rain is sensory overload

Along with the general sensory overhaul that encompasses the holiday season, today it is raining. Which egged me on to playing hokey from work (how lucky am I to have a job which I can do this from, it's nearly as if I'm self-employed...terriffic!) Yesterday and today I've enjoyed catching up on sleep and doing Christmas-readying sorts of things, such as making gifts, wrapping, and baking. Which - now that I've done that, slept, and felt like I've been relaxing - I'm ready to get back to work tomorrow!
The sensory overload of rain just hit me(hehe...pseudo-pun for you Kim) as I was walking home from the parking spot. It's rush hour traffic, raining very hard, and dark. On the normal day the city conditions of rush hour would be overwhelming for some - but take those and add such many other sensory experiences such as: the sound of the rain on your umbrella, the leaping necessary to bypass large streams of water coming through sidewalks, gutters, and parking lots, your hands, feet, and pants getting wet, the sprays of water coming from cars at the intersection, the sound of rivers that you pass at gutter openings, the normal click-clack of shoes being complemented with a little splish-splash, lights reflecting a million ways from a million droplets of water. I also saw the biggest earth-worm I've ever seen, he could nearly be mistaken for a baby snake...he must have been 7 inches long (not completely stretched out) and about 1/2" in girth! I was compelled to pick him up and bring him home to a neighbor kid, but resisted.
One's outlook of life provides worlds of difference to one's experience of life.

Stude Update: The engine was dropped in today! I'll get pictures of her tomorrow!