This dog literally stopped traffic, with at least one occasion of a driver pulling over and getting out of their car just to greet & meet Rex on the side of the road before proceeding on with their errand & their day.
Man, I loved that dog...
Showing posts with label iowa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iowa. Show all posts
17 March 2022
Stop, Commemorate and Listen
18 August 2018
So It Goes
It's with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to our dear friend, Rex Grossman, this week.
Eleven and a half years ago, Rex entered our newly married lives in Omaha, Nebraska. I feel sure that i remember that Rex was born on a farm in Council Bluffs, Iowa (Brooke thinks it was in Nebraska) on the 27th of November 2006.
He survived orthopedic surgery on his right foreleg in his first year of life and moved to Milwaukee, coincidentally, when we did in the summer of 2007.
Rex was a ridiculously good looking dog. In his early years, he would literally stop traffic, with drivers pulling over and getting out of their cars to meet him and ask what kind of dog he was (Beagle / Boston Terrier aka a Boglin Terrier). Rex enjoyed riding in cars - when those people stopped he often seemed to think they were there to get him and he would try to jump into their cars. (This was also often our method for catching Rex when he was still a runner and we'd have to flag down strangers and ask them to open their car door to coax him in and allow us to recapture him). In so many ways Rex's stay with us seemed like a temporary, fleeting thing and he seemed to think that he was soon to be on to something else - to his next big thing.
In subsequent years, Rex became acquainted with Doctor Singh, whose summer cabin i expect we largely funded. Rex survived a toy-induced blockage surgery, mysterious intestinal strangulation (possibly caused by an allergic reaction to avocados), death by chocolate when he ate Grandpa's Christmas gift from under the tree, an eventually explicable summer of malaise in 2013 (caused by a toothpick that had lodged itself under his skin for several months), and finally a prostate cancer diagnosis in September of 2017.
Reading this list of historical woes that Rex went through, it probably seems we were bad human caretakers for a pet. We weren't, but things often seem other than they are. Rex often seemed like a bad dog... screaming and crying loudly anytime we were in public (or in a car). Pulling incessantly on walks. Reliably emptying out the bathroom garbage can if ever we left the house and forgot to put it on the toilet seat. Rex often seemed to sullenly slink away upstairs to lie under the bed when we were home. He generally shied away from hugs and kisses. But all of this, i think, was a complex psychological game that Rex was playing, because, vorallerdings, Rex was a genius dog. A jock who loved playing ball more than life itself and a prototypical 'bad boy', but very self aware (a high IQ and high EQ, as it were).
Rex had a deep and abiding love of Harley Davidson motorcycles - he would sit and watch as one rode by if we were on a walk, or look out the window as one passed us on the highway. We're pretty sure that Rex was a tough biker dude who had been reincarnated as a cute little puppy dog as karmic payback for a tough life knocking peoples skulls together. For certain, this life wasn't Rex's first go round. He was an old soul, and wise beyond his years.
Rex Grossman was a good dog... the best of dogs. He was our dear friend. We often called him "our lodger", because he seemed more like a stranger who had come to stay with us than a family member (that's why he had his own last name!). He became a part of our pack and we a part of his.
We will miss him, and will howl at the moon for a good long while in his honor. Aooooo!
Eleven and a half years ago, Rex entered our newly married lives in Omaha, Nebraska. I feel sure that i remember that Rex was born on a farm in Council Bluffs, Iowa (Brooke thinks it was in Nebraska) on the 27th of November 2006.
He survived orthopedic surgery on his right foreleg in his first year of life and moved to Milwaukee, coincidentally, when we did in the summer of 2007.
Rex was a ridiculously good looking dog. In his early years, he would literally stop traffic, with drivers pulling over and getting out of their cars to meet him and ask what kind of dog he was (Beagle / Boston Terrier aka a Boglin Terrier). Rex enjoyed riding in cars - when those people stopped he often seemed to think they were there to get him and he would try to jump into their cars. (This was also often our method for catching Rex when he was still a runner and we'd have to flag down strangers and ask them to open their car door to coax him in and allow us to recapture him). In so many ways Rex's stay with us seemed like a temporary, fleeting thing and he seemed to think that he was soon to be on to something else - to his next big thing.In subsequent years, Rex became acquainted with Doctor Singh, whose summer cabin i expect we largely funded. Rex survived a toy-induced blockage surgery, mysterious intestinal strangulation (possibly caused by an allergic reaction to avocados), death by chocolate when he ate Grandpa's Christmas gift from under the tree, an eventually explicable summer of malaise in 2013 (caused by a toothpick that had lodged itself under his skin for several months), and finally a prostate cancer diagnosis in September of 2017.
