The little things

I wasn't going to post about this, because it didn't seem like a big deal at the time.
I mentioned to Energy Audit Nick that this house just felt cold all the damned time. Part of that was me being paranoid about oil consumption and keeping the house at 60-62, but part of it wasn't. Even in the evenings when I'd tweak it up to a luxurious 65, it just always felt cold. I knew, sitting in the living room, with my hooded sweatshirt up, the cat on my lap, both of us under a blanket, it just wasn't that warm in here, though the thermostat was quite content that it was. Who was I to argue with the thermostat?
I submit to you evidence A: (It's not an 8x10 color glossy, but it'll do.)

The white spot on the wall is where the old thermostat lived.

See the hot air register on the floor in the lower left? The one blowing warm air conveniently at the thermostat? EA Nick suggested that if I move the thermostat away from a hot air vent, perhaps things would get better. He would even give me a free programmable thermostat to replace the old manual up/down one.
Last night I decided to dive in and just do it. Electricity is one of my not-very-learned things, but this isn't that dangerous, as it's two AAA batteries talking to the furnace, not real house currant. I was just moving it to the other side of the wall/closet. (You'll recognize the closet as the one I wedged myself in to paint.)

Seemed appropriate to keep all the furnace switches clustered.
Also, that vent in the wall (lower right) is a cold air return.

 Found my 1" drill bit, popped a hole in the wall, mounted the backplate, linked a new bit of furnace wire to the old furnace wire with a significant amount of twisting and electrical tape, and viola. The furnace now talks to it's new upstairs brain.
I intend to run a new furnace wire all the way to the furnace in the future, now that I have a 49' roll of wire.  (You can't buy it any shorter than 50' from the Big Box stores.) The old wire was much lighter than this new wire.

While it's sill not warm in here, the heat is now significantly more even. That's a huge improvement. And now with the programmable thermostat, I don't have to worry about forgetting to set the heat back down when I go to bed.