Spanish views from a small town

As the umpteenth storm wends its way to us across the Atlantic, and has become strong enough to be named Hugo, a warm front ahead of it has returned the grey drizzle to these shores. After a couple of sunny, if not warm, days, we are back to normal. How many synonyms are there for drizzle in English? Officially, none come to mind, though in some areas where it tends to rain a lot there are probably local words for it. But they are so local that outside the area, no one understands what they mean. In Galician, which is a minority language, and therefore treats most local words as part of its official vocabulary, there are many. It's a testament to our rainy landscape. There's the usual poalla or poalleira, babuxa, boralla, orballo, chuvisca , or my favorite, mollaparvos . This last one literally means "wet the dumb." If one thinks that one won't get wet going out and about in a thin drizzle without protection, then that person is dumb.  Later today, the wind...

This is getting ridiculous. It has come to the point of keeping a lookout for the mailman so I can collect the letters from the mailbox before they become a sopping mass of wet paper and colored ink. Mopping becomes an all-day event. I mop but it doesn't dry, even after passing newspaper over the area. Clothes can only dry at the stove, slowly, piece by piece. Which leaves the kitchen looking like a laundry most of the week. I'd almost forgotten what a partly sunny day looked like until today that the rain decided to give it a rest.  Unfortunately, tomorrow another front will waltz through the region, setting off alarms and swelling swollen rivers just a little bit more. A high pressure area is supposed to come in at the end of the week, but more rain on Sunday. And on it goes. Yes, Galicia is the land of rain. Yes, rain is what makes this land so green. But 257 liters per square meter in just three days is a little too much. That is the amount of water that fell in Cuntis be...