#329: Rhea and Danny and Nancy and Bruce

I've been out west for a couple of weeks, so Bruce is glad to have me home again.  I know this for a fact, in spite of a conversation in which he noted (ruefully, it must be admitted) some of my recent housekeeping irregularities: 

He:  You know the salt and pepper grinders......you never put them back on the shelf the same way. I always put the salt on the left.
Me (thinking):  Huh?

He:  And the free weights in the basket upstairs?   Now they are all mixed up.  I had them organized by size.
Me:  OK... that sort of makes sense...I guess

He:  You do weird things with the broom, too.  It has a beveled edge, but you put it in the closet backwards so that it falls out when the door is opened. 
Me:  The broom?  The BROOM? 

This whole conversation strikes me as hilarious, although I'm sure that my lack of consistency might actually drive some husbands nuts.  Bruce, bless him,  just finds my behaviour puzzling. But I have known forever that he has a greater need for order than I do, so I listened to his inventory and I nodded.  I should be more rational, but I'm making no promises.  Because I know that for a few weeks I'll behave as logically as I can, and then I'll revert to type: random, scattered, a bit messy.

I recalled a recent afternoon of shared yard work. Bruce and I had been raking leaves together and I could see that 46 years living with a Master Raker had not improved my technique a whole lot.  My side of the lawn was filled with many little leafy piles; Bruce's leaves were in nice straight rows.

The rows are Bruce's; the heaps are mine

As I surveyed the yard, I got to thinking about Rhea Perlman (64) and Danny Di Vito (69) who had separated that week after 40+ years together.  (I wish celebrities wouldn't do that.  It makes the rest of us old-marrieds nervous.)  And I wondered what could make them split after all that time?  They seem like such a nice, regular couple.  Were they just bored?  Was it a single, silly event (an affair?) or one of many petty annoyances (she never did learn to rake properly!)?   

Today I learned that Rhea and Danny are trying to "work things out".  This may be hard. It seems that the problem, Danny's dalliance with a starlet, is the latest of many not-so-petty annoyances.  He is apparently a serial flirt, and Rhea has had enough, and I don't blame her.  But old habits are hard to break, even when you love someone. So I wish them luck. It would be so much easier if Danny just had to remember to put the broom into the closet the right way around. That's what I intend to do.....for a little while, anyway.