Stop it, already!

I hate this winter! It has to stop.

It took me an hour and a half to drive in this morning. Traffic was crawling and several macho truck dudes went spinning out in front of me as they raced through intersections. I puttered along and made it in the nick of time, but it was close.

This is why . . . this is a big reason why . . . I will be returning to this side of the river soon. First, I have to bid farewell to the gloomy, grey-haired, soon-to-be divorce who has been occupying my former bedroom in my small home. He has not been a terrible tenant, but he is so intent on taking advantage of me (having hour long hot showers, doing hot washes every night, installing cable and a large screen tv against my wishes and angling me to share their costs, campaigning for me to pay for snow removal) that I think he's a rather unpleasant man. So, bye. As soon as he's out, I'm back in.

Of course, this seems necessary and easy to do right about now, but the other side of this decision is the sense that living at E's house is impossible, and our marriage is . . . faltering. I'm not sure I really believe that . . . not really . . . but surely if it were good and healthy I wouldn't want to live away again. I do want my space again. After three years of constant bad behaviour from his son, rudeness and provocation, I don't want to have to spend another day avoiding him in order to preserve my sanity.

All I can do is return to what seemed to have worked better -- separate residences and shared alone time, without kids around. I realize, of course, that this is more like dating than marriage, but second marriage is more like war than love, so - all's fair.