how these days are.

Emails. FB updates. Friends. Texts. Rumors.

Business as usual at the paper this week. But it couldn't be more weird.

The next 48 hours decide the fate of this place. In business for decades. People who have been with them through most of it. The best of times, and now the worst of times.

But the news keeps keepin' on.

A pet blessing, a booted car, Dirksen, business heads. Pretty normal stuff.

"How's it going?" someone asks in the office hallways. "Eh."

No other response needed. Everyone feels the same.

The clock hands tick off minutes. A reporter yells into her phone at one of her regular sources. An editor yells a question across the room. The scanners beep and the TVs keep playing.

Very "Lou Grant," and very much the place I have spent much of the past 10 years of my life.

No one knows what these next 48 hours will bring.

Maybe, just maybe, they will bring a peace of mind no one has felt here for a very long time.

I hope.