Lament to Larry the Goldfish

The above video is another random youtube find, and I think it's a real gem.

Don left a few times today so I was truly alone in the office for most of today. It was quiet so I cranked my little mp3 player and speaker up loud, and reorganized and looked up resale certificates in the computer. Gail has me weeding out the pre-yr 2000 certs to get rid of customers we haven't done business with for a long time. It's A LOT of files. They have been in business since 1950 something. It has taken me months just to get to the S's. Of course I'm usually invoicing on that computer so I don't get to do the resale cert project very often either. Interesting, yes? NO? Well, don't feel bad, I tend to agree. But it IS my job lol

Larry died today. Larry was the last of my three goldfish that I acquired after Paragon the baby alligator died. Paragon belonged to Joe when we lived in the Raleigh house. The poor gator got a feeder fish stuck in  his gut and the bones from the fish punctured his stomach and he bled out. It was very sad but when he died, there were 3 feeder fish left in his tank, so I adopted them. God, I've had those three fish since like 2001 or something. It was Moe, Larry and Curly originally. Curly was the smaller of the three, and by far the most beautiful. He died pretty unexpectedly about 6 years ago. Never really knew why he died. Moe, the largest, died earlier this year, probably around March. He had some kind of problem with his eyes, where they ballooned out and made it hard for him to see. The Pet co people and the vet said there was nothing I could do for him, so I fed him well, and tried to make it comfortable for him until he passed. I know it's silly to say it that way, but I loved my fish.

I woke up this morning to get ready for work, and I usually go by the tank and check on the fish when I get up. Larry is old now, and I could tell over the last month that he was getting pretty sluggish and I worried about him, so I check in on him a lot. I still have two Siamese Algae eaters (Bonnie and Clyde) in the tank with Larry, and I saw them hanging out in their usual corner of the tank, but no Larry. I turned on the light and looked harder and could see Larry all cramped and twisted up in the Triceratops skull decoration I have in the tank. He was trapped. I thought maybe he was dead already cause he wasn't breathing. I had to reach in the tank and sent him free of it, and he started breathing right away in ragged breaths, and he free floated to the bottom and laid there for a few minutes, but he was breathing. When we left he was sorta moving around, but way more sluggish than I was comfortable with. I told Aaron when we got in the car that he might not make it. I was worried about him all day, and when we got home, sure enough, he was gone. I cried for a minute, and then I fished him out. Bonnie and Clyde are doing fine, and now I have to make a decision on whether or not to keep the tank at all. If I keep it, I'll have to go and buy some kind of fish, because the algae eaters need other fish in there to survive. I'll probably buy some fancy goldfish. If I decide to get rid of the whole thing, I'll take Bonnie and Clyde to Bob's Tropicals and give them to him to foster them out to another home. 

It sorta bombed out my day really. Not that I was in super high spirits to begin with when we got home, but it's like the end of an era you know? I've had those little guys for a long time. All of my pics are still trapped on the old pc, so I cant upload a bunch here yet, but I do have one:

The white one is Larry, and the orange one in the background is Moe. He is actually the larger of the two, but he just looks smaller because Larry is right in front of the camera.
I'm gonna miss my little guys.

I'm gonna go sleep. It's been a long day.