Google pagerank update is near

This is only a guess on my part, but a guess based on the things I see happening"

1. I have noticed large fluctuations in the SERPs for several of the keywords on my web design site. Often, right before the update, you see these fluctuations as the Google engineers test their algorithm changes and make tweaks.
2. Some webmasters are noticing a large drop in traffic from Google. While this is something that is happening a lot (especially with"gray area" technique webmasters), even when not during an update, I've seen a large increase across the blogosphere and from webmaster forums about this phenomenon. It's another sign that the Google engineers are testing their nefarious new algo rules.
3. I've seen a HUGE increase in the amount of trips the Googlebot is making to many of my sites. For example, one of my sites went from 4,000 Googlebot "hits" every 2 weeks to about 80,000 hits in a 5 day period. That's 16,000 per day, and the visits aren't slowing down yet. I would guess that they are rushing to index as much as possible before doing a full update.
4. It's been almost 4 months since the last update. The longest number of days between updates in the past has been 122, and we're getting very near that number.
5. Matt Cutts has essentially been on vacation for the last several weeks. Is Google giving him some time off before he has to deal with the fallout that happens after every Google update? Since he's the public face of Google to webmasters, a nice vacation before the abuse begins seems like a practical thing.