I am taking a break from crawling around on my hands and knees (no easy feat at my age!), washing floors by hand and toothbrush.  I don't think we've ever lived in a house that was so good a making dust bunnies and I find that unless I periodically get down there and scrub corners and edges and baseboards, it ends up not looking clean.  And as much as I hate housework, I hate even more the idea of doing all the work just to push dirt around.  So hands and knees and toothbrush it is (I do use a sponge for the center parts--I'm not a complete masochist).

JLO sent the photos and they are lovely.  I have made a close up of my perfect grandson's sleeping face my new wallpaper and it's a sweet thing to see.  Not sure which of the pictures I want to actually print.  There are a couple of nice 'artsy' ones, and a couple of him sleeping and holding a hockey stick (go Canucks!), and several of the whole little family.  It will be a pleasure to ponder them for a while.  Let me know if you want the link to the site so you can see just how perfect he is.

KT has finally made public the news that she and her husband have separated.  I have varied reactions to this, the most predominant being relief and joy that she is doing so well, sounds so happy, seems so sure, and that the disentanglement went so calmly on both their parts.  Things did not start well for them and because of that, this was not a complete surprise.  And while we have great affection for him, I'm not sure if either of them would truly have been as happy as they are capable of being had they stayed together.  A difficult situation, but they both seem to being incredibly well.  And it is just coincidence that she will be here for a visit beginning this weekend.  We actually planned this before things fell apart.

The husband, for many reasons, continues to be very unhappy with work, and they have hinted that there aren't going to be any packages offered, so he's literally counting the days until this time next year so that he can retire.  It will be several years sooner than we planned, but he is that unhappy.   This is a man who is normally the optimist, who chides me for always approaching things negatively, the man who can fall asleep anywhere and still sleep all night.  Now he is Mr. Doom and Gloom and he's having sleep issues.  It's a hell of a way for him to end his career and it's frustrating because I can't do a whole lot to make it better for him.  And with the economy the way it is, and the stupid way his company operates, I don't think things will change anytime soon, if at all.

I feel in some ways that we are approaching the End of Days.  It seems that the world is facing one crisis after another, from the economic collapse to the effects of global warming; from the swine flu pandemic to the epidemic lack of values and responsibility.  I can't help but wonder what will be next, and whether we, as a society, will be able to deal with it.  Where is the breaking point? 

On 60 Minutes yesterday they did a story about cleaning up coal and said that it would cost 1 trillion dollars to make it happen.  Both the husband and I had to laugh--so what?  After all of the stimulus and bailout money, doesn't 1 trillion seem kind of matter of course?  Just have the government print some more money; have the taxpayers foot another bill--what difference does it make at this point???

I think washing floors on my hands and knees is actually more fun than blogging these days...