We're having a monsoon here in Boston.

I woke to heavy rain and wind, which has picked up over the last couple of hours. The National Weather Service says that winds are currently gusting up to 39 mph, but we should expect them to increase to 45 mph before the storm moves out. Here's the catch: the winds are coming from the east, and my apartment faces... east.

Yowza!

I spent about twenty minutes looking uneasily at my old windows, wondering how much wind force would be needed to break them. They were rattling alarmingly; I thought about taping them. Finally, the caffeine kicked in, and it occurred to me to pull down the storm windows. (Oh yeah! Storm windows!)

This was easier said than done, though. I had a few minutes of feeling like one of the crew in The Perfect Storm; it was that whole man-against-nature vibe. I got the curtains out of the way, shoved the window up, reached for the storm window, and got a faceful of wind-driven rain. There was a shaky moment when the storm window came loose from its track at the top and I thought it would fall, but it tipped in my direction instead, and I snapped it back into the track. Then I yanked the window down again.

Lather, rinse, repeat with the other large window in the main room (the little side bay windows are protected from the wind by their angle). Then I wiped off the sills with a sponge.

And holy moly, I was filthy. Both arms were covered in dirty water and smudges of window grime. My face was spotted with rainborne dirt. It was at this point that I decided that the best possible place to be was in a hot shower.

Now clean and mostly dry, I'm back at my desk, listening to the wind pounding at the windows. The storm windows are down. The gusts will only increase to 45 mph. But I'm still nervously expecting the biggest window to blow in, showering me with shards of glass and cold rainwater.

Stay tuned.

9:30p - This has been a deeply shitty day.

I spent all day shivering and listening to 40 mph winds pounding my windows. The wind-driven vent covers on the rooftops nearby made a steady high-pitched scream, similar to the sound of a car with a loose fan belt. I thought I would lose my mind.

I tried again, and failed again, to record a segment of video from my VCR to my old beige box Mac 8600. Apple Video Player will in fact record, but the recording is choppy: two seconds of smooth motion, a stuttering pause, jump back to two seconds of smooth motion, and so on. There's nothing to adjust. I'm just screwed.

I did three loads of laundry, including the brand-new full/queen cover for my sister's down comforter, which she had on her double bed. Because comforter covers and sheets tend to roll up into little balls in the dryer -- wet and crumpled on the inside, hyper-dry on the outside -- I spent an hour babysitting the laundry. I finally got everything dry and folded, hauled it upstairs, put it away, and pulled out the comforter. I pulled it into the cover and was unpleasantly surprised to find that it (the cover) was much too big. By several square feet.

Enraged, I pulled the comforter out and checked the tag. It's a fucking twin size. Sleeping with the comforter tonight was going to be my reward for a lousy day and three loads of laundry. So much for that.

And I've been racking up karma points left and right. My doctor goofed on his scheduling and had two of us there at the same time. I had been scheduled first and was on his actual schedule. But the other woman was parked in a 10-minute zone, so I let her go ahead of me. (The receptionist acted like I'd given her one of my kidneys, which was amusing.) Karma points.

I wound up behind a little old lady at the supermarket who read her receipt carefully and argued over several sales and coupons not factored into her total (the cashier was correct in each instance) and didn't roll my eyes. Then, when the cashier screwed up and made me re-swipe my card, I gave her a smile and said, "Happens to the best of us," and reswiped the card. Karma points.

Tonight, when another tenant needed a dryer, I noticed that my remaining laundry was nearly dry, took it out, cleaned the lint screen, and gave it to her with 27 minutes still remaining. Karma points.

And yet someone's got it in for me. What's going on?

A final note for a Wednesday evening: it bothers the hell out of me that so many people I know, including my mother and several close friends, are watching "The West Wing" right now. Yes, I know, it's a good show. Yes, I know, it's engrossing. Baa-aa-aa. KILL YOUR TELEVISION.