text1

It was a bitter cold outside.  Lately this type of weather was pretty much expected, or at least it should have been, but to me it always seemed like a surprise.  You know that the winter months are going to be cold, but when you get there, for some reason you don't really expect it to ever be quite that cold.

There was a light drift of snow falling, slowly visible against the dark backdrop that was hovering over the area.  About this time of year there's usually more snow on the ground, but we recently had a rain storm that washed most of it away.  Not really much to say except yet another reason for the cold to be just a little bit more surprising.  That's the way things are in this type of area.  Sure people complain, people complain wherever you are.  The next thing you know the summers are going to be too hot.

Inside, people were restless.  Quiet.  Everyone was busy, but not really around.  The air was stale from inactivity.  It was one of those nights were everyone just stayed home without really having much of a reason.  Things were lively though.

Hey, look who it is.

I see somebody is glad to see me.

Are you kidding?  We're just getting tired to slapping each other around.

So that was fast, right?

Ey!  Look who's being the funny guy again.

Sure, whatever.

Alright.

So, what are we doing?

You're really still asking that?

It's one of those things you say.

Yup, it is.

It's not that there weren't many people, there were just enough.  And things were quieter than they had been, even with a few people showing up and leaving here and there.  Things were quite in a good way if you can imagine that.  It was a sort of enjoyable, fun stale air.  It might not make sense, but that's the way things were.

Hey!

What?

Are you paying attention?

What do you mean?

What did I just say to you?

The funny guy thing?

That's the way things are.

I'm not following.

You mean you have a problem Mr. Fancy?

Huh?

Exactly.

So now we know it's possible.

Oh, that makes sense.

Does this look like fancy guy opinion time?

So, I'm not the funny guy?

I didn't even notice, but everyone had suddently left and was replaced by two or three times as many people.  There was a difference that you couldn't quite put your finger on, but it was there.  Things were a lot louder, but you might say quieter.  You couldn't tell though.  I couldn't tell, and I was there.

The snow had stopped falling and the moon was bright against the dark sky.  If you were still long enough, you could feel how cold it really was.  The illuminated outline of clouds could be seen puffy and covering up most of the stars in the sky.  You could see the non-movement of the dark sky all around the moon.