the long, sad, slow demise of gus

gus joined our family mere days after dave and i were married.
gus was a wedding gift from dave's parents.
gus is dying.

gus is our couch. he was the first piece of furniture i ever owned. i loved gus.gus is the most comfortable couch i've ever sat on.
he wasn't the first couch we picked out, but the other one wouldn't fit down the stairs of our tiny basement apartment.
we had a few problems right from the start, and rc willey had to come pick him up three separate times to fix him.
after the third time, he was fixed for good.
dave sleeps on gus almost every night--he falls asleep watching tv.
gus even taught me a few lessons:

1. never buy a couch with removable back cushions
2. never let children eat on a couch
3. never buy a couch with only two cushions. it makes it awkward for 3 people to sit on.
   

you might be wondering how he got his name. after isaac was born i used to lay him on the couch a lot. he always turned his head to the side where the cushion was (no matter which direction we laid him) and he would "talk" to gus. it was very sweet. i have hours of footage of isaac and gus's conversations. it's fascinating. not really, it's incredibly boring. but when it's your first kid, everything is fascinating. somehow dave came up with the name "gus", and he would say "are you talking to gus?" and isaac would always "talk" a bit more. it's very sweet. this is the main reason i'm sad about gus's death.

isaac used gus as a train/car track for a long time.
we spent hours going around and around this couch with trains and cars and anything with wheels.
that's how the arms started deteriorating.

gus has served us well, but he didn't endure our move as well as we'd hoped.
somehow during the move from draper to clearfield, this happened:
and then a few weeks ago, this happened:
and this:and poor gus has had to endure spill after spill, stain after stain.
i've taken his covers off and washed them a few times, but as you can see, gus is dirty.
disgusting.
old.
worn out.
falling apart.it's always hard to lose a member of the family.
but we have to say good-bye, and soon.
our new couch gets delivered sometime between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm today.
i can't wait.
so long, gus.