Today I’m home after a long weekend of work — gratis day as thanks — and it is raining and raining. The remnants of Hurricane Dennis are showering over our heads, and bringing us a bunch of needed rain.

St. Louis has been really droughty, and watering the lawn just doesn’t help enough. So, since this thing rolled in just about 24 hours ago, we’ve had just about two inches of rain according to my trusty rain gauge on the deck. The weather gamblers on TV are saying we should have this for another 24-36 hours, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see us top three or four inches of rain by the time it’s all done.

That’s cool. It’s a slow rain, and it’s keeping temperatures way down in the high 60s or low 70s — a welcome change from the mid-90s of just last week. Yes, this is the springlike rains we just don’t get this time of year.

I, for one, am enjoying the lesiurely pace of this freebie day, and the beauty of the day that was handed me!