Tale of a Whale

I've had a giant inflatable whale in my condo for the past 6 months.



This is the whale that IronmAnnie brought to the Cali Half last year and to Ironman Coeur d'Alene back in June. She brought it over for my birthday in July and he's been wandering around the condo ever since. I don't have a lot of room in my bedroom, so he mostly hangs out behind the couch. I had some people come over for Christmas and I thought it was finally time to clean up the place and deflate him. But I couldn't do it. At first I felt that I needed to preserve the genuine Idaho Ironman air inside, but then I realized IronmAnnie probably deflated it before taking it on the plane. It's not like I'm throwing him away, I could blow him back up any time right?

But I can't. I just really like him and I think it would make me sad to see him shrivel up. I can just imagine him looking up at me as the last bit of air leaves his body, trying to understand why I would abandon him like that. So it looks like he'll be sticking around for a while. At least he matches my black couches.