Reading this list of historical woes that Rex went through, it probably seems we were bad human caretakers for a pet. We weren't, but things often seem other than they are. Rex often seemed like a bad dog... screaming and crying loudly anytime we were in public (or in a car). Pulling incessantly on walks. Reliably emptying out the bathroom garbage can if ever we left the house and forgot to put it on the toilet seat. Rex often seemed to sullenly slink away upstairs to lie under the bed when we were home. He generally shied away from hugs and kisses. But all of this, i think, was a complex psychological game that Rex was playing, because, vorallerdings, Rex was a genius dog. A jock who loved playing ball more than life itself and a prototypical 'bad boy', but very self aware (a high IQ and high EQ, as it were).
Rex had a deep and abiding love of Harley Davidson motorcycles - he would sit and watch as one rode by if we were on a walk, or look out the window as one passed us on the highway. We're pretty sure that Rex was a tough biker dude who had been reincarnated as a cute little puppy dog as karmic payback for a tough life knocking peoples skulls together. For certain, this life wasn't Rex's first go round. He was an old soul, and wise beyond his years.
Rex Grossman was a good dog... the best of dogs. He was our dear friend. We often called him "our lodger", because he seemed more like a stranger who had come to stay with us than a family member (that's why he had his own last name!). He became a part of our pack and we a part of his.
We will miss him, and will howl at the moon for a good long while in his honor. Aooooo!
26 November 2017
Drive
This year, I've driven across more than 2/3rds of the continental United States, from from Glendo, Wyoming to Bonita Springs, Florida; across the great state of Iowa; and around the bottom third of Lake Michigan; a bit around parts of Nebraska, Texas, New York and New Jersey.
It's been a strange and sad year for our country, and it's not over yet, but on our recent arrival home from SouthWest Florida, I think that I won't be forging any new roads these last five weeks, so I offer my driving retrospective on 2017.
I love to travel, but a road trip is a special form of tourism. Driving to or through a place helps you see it in a new way. Interacting with local drivers (FIBs, the Pittsburgh Left, Georgians who don't like to be passed and speed up each time you move to the left lane to overtake them but then slow down once you're back behind them again, LA Wazers...) provides insight into the local culture. (The only better way to get in tune with a locality is to take public transit - to get around and see how people really live).
Brooke said to me (after we had just driven 21 hours to Florida for Rex Grossman's "Make-a-Wish" trip to swim and play ball in the ocean) that she loves the magic of an airplane ride... waking up one morning with your feet in an ocean, and returning home to sleep in your cozy bed during a blizzard that night (or vice versa). I agree with this, but even when I do fly somewhere, I like to rent a car and traverse the local streets (see my video from my driving tour of Haiti in 2013 here!).
It seems un-related, but as i drove across this vast and disparate country of ours this year, I was gratified and alarmed to be reminded that we are both the nation of President Trump and the nation of President Obama. We are such a complicated amalgam of a citizenry, it's kind of amazing that we can function (and have functioned) so well as to accomplish as much as we have. It's not to say that there aren't massive wrongs that need righting, and injustices and indecencies and indignities that we can and should solve for - there are. But it's not a small thing that we have created from this nation of mass diversity a grand, awesome, and terrifying power.
In my travels this year, i crossed the Mason-Dixon line, which is not a border (borderlands are thin, desperate places - see Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub for some ideas about this), but is another cultural continental divide of sorts for us. We once fought a Civil War over this divide, and i've heard it suggested that we are approaching a new kind of civil war in our country. This one would not be fought along geographical or tribal lines, but a kind of neo-tribalism. Artificial tribalism. Managed and created tribalism.
But i didn't see that in my trips. We are a disparate lot, and i encountered a lot of folks in my travels who were different from me - who were my Other. But we were also united in common cause of friendliness and decency and civility. It's not the people peppered across this land who are divided, it is the artificial divisions that are being thrust upon us by richer (not higher!) powers that are divisive.
(i expect there is more to come...)
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| Source: googleMaps w/ Paint! |
I love to travel, but a road trip is a special form of tourism. Driving to or through a place helps you see it in a new way. Interacting with local drivers (FIBs, the Pittsburgh Left, Georgians who don't like to be passed and speed up each time you move to the left lane to overtake them but then slow down once you're back behind them again, LA Wazers...) provides insight into the local culture. (The only better way to get in tune with a locality is to take public transit - to get around and see how people really live).
Brooke said to me (after we had just driven 21 hours to Florida for Rex Grossman's "Make-a-Wish" trip to swim and play ball in the ocean) that she loves the magic of an airplane ride... waking up one morning with your feet in an ocean, and returning home to sleep in your cozy bed during a blizzard that night (or vice versa). I agree with this, but even when I do fly somewhere, I like to rent a car and traverse the local streets (see my video from my driving tour of Haiti in 2013 here!).
It seems un-related, but as i drove across this vast and disparate country of ours this year, I was gratified and alarmed to be reminded that we are both the nation of President Trump and the nation of President Obama. We are such a complicated amalgam of a citizenry, it's kind of amazing that we can function (and have functioned) so well as to accomplish as much as we have. It's not to say that there aren't massive wrongs that need righting, and injustices and indecencies and indignities that we can and should solve for - there are. But it's not a small thing that we have created from this nation of mass diversity a grand, awesome, and terrifying power.
