Have you ever found yourself in a relationship/friendship that was obviously hitting the rocks? A situation that had run its course like an orange.  That wizened looking orange sitting in the bottom of the fruit bowl for so long the juice had dried out.

A genuinely good person, yet what you had once in common seems to have evaporated.  You can read the signs meetings are lack lustre and more out of a sense of routine and politeness.  You get the feeling they wish they were somewhere else.

Not wanting to hurt the other person how do you handle it?

I had an acquaintance once who regularly moved house.  She would never let her new address be known before she was in residence.  Once she was well settled, decorating complete paintings hung and nic-nacs placed, cards with the new address and phone number were  posted.   Not all at once you understand, but in order of the hierarchy of her friends.   Those she no longer wished to call friends were culled from her list.  I watched it happen over many years and moves.  I always thought it an expensive way to go about it.

What do you think?