Tribute to Barbaro

This is amazing...

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Champion of Hope

First Saturday in May, a charge fills the air,
In Kentucky they gather, a most splendid affair.
The Run for the Roses, mere hours away,
As twenty colts vie to be champion this day.

Some colts seem anxious, aware of the task,
Some balk and some bray, while some seem to bask.
But asleep in his paddock, a champion sublime,
The unconcerned Barbaro, enjoys some peacetime.

As post time draws near, and the horses are saddled,
The once sleeping Barbaro, appears to be rattled.
He starts to act up, his groom works to console,
In a moment the horse is brought under control.

The Post Parade finished, they load at the gate,
The unbeaten Barbaro wears number eight.
With seven to left, and eleven to right,
The start gates crash open, twenty youngsters take flight.

The front stretch is blazed in the blink of an eye,
One-hundred thousand faithful watch them rush by.
The field rounds the turn, down the backstretch they bound,
Halfway to the roses, halfway to the Crown!

Five furlongs cleared, and the noise starts to churn,
Moving faster and faster into the far turn.
The crowd starts to rise like a wave on the sea,
Which colt will move up, which one will it be?

Around the last turn and they charge into sight,
One horse pulls ahead, and seems up to the fight.
A thundering bay is now leading the field,
Digging in like a steam shovel, a champion revealed!

His rider has no need to go to the whip,
This magical colt has run his perfect trip.
The others are fading, as if they all know,
Today there's no way they can catch Barbaro!

The bay locomotive explodes to the line,
The next best has slipped seven full lengths behind!
A deafening roar now erupts from the fans,
Who all sense the magic they've watched from the stands.

A Derby performance unseen sixty years,
Has rekindled dreams that bring many to tears.
Twenty-eight years since the crown has been worn,
Twenty-eight years of dreams tattered and torn.

Nineteen brave contenders have given their all,
And nineteen contenders have taken a fall,
But now there is one for whom destiny waits,
In a blanket of roses, it's Barbaro the Great!

For weeks people speak of him breaking the drought,
His romp to the roses leaves little to doubt.
The shadow of Slew, of Big Red and Affirmed,
Will finally give way to perfection confirmed.

The Pimilico track is awash in the glow,
In the paddock sits larger-than-life Barbaro.
The undercard races tick down like a clock,
As the Preakness approaches the faithful take stock.

He's led from the paddock and joins the parade,
As thousands anticipate history made.
The gates are all loaded and all that remains,
Is a mile and sixteenth, and a seventh field tamed.

With millions now watching, a cruel twist of fate,
A single bay colt breaks alone from the gate.
An audible gasp echoes over the track,
As his rider fights hard just to hold the horse back.

To the amazement of all, the fortunes have changed,
For the great Champion Barbaro, and his fate prearranged.
He's led back around, and again loads the gate,
Can this champion regroup from a tragic mistake?

The gates are flung opened, they bolt down the track,
Barbaro breaks cleanly, and he's running mid-pack!
There's hope after all for this champion renowned,
To reel them all in before shutting them down!

But another groan rings out, with cries of despair,
Barbaro has pulled up, and dread fills the air.
With his right hind leg shattered, he struggles to run,
The pack draws away quickly, the dream is undone.

Six races finished, and six races won,
His only defeat, in a race never run.
But now a new challenge, a new field of strife,
Confronts this bold champion: a race for his life.

With the prayers of the faithful, and the odds stacked against,
His crestfallen owners spare no expense.
For his chance to survive this disastrous blow,
The New Bolton doctors do all that they know.

For eight months he battles through every travail,
As millions hold hope that he'll somehow prevail.
This horse with no rival upon the racetrack,
Continues to carry such hope on his back!

But every great champion faces the day,
When no more contenders stand in their way.
When no more mountains, exist for to move,
When finally, at last, there is nothing to prove.

With all of his races on earth finally done,
This bold, gallant hero continues to run.
With Big Red, Slew and Affirmed by his side,
His legacy: Hope! Barbaro did provide.

by Derek Granger 1/30/07

Barbaro

The 132nd Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro, was euthanized yesterday (January 29th) from complications from laminitis (disease of the hoof where the bone separates from the hoof) and his shattered leg. He's been battling for his life since the Preakness (2 weeks after the KD in 2006). Wasn't a surprise to me yesterday (I've been seeing the signs the last few weeks), but it's still really sad. This horse brought many people together and showed that mankind can be compassionate and come together. I also did my final project for my class last semester on him so it makes me even sadder since the last part of it mentioned the clinic he was at (New Bolton Center) was thinking of transfering him to a new home. Well, he's definitely in a new home, but not the one people thought of.

Here's the Blood-Horse Article if you'd like to read a bit more. If you want to read past articles on everything that's been going on with him since he broke his leg in the Preakness go here.

RIP Barbaro.