In my travels this year, i crossed the Mason-Dixon line, which is not a border (borderlands are thin, desperate places - see Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub for some ideas about this), but is another cultural continental divide of sorts for us. We once fought a Civil War over this divide, and i've heard it suggested that we are approaching a new kind of civil war in our country. This one would not be fought along geographical or tribal lines, but a kind of neo-tribalism. Artificial tribalism. Managed and created tribalism.
But i didn't see that in my trips. We are a disparate lot, and i encountered a lot of folks in my travels who were different from me - who were my Other. But we were also united in common cause of friendliness and decency and civility. It's not the people peppered across this land who are divided, it is the artificial divisions that are being thrust upon us by richer (not higher!) powers that are divisive.
(i expect there is more to come...)
19 June 2007
And so, Milwaukee...
Once again, the interim has been far too long, but the times they are a-changin' and i've turned over a new beer-soaked leaf. Our move to Milwaukee is complete and though there are still many boxes to be unpacked and plenty of holes to be made in the walls, but last night Brooke, RexG & i walked six blocks and then directly into Lake Michigan (it was rainy & the water was freezing, so Rex was a bit unsettled {though he did try to drink most of it}).En route to Milwaukee, we rendezvoused with Jackie in Iowa City at Bob's your uncle, a pizza cafe. We carried on to Clinton on Saturday and arrived at our new place in Milwaukee Sunday morning. An extra-special shout out of thanks to Grant, Liz, Ross, Shane & the Sahlstroms for making it possible for us to move everything we own.
Upon arrival we discovered that the house, which is exceeding cute & old-sy, was also previously leased by a complete slob. There was abandoned furniture, papers, soaps and lotions, and beers (a Coors Light & a Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy), most of which we threw out.
After 15 man-hours of cleaning we were ready to move in... which we did. If Grant, Shane, and Liz were perhaps a bit dismayed at the number of bricks we own & moved, they didn't show it. They were tireless, if a bit winded, and we celebrated the move with a visit to the Oakcrest Tavern (established 2007), a decidedly non-dive bar in our neighborhood.And so we are moved in, and starting to settle in. All are welcome anytime in Milwaukee. A housewarming is in the works, but feel free to come sooner (or later). The house is now clean
if cluttered... and ready for all comers...
22 March 2007
Middling Iowa
We found ourselves in Iowa City, Iowa for St. Patrick's Day Weekend, due to a mixture of tightened budgets, familial uncertainty, and serendipity. My brother Tim had the notion to bring his family to meet up with my parents, Brooke, Rex Grossman, and me in the Amana Colonies' Wasserbahn resort. The colonies are pretty much exactly half way between Clinton, Wisconsin and Omaha and the Wasserbahn sign always looks very impressive.Upon discovering, however, that a nightly rate for the WB hotel was approximately $14,000 Tim rethought the trip. While there was talk of my parents coming all the way to Omaha or cancelling entirely we persevered and settled on the Travelodge - Iowa City (as a side-note...click on the travelodge link and look at the picture of the bathroom {thumbnails below}. Look for a moment. Now, where is the camera?).
Not sure as to whether we'd actually go or not, Brooke and i (& Rex) settled on a single night at the hotel, thinking Iowa City only had, at most 12 hours of entertainment possibility. Serendipitously, however, my good friend nateG informed me that he had been accepted to Iowa's Mass Media program and he and lissa were thinking of making a trip to the big IC that very weekend. Additionally, jackie was also planning on being at home in Center Junction, Iowa (home of the Lib'ry Inn) and possibly making the 1 hour trip in for the St. Patrick's festivities in Iowa City.
So, we piled in the car and Rex made his longest car ride to date without incident (by which i mean peeing on us or the seat). Although having Nate & Lissa and Jackie (not to mention Sandy and Angela who live there) around probably distracted from our familial obligations, we did discover that Iowa City is a pretty damn cool town. From campus and it's old Capitol building to Masala Indian Vegetarian Cuisine to an It's Brothers satellite (untouched by us this trip) the life in Iowa City seems good. Though not as scenic, it reminded me of Decorah with just the right mix of townie life, hippie life, and college life (perhaps a little heavier on the collegial).
St. Patrick's Day started off promisingly enough, with Nate partaking in an afternoon green beer & joel tucking into a Guinness. After dinner and birthday cake with the family we headed back out to wander from bar to bar looking for open seats. The Deadwood bar was definitely a highlight, though the memory is as hazy as the air inside was. To cap off the night brooke, jax and i hit a trashy bar that may have been called the Hilltop where they were passing out Jell-O shots just before closing... a sort of parting 'one-for-the-road' sort of gift...except you pay for it. All in all, the bar scene in Iowa City mirrored the rest of the town, with a good balance of trashy, classy, hipster and poser. If you find yourself inexplicably in Iowa City, fear not for it has much to offer.
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