“Couch” is our prompt for the SoCS today.

I have one couch. It’s a6 piece  sectional that I bought when I moved into my dream house up north. It has a recliner at either end. Not electric, but the manual lever kind, that you have to kick the footrest in to close them. I loved this couch when I bought it. Both my son and I sat in it at the store, and said “This is the one.” It’s a cream color, covered in microfiber, and is quite comfortable, at least I find it so. Now, 8 years later, one of the seats is a little depressed, because it has been sat in every day for those 8 years, unless I wasn’t home. Comfy to sleep on, to watch movies on, to just sit and talk with friends and share a glass of wine.

However, since I’ve come to Florida, it has deteriorated. Not from abuse, at least not abuse from me. But, some fruit rats apparently found the cloth tasty and chewed a bit of the cloth off a corner of the footrest where it folds to nearly the floor level.

We had a fruit rat problem here about 2 years ago, about the time Hurricane Irma shut down my power for 8 days. Fruit rats are common here. They live in the tops of palm trees and enter the house through the roof/attic/vents. I had the guy who maintains my house for bugs deal with them and he got rid of them in pretty short order. We occasionally see signs of one, and perpetually have rat poison in those little black cases stuck in the corners of cabinets. So that’s when they got so hungry they started eating my couch. Critters are just a problem down here, and bugs. Especially in a 92 year old house that sits on blocks without a cement pad under it. I love my house, but I am so sick of critters. (Though I haven’t seen a palmetto bug in a few weeks, and that’s a good thing. They creep me out as much as the rats. Well, not quite that much.)

So the problem with my couch, aside from the chewed up corner and seat that is worn is that Dan doesn’t like it.  The rats chewing on it creeped him out (and me but not as bad)  He’s much more of a minimalist than I. He is not crazy about big comfy furniture, or lots of stuff on the walls, or chachki etc. I guess when and if we get it together to sell our homes and combinne our households into one, it won’t be coming with me.

I will miss it. It is one of the first things I was able to buy for my own home without any noise from anyone. (Meaning my ex…) I picked out the house, and then went to the furniture store and picked out my couch and my bedroom set on my own, with, again, no noise. I love them both, but in the interest of combining households, I have chosen the bedroom set and let the couch go. Besides Dan has a nice leather couch, with recliners at each end as mine does, but his are electric, making it easier to get in and out of. He has a huge recliner too, so I would guess we would take his living room with us.

I had another two couches in that house. One was a couch and a seat and a half, also covered in microfiber, though it was gray green in color. Those were in my son’s space in the basement, but were bought when I lived in a condo, my transitional space that housed us while we waited for my epic divorce to make it’s way through the supreme court. Both of them pulled out into beds, so my son could have sleep overs, a treat he did not experience much of as a kid with the dysfunction in the house. Anyway, It worked out well. I woke up more than once to find the majority of the high school soccer team sleeping on the couches and/or the floor.

The other couch was in my formal living room. It was my favorite room in the house, with high vaulted ceilings and two skylights, and a big picture window looking out on the front yard. The plants loved that room, with the natural light from the skylights. It was strong and angular. The stairs were on one side, and at the top you could oversee the living room from the hallway which provided a platform with a rail on one side. I had a matching chair, and an old fashioned chaise lounge, padded and comfortable, perfect for reading in that bright sunny room. I rarely used the room for anything else. Sometimes my book club would meet in there, or other groups of friends. Usually it was my family room, and my big comfy sectional that hosted those get togethers.

All in all, a couch has always been where I hung out with the people I loved, at least, those 3 couches. Here in Florida, the sectional is the only one I have, but it is where my writer’s group meets, where my spirit girls meet, where my friends sit when Dan and I play the gongs for them. It’s where he sits in the night when he can’t sleep, it is where I fall asleep watching TV with him. It is where a lot of talking takes place, and laughter. It was a soft place to land a few times too.

A lot of good memories. I will miss that couch.

 

This was written as part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt.  If you’d like to participate, please go to Linda G. Hills website for a list of the parameters, and other rules, at https://lindaghill.com/2019/08/30/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-31-19/