I wish I could describe the weather scene outside my window well enough for you to get a chill.

First, inside the office:

Because the 'office' building I am in is, in fact, a converted old house, there is a fireplace in each room. The wind outside announces itself by blowing across the rooftop chimney opening in a bad interpretation of Beethoven - on one of his very hard of hearing days.

Then there is the constant changing of hue. The brightness of my computer screen remains the same as the light from outside goes from squint, due to light cloud cover, to swing the lamp arm over my work, due to a rolling band of thick cloud cover. It is as if I were wearing transition lenses with a mind all their own.

Second, outside the office:

The three story brown stone building across the street pretty much fills up my view. Most of the windows have the shutters, curtains or lateral blinds drawn. There twin round bushes just outside the building's front door. What do you call those pink round marshmallow cake snacks covered in coconut? Hostess Snowballs! You know those? Well these bushes remind me of big green versions of those. The wind tears at them but the only part of them that really moves are the leaves. Although the good stiff winds do make the whole thing shutter but they refuse to give up an inch of ground.

Between here and there:

I know it's been raining because the three story brown stone building across the street looks miserable and damp. I can hear the splashing of water as cars and lorries drive by. I've seen rain on the window but I haven't seen it fall. What I have seen - and hear - is sleet. You know that tiny pink, plink, plunk sound when the little ice crystals hit the window and then begin their long slow slide to the sill? We've had that. The combination of snow and wind though just about beats all.

The snow doesn't fall. It get's blown by in sheets. Looking out during one particularly violent Beethoven chimney movement I saw wave after wave of snow racing horizontally past the three story brown stone building across the street AND directly at me as if part of some 3D horror film. It was as if the ghost of Nor'Easter storms past was trying to get in to not only my office but my head as well.

Nasty just doesn't seem to cover it. I'd go home and curl up under the covers but every time I think about reaching for my coat the hue on my computer screen darkens and I know what that means! I think I'll stay here - safe and warm.