Rain!  Wonderful, pounding, torrential rain.  Coming down in unending sheets.  (No raining cats and dogs here.)  Loudly beating on roof tops.  Blotting out all other sounds.  Only rumbling thunder penetrates the noise of a tropical rain storm.  Thunder rolling and crashing. First nearer and nearer, and then farther and farther away.  Streaks of lighting piercing the darkness of our bedroom.  But it was the thunder that pulled me from dreamland.  And what a delightful way to have sleep interrupted.  This, the first rainstorm of the long dry season, is a most welcomed relief.  It will be an infrequent occurrence.  And rains every appearance will be applauded.