All photos from Barbara Livingston's Webpage

The New Year

So...I haven't posted in a while. My life has been insane and I've been lazy, what a bad combination.

Anyway, this shall be a summary of the last month.

21st birthday: I woke up and worked on homework (final projects and papers), went to dinner at Olive Garden with the fam around 6 pm, came home and opened presents and had a FAB tart, went and did homework till 4 am. That was my 21st birthday!

Christmas: I promptly got sick on Dec 23rd (the day after I finished school...go figure), and went through work feeling semi-okay. I worked for 3 (or was it 4?) hours on Christmas Eve, went to the Aquarium for a half-shift, went to Christmas eve service (feeling worse than the day before), and went to bed. Woke up for Christmas just dead...We spent about 2.5 hours opening presents amongst the entire family (all 3 brothers and their wives, the niece and nephews, parents, Kristi, and I), went back to bed, got up for Christmas dinner, and went back to bed.

The rest of that week: I called out of work on the 26th (the first time I've EVER called out from work in 2.5 years of working at Borders). I went in for a half-shift on the 27th because I had to work on Bargains and whatnot. I had the rest of the week off and the Friday before New Years my parents and I drove down south to my oldest brother's. About midway down (Santa Maria), my nose started to bleed. Making a long story short...2.5 hours later it's still bleeding and I'm in the Santa Barbara ER. To make an even longer story shorter...I got my nose packed with, what the medical community terms as, a nasal tampon. It expands when water is placed on it. It was packed after they tried to catarize the blood vessel about 4-5 times with silver nitrate. When they packed my nose...the pack went WAY up into the nasal cavity (actually into my head...it wasn't in anywhere I could "point" to). It BURNED! My left eye kept watering and I was done for. I found out that Vicodin is NOT my drug of choice. It makes me ill -- no happy drug there! I also impressed the doctor that was seeing me. It always makes you feel slightly better when an ER doctor is impressed about things. He told a student doctor that the vessel that was bleeding was like a little artery that just kept pumping blood. The nose pack also put me out of commission the rest of the weekend. I slept through New Year's, suffered through a small fever, migraine, blah, blah, blah. I also lost about 5 pounds that weekend from not eating. You never realize how important it is for your nose to be able to move until you can't move it...On top of that...I also learned how to sneeze out of my mouth. Since I was still sick from before (sick with a terrible cold), I was sneezing and coughing. Of course with the nose pack, I couldn't do either well and DEFINITELY not out of my nose! I'm still sneezing out of my mouth out of habit...It's much messier than from the nose...

After we came home So. Cal...I went to my primary doctor to get the pack removed. They spent aeons trying to get it out and when they did...my nose started to bleed from the same spot again! I was sent to an E.N.T (ears, nose, and throat doctor). He checked me out, almost made me scream when he stuck that dumb thing up your nose to contract the vessels and "open your nose up." He actually looked at me concerned...I still don't like messing with my nose. It scares me. After having 3 doctors mess with the inside of my nose, having it packed, attempted at catarized, and finally catarized...I'm NEVER having someone mess with my nose again! Anyway...the E.N.T catarized the blood vessel and told me I couldn't lift anything heavy or do any exercising or anything like that for at least 3 days. Of course, I was supposed to work the next 3 days. I told him where I worked and he told I couldn't work and gave me a note to get out of work.

Once I was well...I went back to work. Was a bit slow, but moving. It felt NICE! I worked the 2 weeks left of my vacation (some vacation it was) and went back to school last Monday (Jan 22nd).

I'm taking 3 classes = 13 units.
Bio 340 aka Ecology
ESSP 384s aka environmental justice service learning (lots of self-reflections, critical thinkings, and it's a service learning class -- 30 hours of community service at a designated place)
ESSP 350 aka Quantitative Field Methods (QFM -- basically doing a monitoring project and using statistics and such to determine the outcomes or answer your question)

I'm also working once a week and still volunteering every other Sunday. I reached my 1,000 hour mark back in December at the aquarium. My shift and the aquarium made a big deal about it. I got my 1,000 hour pin and a really nice pen by Leed's that says "Monterey Bay Aquarium" with the logo on one side and "Volunteer" on the other. My shift made cupcakes with "1,000" written on them and they wrote a "filk" about me to the tune of "Down by the bay." I also got my certificate and a letter (few days later) from Julie Packard "on behalf of the board of trustees."

With that...I am off to go do some homework reading and some other stuff!

Laters

ETA: I almost forgot to post semester grades.

CST 201 (digital design): A+
Bio 241 (bio II): B+
Bio 241L (bio II lab): A
ESSP 332 (GIS/GPS): A
ESSP 332L (GIS/GPS lab): A
ESSP 300 (critical thinking/writing/career): A

I made the Dean's List and that GPA is a 3.86. My cum is the same (down a hundreth of a point from last semester...*sigh*)