen as a major league city…then act like a major league city.
Fifteen years ago before the Thunder arrived, Oke City ranked as the 31st largest city in the U.S.
Today…..Oklahoma City ranks as the 20th largest city in the country with lit/woke cities like Denver and Seattle in their rear view mirror. Granted, there are quite a few in Oklahoma who read at a 7th grade level and the state is a mecca for the Trump Proud Boy types, but as long the state is finding creative ways to re-brand itself diffently and create tax revenues it’s a great thing being an NBA city.
Even though there’s no way in hell I would buy season tickets….this coming season with my health much improved and Covid under control…I hope to attend maybe ten to twelve games when the Splash Brothers, Jamal Murray, Austin Reaves, Jimmy B, Bam, and Tyler come to town.
All the teams in the West are going to be great this season so as I’m not a Thunder zombie it doesn’t really matter to me how many games the Thunder win, but rather the fact I get to see the best basketball players in the world in person play a mere twenty-five minutes from my front door.
I have no idea how economists specifically gauge IROR (investment rate of return) on a city like Oke City which only has one major league sport tenant. But just think how Green Bay would be viewed without the Packers. Think about how much sales tax revenue would be lost if the Packers no longer existed. Or the residual benefits of NFL or NBA exposure which brands a city, improves the quality of life, attracts new businesses and retirees that comes with having a major league sports team.
MAPS has been a resounding success. This is not the time to balk. Do you think Sam Anderson would have written the NY Times bestseller Boom Town if not for the Thunder?
In closing, back in the day before Hurricane Katrina changed Oklahoma City, it came in second when a large United Airlines project location was being decided. The city then came second to Coloumbus, Ohio for a NHL team. Both times the city’s desolate downtown was cited for its poor level of overall of places to eat, things to do, culture to explore.
But through MAPS the city has changed while much of the state hasn’t. Oklahoma City cannot get it wrong on this one.
Vote yes…so Mike Jackson can see the Splash Brothers, Austin Reaves, Jamal Murray, Jimmy B, Bam, and Tyler Herro in person in the closing years of his life. So Mike Jackson can buy things, pay sales tax, feel the joy of Oklahoma City being an NBA city.
Today was a very emotional day for me. In a few days it will be the five month anniversary of my Stage 4 cancer diagnosis. That day will never leave me. When Dr. S. shut the door, showed me the data and suggested I get my affairs in order immediately… it was clearly an awakening.
He showed me my PetScan. He showed me my outrageous PSA count of 1200 and said,” This may be the highest PSA count I’ve ever had with a patient.” He then proceeded to write down the four medications which would get me started on my battle with cancer. He suggested I explore the physical rehab center across the hall. He never suggested the vegan diet…that was me. He said it wouldn’t be bad idea to pray and hope for a miracle. He said he wasn’t God and we’d just have to do the best we could given the circumstances.
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Dr. S’s assistant came into the room today. She said, “Michael, I think you’re going to be very pleased with what I have to show you today. Your PSA count as of Monday was all the way down to – 0.61, your PetScan is clean, your hemoglobin count has settled in at 12.5. There has been a retraction of cancer as well. Everything is trending right. You’ll always be a Stage 4 cancer patient, but the outlook from here is much different than it was five months ago. Keep working hard. Dr. S will see you in a month.”
I nodded and said “Thank you”… Bit my lower lip and then headed down the hall to the Infusion Room and got two shots in my stomach.
I then headed over to North Park Mall and had lunch with my eighty-eight year-old mother and gave her the good news. I even treated myself to a Ron’s onion burger without cheese today. Dr. Greger says it’s okay to do this now and again,,,,so I did. It was a special day.
So after lunch my Mom heads off to go home after the burgers. I then take my position behind the SuperVive Walker Model MOB1033 and started my half-mile walk inside of the mall.
About two-thirds of the way through my walk, a Hispanic woman in her thirties and her son who looked to be about eight years-old stepped in front of me and halted me to a stop.
She said, “Sir, this is crazy, but my son and I were in the lounge at the Doctor’s office earlier and we saw you there. That was you, right?”
I answered, “Yup. It was a great day for me.”
She then told me of both her parents’ battles with cancer. She then said, “My son has something he’d like to give you.”
I said, “Really?”
She said, “Yes. He has something for you.”
This adorable kid then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a penny and places in my hand. He then says,” Mister, this is one of my lucky pennies. You can have it and throw it in the fountain for good luck if you want to.”
For the seond time in two hours…I bit my lip and then replied to this incredible kid,” If you don’t mind… I’d like to not throw the penny in the fountain, but keep it for the rest of my life to remember this moment. Thank you very much for this very thoughtful gift.”
He nodded and said,”No problem. You don’t have to throw it in the fountain. You can still keep it.”
I tussled his hair. We said our goodbyes. I finished my walk and went home and told my wife…then called my son in Denver.
It was a beautiful day.
Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever surrender your inner faith. Everywhere around us love is there trying to help us.