But what I forgot to do ...

... was buy a CO2 regulator, meaning that all our well intentioned efforts to enable a cask breather and have uninterrupted firkin flow are useless.

It's been ordered.

One way to avoid stress is to have a beer, as I did last evening while watching the damned Yankees win. My choice was a 22-oz., year-old Old Guardian Barley Wine from Stone Brewing Company; it was rounding into form, but still requires some work on mechanics. I'll come back to another bottle next March.

Oddly, one of my black cats was taken with it, and was spotted licking the glass furiously after I'd finished. This may or may not be a good marketing device, given the approach of Halloween, but I feel as though we bonded, nonetheless.

Another method of reducing stress, such as in the case of the missing regulator, is to take a deep breath and realize that our customers have come to expect that we'll never quite be finished on a project when originally predicted.

Let's hope that's charming, and not too annoying.