Just about the time I decide I might just have to give up on this, I go read a post at flowerdust.net that completely removes any escape hatch for me:

The thing you do, when you have made a mistake, is not to give up doing what you were doing and start something altogether new, but to start over again with the thing you began badly and try, for the love of God, to do it well.

(Merton, Journals, Oct 7, 1949, II.372)

Well, there goes that.  I guess I have to get back on the horse here.