I may be to blame for the destruction of mankind.

If you believe what the anti-plastic-bag people tell us, plastic bags could lead to the end of the world.

It must be true, then, that there is somewhere a "tipping point," one bag before which mankind can recover, and one bag beyond which the human race is doomed.

Yesterday, when planning our little Daily Venture Out Among The Humans, I realized I needed some cans of soda. We'd get lunch first and stop at Lane's grocery afterward.

I dug my little Bag To Save The Universe out and laid it on the table, intending to put it in the backseat of my car as we went out.

Halfway through lunch, I realized something. "Dammit," I remarked to my mother, "I left my little hippie bag on the kitchen table."

We went on to Lane's and got the sodas. We had to put it in two plastic bags.

When I got back out to the car, I was getting ready to put the bags in the back seat when something black caught my eye. It was the little Bag To Save The Universe.

Instantly, I now remembered taking it out to the car and putting it in the back seat.

So I wasted two bags. And those may be the two bags that push us beyond the tipping point and doom life on earth. I am a horrible person.

What's the line from the Borg Queen? Watch your future's end.

I hate how sluggish my mind is this time of year.

Yesterday.

I woke Sunday morning to an unseasonably warm and clingy weather pattern doing it's best to smother me. By noon it had transformed into the first really wintery feeling day we've had this season.

It wasn't bitter cold, but it was cold enough to remind me that we're overdue for our first snow.

I guess what made it feel so wintery was the temperature added to the sky being drained of color by the clouds. Mix in a measure of branches denuded of leaves and you've got the recipe for the possibility of depression washing over me.

I was perversely relieved when it started raining. At least the rain and it's few impotent little claps of thunder didn't look like winter.

But it made darkness fall way too early. I had been watching football without being in view of the clock. I thought it must be getting close to sundown, judging from the gathering black outside my window. I got up and looked at the time. It was 2:30 in the afternoon.

When halftime of the Sunday Night Football game rolled around, it felt like I'd been awake for days.

God I hate this time of year.