For The Love of Pumpkin

Just the other day… no wait, let me state the following disclaimer → What you are about to read may be rather difficult to believe.

OK, just the other day at work, a bunch of us were sitting around the big oval table at lunchtime.
Chowing down, and talking.
I guess the topic of Thanksgiving dinner was raised…. as in, “So, did you eat a lot of turkey?”
That kind of mindless mumble, where you yourself forget your question before anyone answers it. Flies in the same room are having more meaningful conversation!
[For those of you who may be CCC, or → Canuck-Calendar Challenged, last Monday was Thanksgiving Day here in the Great White North. You know? Where turkeys walk around pre-frozen and need only to be knocked over, thawed out, and shoved into pre-heated ovens?]
Anyhoo, someone asked, “How about the pumpkin pie? Eat a lot of pumpkin pie?”
And Mike, a co-worker of mine said, “I have never eaten pumpkin pie in my life.”

BLASPHEMY!
OFF WI’ ‘IS ‘EAD!
I was like…. “Excuse me? What the hell did you just say?”
[Flies stopped talking].
“Really. I’ve never eaten pumpkin pie,” he meekly repeats, as we all stare at him, agape. Eating our microwaved leftovers.
Seriously though.
What planet is this guy from?
He is about 45 years old, Mike is. And human, I think.
I mean, I am still wondering how he could have possibly been alive this long of a time, and not ever eaten pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin pie is….. wait now, how does one even say it correctly…. let me try…. OK, pumpkin pie is like, the REASON there is an autumn strewn amongst the other three seasons!
How can one even describe the merits of a well-made pumpkin pie?
For one thing, it is so…. pumpkinny and all.
So cinnamonny and nutmegetty-ish.
Spicy, and just the right amount of mushy.
So good with coffee.
It’s just got everything going on.
It’s just so good it makes me want to seriously kick old people in the shins.

I’ve got pumpkin on the mind because right now I am sitting here in a Starbucks, and I am eating a gi-normo slab of their trademark October Pumpkin Cheesecake© .
It is heavenly good. Really. I’ve got maybe two forkfuls of it left on the plate.
And every morsel of it is being chased down with a sip of the best damn coffee this side of the Rio Grande. This is living. It really is.
OK. Last forkful, right here. Going down. A sip of coffee.
I’ve gotta go.
There’s an old guy, just sitting there, three tables down….

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