Monday, April 20, 2009

Bishopolis

Bishopolis
Bishop, Calif. April 2009

We took Tessie with the boys to Bishop for a weekend in the Eastern Sierra Nevadas. Fresh air, blue skies, snow packed peaks, world-class climbing, good conversation around a few fires, and my dog-- now we are talking! It was just what I needed to set my head straight after a crazy spring. Tessie loved it too. I have to admit it, she can outclimb all of us.




Hike.
Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, Calif.



Yoga.
Buttermilks, Bishop, Calif.



Stream.
Buttermilks, Bishop, Calif.



Breakfast.
Buttermilks, Bishop, Calif.



Nap.
Happies, Bishop, Calif.



Pull.
Happies, Bishop, Calif.



Chalk.
Happies, Bishop, Calif.



V-Hard.
Happies, Bishop, Calif.



Nope.
Happies, Bishop, Calif.



Chillaxing.
Hot Springs, Mammoth, Calif.


Sunset.
Hot Springs, Mammoth, Calif.


View.
Buttermilks, Bishop, Calif.



Drive.
Mojave, Somewhere on the 14, Calif.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Tessie's First Week

Tessie's First Week

Hard to believe it has been already a whole week since Tessie came home with us. She is doing great! She got a clean bill of health from the vet this morn. She even got microchipped with a GIGANTIC bloody needle without a flinch. It was rad! She put on a whole 2 pounds already and her coat is looking super sleek. She is slowly adjusting to the other dogs but is still a little nervous at times when she gets crowded. She is a real pain to wake up in the morn (dang kids) and still loves to nap the day away. No complaints here. Now that she is off the meds it is really cool to see her Little Miss Boxer personality come on out. She is a quarky little lady let me tell you!




"Okay Pops so I thought you were kidding when you said my face will freeze this way..."


Special K.


Lucy has little interest in searching for sea shells at the sea shore.


Sit pretty. Or pouty. Your call.


MiniBick was kinda' crabby in the AM but she came out of shell by the end of the day. (What too early for puns?)


The gang. Rincon, California, 2009.


The pack.



Hawaiian hook belly.

Tessie 2

Tessie
(Parte Dos)


For all of you who want to know why we named Tessie Tessie its really quite simple. Its the only name she would respond to. Seriously. Well okay not quite really. When the BRLA found her they had no idea what her name was so they decided on Georgia. I really liked that name but it just wasn't her, almost though, almost her. It was a hard decision. The fact that the first afternoon she never once acknowledge me when we called her Georgia made it a little easier of a decision.

So Tessie is a name steeped in tradition and mired in legend. Its a name with deep historical significance. Songs have been written about the name and empires crumbled at the its very mention. No exaggeration, honest. So lets start at the beginning. Well maybe not the very beginning as that would involved a fat lady singing to a parakeet on Beacon Hill sometime after the Tea Party. For simplicity sake we can fast forward through that. So come the turn of the century the Boston baseballers were the hottest ticket in town (and still are some say). In 1903 Boston was in the World Series facing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Back then it was a best of 9 series and of course in fine Boston fashion the boys from Beantown were down 3 games to 1. Pittsburgh needed just two more wins to be the champs.

Lets pause for a sec, back then there was a group of fans dubbed the Royal Routers. Part drunken rabble part glee club the Routers would sing various songs to boost their team's moral and distract the opponents. The Routers were a rowdy bunch indeed. Often if they disagreed with an umpires call they would flood the field and threaten the ump, the ump's mother, and possibly even the ump's pets with bodily harm and other rather distasteful endings. (Quick note to self; never one to turn down a good Irish drink or a good Irish brawl, Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of President Johnny F. Kennedy, was a member of the Royal Rooters. That's right JFK grew up a Sawx fan.) But lets stick to the singing. A Broadway musical of questionable popularity was being played out by performers of questionable talent at that time. Tessie was the song that quickly became notorious from the show simply for its annoy habit of getting stuck in the audiences head and playing over and over and over and over and, well you get the point. Its maddeningly annoying right?

Okay so back to the 1903 World Series of Baseball, Sox down three games to one, enter the rabble rousing Royal Rooters. They sang the song Tessie over and over again. They hired a band to play Tessie in Pittsburgh to annoy the Pirates on their own field. They cheered and sang and cheered the Boston team all the way to a remarkable come-from-behind victoire and the World Series crown.

Fast forward to 1918. The Red Sox had won 5 World Series titles between 1903 and 1918. Tessie played a role in each of them. Then after the 1918 series win the Babe was traded for a song and the Rooters locked out of Fenway. There is something about a curse involved but lets not get into that. Needless to say, Tessie was slowly forgotten by all but the most faithful in Red Sox Nation. The Fenway faithful went year after year without a Series win to show for the faithfulness.

