On this day in 2007 - Indianapolis beat New England to get the right to go to the Super Bowl. My 13-year-old Australian Cow Dog Slick underwent successful bladder surgery, although the animal surgeon & chief surgical nurse warned me that blue heelers were extremely susceptible to cancerous tumors late in life. Prophetic words, indeed. On this day in 2007 – the weather in Oklahoma City area was horrible – snow, wind, ice, freezing rain, and cold temperatures.
On this day in 2007, my beloved mother, Helen Jean Paxson Casey had just one week of life (as we know it) left. By the end of January 2007, mother had a skin graft donor area (or grief area as it is also called) that never healed, severe dementia, total incontinence, complete inability to walk, no appetite, and no quality of life whatsoever.
On this day in 1996 - After drinking alcohol every day for several years, I celebrated the completion of two weeks of self-sobriety 12 years ago. I am still shocked to this day that giving up alcohol was so easy for me. I just KNEW it was going to be difficult if not impossible to stop drinking. You see, I drank every night, and some nights I drank a lot. Much to my surprise, quitting alcohol was not difficult at all, and I still don't miss drinking today - twelve years later. Still difficult for me to imagine, but I stopped drinking forever, January 8th, 1996.

INFORMATION I THINK YOU SHOULD KNOW

Georgia Irwin Frontiere, 80, was the co-owner and chairwoman of the St. Louis Rams football team. Frontiere was more than owner of the Rams, though. She was one of the most influential and wealthy females in the United States, and she was without question the most influential and wealthy female in St. Louis, Missouri. Georgia Frontiere (September 11th, 1927 – January 18th, 2008) was the same age as my mother – 80 – at the time of her death. Frontiere had battled breast cancer since 2004. She died at the UCLA Medical Center – the same medical center where my first cousin Pat Carter's wife – Patty Carter ppcarter.com – successfully beat breast cancer in 2004.

I constantly bitch and complain about the Oklahoma City weather as being too severe but I probably overstate the case. You know, when I first moved here from Pampa, Texas in 1995, my father asked about the weather differences in November of that year. I told him the high and low temperatures in OKC were about the same as Pampa, although the winds are definitely calmer here in Oklahoma than they are in the Texas Panhandle.

On October 1st, 2007 – the day we buried my mother – the weather in Pampa, Texas was as nice I can ever remember. Clear skies, 80 degrees, not a breath of wind. Just twelve years earlier, my mother and I walked in early afternoon one spring day in Pampa with southwesterly winds blowing at 45-55 mph gusting to 77 mph – and that's no kidding.

I live next to a very nice public golf course – Kickingbird – in Edmond, Oklahoma and there have been only 9 days since my mother died on September 27th, 2007 that I have not seen someone playing golf on those public links. It was going to be 10 days today, but when I went to get a Diet Coke late this afternoon, I noticed a foursome and a threesome playing on the course. Only nine days of weather that's considered too bad for golf in four months of fall and winter isn't too severe a climate I suppose.

Now that I have stopped smoking in 2008, after successfully quitting alcohol consumption in January 1996, some might think I have an addictive personality as well as lots of friends with addictive personalities. As strange as it may seem to you, I do not know any drug addicts (that I know of), nor do I know anyone who is addicted to gambling or hooked on sex. Friends now say I drink too much Diet Coke. Addicted to Aspartame – the novel – coming to a bookstore near you in 2008.

Finally – this past November and December 2007, as well as January 2008 mark the first Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthday months in the last 30 years of my life that I didn't receive anything from the New Braunfels Smokehouse via UPS. Thirty years, and that's the truth. I guess my friends, relatives, neighbors, and friends have all forgotten about me.

It's a terrible thing when your best friend, staunchest supporter, biggest fan, most trusted adviser and your Mother all die at the same time. What's worse is feeling like your best friend has left you behind.

Pat Casey