The passing of a very old friend

He was just a foam dinosaur really.

The orange/red dinosaur clock that came into our kitchen, back when Emily was very young, died last week and I miss it.  It really never had a name.  It sat smiling like an apostle above the north facing windows in our kitchen for so long, and even though every appliance seems to have a clock in it, and so do the computers, the cameras and the phones, the Dinosaur set the time in my life.  It ran on a standard AA battery and was immune to our occasional rural interruption in electricity.  The hands and face were big enough to be read from anywhere in the room, once you got used to it.  This thing worked; it kept great time and I wanted it to live at least as long as I did.

Amazingly, it was in horrible shape. Look at it, the bottom is all scruffed up, the foam is falling apart.  This is more than strange, considering it only came down from the hanger twice a year to be moved forward or backward an hour and get it's battery renewed.  The face of the clock was dirty and fly specked.  The hands were slightly bent and the whole thing was ready to fall apart.  Occasionally the battery came undone.  Gravity?  Moisture? Earthquakes?  Who knows.  The foam is pitted and falling out in tiny pieces, such tiny pieces we didn't notice it.  Now that it sits on the counter with pennies over its eyes, all the hands pointed at 12, we see it has gone over the hill.  About 12 inches from tail to snout, the creature just fit into our decor.  Nothing like a wild colored children's toy, soft, foam, cutout dinosaur shaped clock for that modern (or classical!) interior design statement!  I suppose if we bury this clock (being a dinosaur and all) and wait a few millennia, it will turn into some kind of sludge that we can use for energy.    

It will be years before I stop looking up there for the clock.  Maybe someone has a replacement to suggest, something that brings the same ambiance to the country kitchen we spend so much time in.  Something that keeps good time and won't give up after just 30 years.

Christmas is only 6 months away!