"You must be exhausted," the lady of the house said the night after last week's Election Day. This, after I had to wake her up that morning for an appointment, even though it wasn't she who had hit the hay in the wee hours after the final print edition had been put to bed.

It was sort of like jet lag. It was the day after the day after that the lack of sleep hit me. So much, in fact, that I thought I was seeing things.

I was speaking with a colleague and noticed a small container of cheese dip had somehow become lodged in the CPU tower that drives his computer. Thinking to do him a favor, I bent down to dislodge it.

"Don't touch my cheese!" he ordered.

Say what?

It happens that he had deliberately placed the container there (with rubber bands holding it in place) in order to let the heat from the tiny exhaust fan slowly bring his cheese to a suitable, spreadable temperature. I was going to caution him about putting Spam anywhere near his email, but thought better of it.

Why tamper with sheer genius? This, I thought, is what Obama needs on the energy front in Washington. Much better than a hundred Solyndras or a Chevy Volt.

By the way, watching the Union Leader and UnionLeader.com crew in action on Election Night reminded me once again how professional and adept these men and women are at their jobs. I have no idea how they keep up the frenetic pace without losing their place in open files, spread sheets, phone calls, and page proofs. But I'm glad they are at it.

Thanks, too, to our many news correspondents around the state and to town clerks who helped supply vote counts to inform our reporting.

The election winners last week have earned their moment in the sun. The election losers need to suck it up and make the best of it.

Interesting after-action factoids that I stumbled over: The President lost 10 million votes from his 2008 victory. He won because Mitt Romney got about two million fewer votes than had John McCain. And Sony Bono's widow (no, not Cher) lost her California seat in Congress while her husband, Florida congressman Connie Mack, was losing his race.

Change is good. Of that I am convinced. Whether it be red turning blue or the darkness coming as it does now, in the late afternoon, or the snow and slop that briefly last week gave us a taste of things to come, change keeps us on our toes.

Below is columnist Pat Buchanan's take on all the change. He will have more to say when he speaks at the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications 1st Amendment honors on Thursday, Nov. 29. See Loebschool.org for information.

Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.