Que 2003/4 and a little known (at the time) Boston Irish punk band the Dropkick Murphys. The Dropkick Murphys rewrote the song Tessie and released it in June of 2004. Soon it was once again a fan favorite and rallying cry of Red Sox Nation. The band played the song live in Fenway versus the dang Yankees in July. From then on the Sawx tore things up cruising all the way to the ALCS to face the hated Yanks again. In the best of 7 series the Red Sox lost game one. Then they went and lost game two. Then they got handed their lunches in game 3. No other professional team had over come back from an 0-3 deficit. No one. Ever. With the refrain of Tessie and Sweet Caroline lingering over the crowd the Red Sox went on to come from down by 7 runs ti game four to win. Then they won game 5. And then game 6. And then wouldn't you know it they won game 7 and were to to the World Series for the first time since 1986 (damn Buckner). The rest is history. The Sawx swept the Cards of St. Louis in 4 games and won the first World Series in 86 years. The liner notes for The Warrior's Code describe the band's intentions,

"We recorded this song in June 2004 and after giving it to the Red Sox told anyone that would listen that this song would guarantee a World Series victory. Obviously no one listened to us or took us seriously. We were three outs away from elimination in game 4 at the hands of the Yankees and receiving death threats from friends, family, & strangers telling us to stay away from the Red Sox and any other Boston sports team and get out of town. Luckily for us things turned around for the Red Sox and the rest is history."


2007 comes along and the Sawx again are facing elimination, this time down 3-1 to the Cleveland Indians. The Dropkick Murphys were invited to perform Tessie live in Fenway. Sure enough after the performance the Sox exploded and stole the ALCS crown from right under Cleveland's nose. Once again the Sawx were off to the Series. This time they swept the Colorado Rockies to win the Championship.

It was 86 years before Tessie was sung again in Fenway-- 86 years without a championship in Boston. The song is song twice in Fenway (once in 2004 & once in 2007) and voila two World Series rings in three years (once in 2004 & once in 2007). Coincidence? Tessie doesn't think so...





"Look at me, look at me! I can sit! Gimme a treat camera boy, I'm sitting man!"


I like to blow bubbles.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Tessie

Tessie

After my roommates Aaron & SarawithouttheH rescued Lucy back in January I became really interested in rescue dogs, Boxers in particular. With the way the economy is these days so many poor puppers are being abandoned because their families can't afford a pet or they lost their home and couldn't have a dog living out of a motel, car/truck, or whatever. The other issue with Boxer's is that there is a false public perception that they are mean aggressive dogs. For the breed in general that couldn't be further from the truth, Boxers are total goof balls and wicked loving. All these wanna be gangbangers go out and get a Boxer puppy thinking they are getting a bad ass guard dog only to find out they got a clown instead. Then they just abandon the poor pupper and try again.

After learning all this I started putting together a short film on Lucy's story and rescue dogs in general. This brought me to volunteer down at the Boxer Rescue of LA (BRLA). BRLA has some abso-frikin-lutley rock star dogs! Honestly though after spending time with all the puppers it is hard to leave them at the end of the day. I wanted to take all of them home with me. Every one is deserving of a second chance. After a few weeks it was obvious I had to do a little bit more to help out. That is where Tessie comes in.

We do not know whole lot about Tessie before she was rescued by BRLA. We can piece a little bit of the last few weeks together but everything else is a mystery. She was attacked and munched on by a larger dog and then either abandoned at the animal hospital or found by the animal hospital in San Bernadino. Boxer Rescue found out about her and picked her up from there. She was really sick when I first met her. She had some pretty serious kennel cough which was very close to turning into pneumonia and some digestive issues. Both are pretty common in rescue dogs but because she had been neglected and chewed on before hand it was a little more serious with her.

It was impossible to walk into the infirmary and not want to take her home. Those big brown eyes of hers just say love me! Once her health had improved enough she was ready for a new home. Aaron, Laurel, and myself drove down to BRLA Sunday with their Boxer's Kaya and Lucy and the Golden Retreiver Saide. It was a lot of furriness. We introduced the house dogs to five or six rescues hoping for a match. We first tried a male Brindle with a big black face named Legend. He was an awesome awesome dog but the ladies we not all the excited about him. Then there was Gunner, then Rags, then Lola (the godzilla Boxer, super huge!) and a couple others-- all amazingly great dogs but just not a match. Last but not least came Tessie. She was the only pup that day that the three house dogs did not seem to mind. After a walk around the block all four dogs curled up in the shade and took a nap. We were finally off to the races!




Hello world!


What do you mean sit pretty? There's sand to be eaten photo boy!


Tessie has two speeds-- nap and full-bore sprint. This is good because I have two speeds as well-- nap and ummm well nap again.



Lucy & Tessie found they have a lot in common, namely sneaking afternoon naps in the sunshine.