Lost a good buddy last night, his name was Gordon. He was always sitting there smiling at me no matter what. But like all organic things, rot sets in and it is time to go. Poor Gordon, we will miss him (or it).
Gordon was a gourd (or squash) given to me by my Mother in law last fall. I am not sure why, but we never got around to carving him up for a side dish, so one day I just took a sharpie and drew a happy face on it. Since then, he has inhabited a bowl on the counter, lord of all things that never made it into the junk drawer. Much like the volley ball Wilson from Tom Hank’s movie years ago, Gordon became a friend to chat with while packing the last few lunches for the last nester. Occasionally he would lean to one side and need his treasures readjusted for proper balance. I supposed I could have cleaned out the bowl but that would have upset the feng shui.
My husband tossed him out last night having discovered the decay slowly creeping up Gordon’s backside. I found him smiling up at me from the trash can this morning (Gordon, not my husband), right before tossing in the dirty cat food plates. The counter seems empty, a bare spot between the banana holder thingy and the basket of cat food cans. The bowl is still full of stuff however so I guess I have to sort it now.
Gordon’s cousin got tossed out a few days ago after the big wind storm. Seems the hollowed out version used as a bird house could not survive an eight foot drop. It still looked okay but any bird attempting to build a nest would discover the missing floor so out it went into the trash.
Speaking of nests, funny how first we get a “nesting instinct” right before going into labor. We clean and gather and sort and “feather our nest” for the new arrival. Then after 20 or so years, it becomes time to “empty nest” or “empty the nest” as the case may be, but unlike birds, we don’t leave it and build a new one. We start looking around and asking things like…”why are we keeping a rotten squash on the counter with a smiley face drawn on it?” Now when one lives with an artist that would probably be a rhetorical question. Frankly, I’ve wanted to toss Gordon for a long time after he no longer was casserole material, but somehow that stupid sharpie face bonded with me. Maybe it was fear that if I sacrificed him to the garbage gods, I would find ghost gourds waiting to scare the crap out of me on the stairs and in closets and stuff, just like in the movies. The trash truck has come and gone this morning so Gordon is now going to live in my trash can for a whole week. Creepy.
Good thing it is still two seasons away from the time one can buy those cute little pumpkins because I sharpie those suckers up too.
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