So, that's where you've been

Image of a painting by Craig Mahoney via the Huffington Post.

This picture showed up in an internet meme today, originating with the Huffington Post which printed the copy of a Craig Mahoney painting.

Several people admitted to a tear in the eye at grown-up Calvin reunited with his stuffed tiger.  It certainly brought some memories flooding back here.  In the years my son and I lived together in the house (on alternate weeks of course) Calvin and Hobbes were among our unifying moments, both of us appreciating the daily and especially the Sunday strips.

What was also special in that house we built was the backsplash behind the stove.  We didn't have any women to veto our decorating choices so instead of some cute poster of hanging garlic, we located several instances of Calvin and Hobbes interacting over food, including the color Sunday strip of his mother cutting  brontosaurus steaks with a chainsaw.  We cut them out of a couple of collections books and pasted them to a piece of poster board and then covered it with glass and hung that behind the stove.  It always brought a smile during our cooking adventures.

That backsplash holds a special place in the memory of our life together in that house, along with the list on the refrigerator of numbered excuses my son gave for not going to bed on time when he was told.  What I remember was No. 13 was "Wait, I have to kill a boss first." Instead of shouting out the excuse as he manipulated his Gameboy, he would just shout 13 and continue to play.  There were about 20 of them.  I know I saved that list in a box somewhere, but we left that backsplash behind when we had to move out of the house.

Wish today I could pull a Hobbes AND Calvin and for that matter, my son, out of a memory box like the picture shows.

Original Huffington Post story.