The rains arrived on schedule, and while the precipitation wasn't as monsoonal as predicted, it was definitely not a day to risk a camera-laden trek, so, dutifully enough, I spent most of the time working on stories that needed to be completed. Good for me. But there was enough of a break in the late afternoon that I could at least get outside to tally the haul in the rain gauge—around three-quarters of an inch—and walk around the "estate" to see if any interesting critters were going about their business. While most everyone seemed to be remaining in whatever rain shelter they'd found, one land snail was reveling in the moisture and doing some hiking of his—and her... snails are typically hermaphrodites—own. No surprise there: after all, if the going gets rough, snails carry their own shelter and can simply retreat indoors at a moment's notice. I have no expertise whatsoever on snail identification, but this gastropod might be the exceeding common Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum), an introduced species from Europe that occasionally reaches pest status. Whatever its name, I think snails are exceptionally cool. I let it "sprint" past—sprint, of course, is pushing it, since their top speed is on the order of a half-inch per second—and hoped it had no appetite for my garden flowers or vegetables.