My friend Jud died this week.
His memorial service will be Saturday afternoon at AA’s Western Club.
Once upon a time, he was a hard case gangster bootlegger but he sobered up and stayed sober for nearly 40 years. I always tried to sit close to him when we were at the same meeting. He was a wise and inspiring mentor to a lot of us in the recovery community here in Oklahoma City. He helped untold numbers of drunks to get sober and get a job and get a life.
I’m proud to say our last words, only about a week before his death, were “I love you.”
I hope he meant it as much as I did.
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I had a doctor’s appointment for 2:30 p.m. yesterday. When I still hadn’t seen the doctor at 4:30 p.m., I left without getting the results of last week’s CAT scan. Does anyone have a clue about why doctors seem to think this is appropriate behavior?
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I’ve been a lot more active and have felt much better this week than last. As MCARP noted on his blog, I even made a late-night rendezvous with him for coffee at Beverly’s. Last week was truely crapola in my life. Lots of pain and pain pills meant nothing whatever got done. Just as mysteriously, I started feeling better Sunday evening and got some things done this week as I reduced my opiate intake by half as the pain receded.
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I’ve absolutely loved the weather.
I went out to Lake Hefner about 9:30 p.m. the other night to drink a Braum’s chocolate milkshake, get some wind up my nose and watch the lightning display in the southern sky. Last night’s storm was too strong for me to get out of the house, but I enjoyed the wind-driven rain, the frequent flashes of lightning and the window-rattling thunder. I really get a thrill from a good, old-fashioned Oklahoma thunderstorms.
Also, sitting out on the back patio and drinking coffee in 70-degrees and a cool breeze beats the hell out of wilting in the 100 degree conflagration that can be Oklahoma summertime.
Not just that, but it’s getting to be football time. Boomer Orange Power Sooner and go Broncos!
Heritage Hall beat Cassidy last night. Congratulations, Chargers. It makes the whole damn season for my old school to win that game.
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I remain gobsmacked by politics. I look at Obama and see a wind-down of the Iraq mess he inherited, more and more Al Q leaders killed and captured in Af-Pak, the further isolation of Iran and the start of direct Israel-Palestinian peace talks and think he’s doing OK in foreign policy if not really good. At home, we’ve got the lowest tax rates in 60 years, an expanded health safety net and a rejuvenated auto industry, among other successes. On the other side, I see Jan Brewer going blank in Arizona, Joe Miller spouting nonsense in Alaska, Glen Beck being incoherent on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Newt Gingrich losing his mind over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque, and wonder how in the world those guys can be ahead in the polls by 10 points. The hell with killing Buddha if I see him on the road, it’s John Galt I want to assassinate; the crypto-Nazi wet dream of Ayn Rand inspires me with loathing and it makes me want to puke when I hear his purile admirers blather on.
I guess that’s the political news from way outside the mainstream.

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