DAY THREE: OPOSSUM DROWNED, ME IN A BUCKET OF BEER... (email the scientist)

So on Sunday I'm trying to drink an entire one-gallon, one-quart and nine ounces store-keg of Beck's beer. The girlfriend has taken off in a snit. She did not buy my argument that since the keg says it should be consumed within 24 hours of tapping, I have to finish it today.

Because tomorrow is a work day, and taking a half emtpy keg to work would be wrong.

That's why.

I'm sure you all know what beer-drinking leads to (cue the Porter in Macbeth). In this case it led me to the bathroom.. So I'm standing there admiring my weak chin and strong stomach in the mirror and wondering why the bathroom smelled so bad since we had only been in the house for about a week.

Then it hit me that the small window in the bathroom overlooked (is that even english?) the bucket of opossum. This reminded me that I had planned to document its return to constituent elements.

Remembering to zip up first (my parole office reminds me that this is critical to my continued freedom) I ran outside and sure enough, the bucket was stinking to high heaven. This was more than just my problem as our side yard is cheek-by-jowl with the neighbors' bathroom window as well.

So I took a look. Pretty amazing how gruesome it had gotten in just two days.. Here's the overview (please remember to click on the images to see the larger versions):

I moved it to a far back corner of my yard as it did stink terribly.

on the other hand it was also a wonderful, if icky, testament to lifes' ability to work out a way to keep going on. Just above the waterline of the S.S. opoS.S.um was this little colony of maggots...

I found it almost reassuring. Then when I went inside Tool's "Man in the Box" was playing on the stereo and....

well suffice it to say I became very depressed and had a nifty excuse to return to the keg of Becks.....

The next day I was hungover, but at least I didn't feel like an Opossum in a Bucket™.