I have a system. Not saying it’s a good system, but it’s a system. Here it is: I open a beer (so far, so good). I leave the bottle cap on the counter. I drink the beer. I get another beer, open it, and note the number of bottle caps on the counter. If that number is under my limit (+/- a couple), all is cool and the cycle continues. Over the limit, and it’s time to call it a night. This is especially important when I’m watching basketball (as I was last night), where the ebb and flow has me pounding them down rather furiously (either in joy and excitement, or in anger and frustration, depending on the game). Unfortunately my wife has a tendency to throw away the bottle caps when I’m not looking, thereby throwing off my count.

This leads to how I’m feeling this morning, which is not that great (though I’ve certainly had mornings far worse than this). The physical pain, however, is more than mitigated by the result of the game, which was quite satisfactory (and, thankfully, over early enough where I didn’t get so hammered that I passed out in a puddle of drool – or worse – in my chair).

Sadly, time marches on. And we’re back to “Monday Eve” after one crappy little day off. Our string of days without at least an inch of snow ended yesterday at 269 (fifth longest streak ever). I’d take some comfort in that, except last year was the record, and we proceeded to get pounded on by one of the longest, coldest winters in recent memory (not as bad as 1816, though, when there was no summer, thanks to the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April of 1815). And as I write this, it’s about ten degrees out there, though it’s supposed to get warm(ish) today.

It’s nice and warm in here, though. Part of that is because I changed the gasket in one of my pellet stoves yesterday, and It seems to be running much warmer. It’s been on my list of things to do for a while. In fact, it’s too damn hot in here (70° – I’m starting to melt).

Oh well, big day planned today. Phase two of messing with the electric, trying to tidy up the panel and get the transfer switch set up so that I won’t have to run the house on extension cords in the event of a power outage. Plus all the usual laundry-type stuff.

And next week is Christmas. When the hell did that happen?