…lives in a Cuban bar/restaurant called”Cuba Libre” on Vermont. Whenever one goes there, there he is, doing what geckos do – sitting still, looking interesting.
Right, it’s not a real gecko; somebody stuck him up on the wall for decoration. But I love going to the place because of it. The food is good, the drinks are up to the standard one expects from a “bordering on the serious” bar – but the gecko makes me smile.
Every time.
Which is probably the best reason to return again and again.
Do you have any? I have a large one on a wall in the living room, and a smaller one that hangs very oddly from the fireplace mantel. It’s quite interesting, actually. We also have real geckos in the front flower bed, and apparently two families that live behind our outside wall mounted lights on either side of the front door. This year, we also had a family that lived in our mailbox. Every day, I would forget that fact. So, I’d pull the mail out of the mailbox, and two or three geckos would come out with the mail, scaring me half to death. Apparently they climbed back up and into the mailbox every day, because we’d have the same scenario the next day.
Oh, and we have geckos that get on the back screen windows and on the walls. The dogs see them, and focus on them. They really want one of those geckos, but they little lizards stay just out of reach. The dogs whine at them, but it doesn’t help.
Unfortunately we do not have geckos in the house. The types of geckos native to SoCal prefer the desert – lots of sand to burrow into and plenty of boulders to hang out on.
I remember however having geckos in the house on Isola d’Elba. One considered oneself lucky if one moved in. The houses there (the older ones) are build pretty much like adobe houses here in the US. The reasons for building houses in this style was that those thick, thick walls never dried out completely during summer, thus keeping the inside of the house cool during the hot Mediterranean summer. The drawback is that one always has a bit of an infestation of vermin – and that is where the gecko(s) come in, they take care of that. So, having a gecko around is indeed something one is grateful for on that island.
I always found the resident gecko fascinating to watch. Not moving for a long, long stretch of time – and then, suddenly, they became active and went after something humans didn’t like and geckos just love. After that – quiet again, not moving, just hanging out, somewhere high up on the wall or the ceiling.
So there you go – now you know why I love the “Cuba Libre” and its decorative gecko so much: memories of lovely summers on an island off the coast of Italy.
And by the way, I envy you just the tiniest bit for having geckos in your mailbox. Your are lucky.
the gecko makes me smile
OK – That is a wonderful name for a Blog, or a poem, or something.
That’s the difference between a native speaker and somebody like me, Sir Robin – I needed the hint to see the possibilities.
Thanks! You are right. Endless possibilities, and all of them exciting.