Dail Report: With a storm battering the trees outside, the Dáil chamber seemed a haven of calm.
But autumn was taking its toll even on the Programme for Government, which was under review during Taoiseach's Questions.
In particular, buffeted by the harsh winds of reality, the promise of a metro by 2007 - which had turned a beautiful golden brown in recent months - finally fluttered to the ground.
Conceding the plan was no longer viable, the Taoiseach invited the Opposition to admire the programme's remaining foliage. But with the air of a park warden, Enda Kenny swept the metro and other fallen promises into a pile, and recommended tree surgery.
Meanwhile, even the Government's Luas triumph left the Greens unimpressed. "Thirteen years and you still haven't joined the lines," sneered Ciaran Cuffe.
The Taoiseach also had a problem joining his lines on the hospital bed crisis. Last week he announced that 900 additional beds were "in place": his green line on the issue, as it were.
Yesterday, under pressure from Labour, he unveiled his red line: 900 beds had been funded, but only 600 were yet active. This left a gaps of 300 beds between his two statements, he admitted, apologising to commuters for any inconvenience.
A furious Liz McManus rubbished the Taoiseach's revised measurements, suggesting that in terms of truth his new estimate was still several stops short of the terminus. The real number of new beds was 299, she insisted, accusing Mr Ahern of using "trolleys, couches and reclining chairs" to boost figures.
The Taoiseach deftly distanced himself from the detail. Waving his briefing note, he protested that once facilities were approved it was for others to ensure they were "commissioned". Perhaps he was hinting at a future role for Gen John de Chastelain to oversee the commissioning process and compile accurate figures of the hardware available to the various paramedical groups.
Still on beds, John Bruton said a fond farewell to the Dáil as he embarked on his new career in the US. Reciprocating tributes from the Taoiseach, he recalled once negotiating with him when Mr Ahern - then opposition chief whip - was in bed with a back injury.
Given the night that was in it, the Greens had an unusually receptive audience when they raised the issue of "climate change". When John Gormley warned that something had to be done about builders blocking "gullies" all over Dublin, Tony Gregory took up the theme, warned of the imminent threat to Ringsend and Drumcondra.
Mr Ahern calmed nerves by assuring the house that Dick Roche was on an emergency footing. But this only evoked memories of his own emergency footing when Mr Ahern was famously photographed in his wellies in the Tolka. So, as he often does at times of crisis, Joe Higgins reached for the Bible.
"Will the Taoiseach be walking on water again tonight?" he asked.