One Fish, Two fish, Red Fish…..Dead Fish

Some days are like that. One moment life is proceeding in a predictably mediocre and tedious manner, then the next moment your are flopping, and dehydrating outside the comfy wading pool of life.

I keep a small water garden on my deck. It isn’t anything more than a forty gallon bucket, a pink grapefruit water lily, and ~~two~~ one comet goldfish. They fish lived there, virtually unaffected by hardship by the elements for almost a year. When we acquired them, one was more dominant than the other. Chasing, smacking, cajoling. Regular old fish hazing. The fish in the larger pond never showed any signs of domination issues.

Because there was noticeable aggression and competition issues, the “deck” fish earned names. I named them after my spouse’s parents (for the sake of anonymity, I will call them White Comet, and Red Comet. I rarely name fish. Everything else that requires feeding, and a few things that don’t, have names, but fish, not so much. It isn’t as if they come when called, or give a rats ass about affection. Their needs are food, water, habitat. Check, check and check.

Since the end of winter, the deck fish have been rather mellow. No aggression, no chasing, no harassment. Life is good, or so it would seem. I thought White Comet might have mellowed in part to the long cold winter due to six inches of ice on the water garden. She wasn’t nearly as obnoxious after the spring thaw. Red Comet, well he was as mellow as always, at least until yesterday.

Apparently, he just couldn’t cope with the absence of confrontation in his life, and jumped out of the bucket, to an extended a painful demise as he dried into a wide eyed crispy critter. White Comet, made kissing gestures and continued swimming in a circle.