I hope the drought people are happy now that it has rained. And - yippee! - there's more precipitation forecast for the weekend.

Looks like all those gloom-and-doomers, the ones blathering on about brush fires and crops and the water table, got their selfless little wish.

If there's one person more annoying than a health-food nut, it's the do-gooder who puts his love of the Earth above a normal, healthy concern for the effect rain, snow and melt-a-way salt has on footwear - and then tries to make you feel guilty for enjoying some sunshine and caring about your new imported leather sandals.

Here's the transcript of a conversation I had with one of those people after a string of gorgeous winter days.

Me: ``Can you believe this weather?! We haven't had to shovel once! I've been jogging outside almost every day.''

Mr. Sanctimonious: ``We really could use the snow . . . we're facing a drought.''

From what I've observed, the drought crowd is either the exact same as, or hangs around with, the global-warming set. You make a little joke about how you're rooting for global warming because you hate cold weather, and they're all over you about the hole in the ozone and other things that seem like they won't happen for years and years, if at all.

It's not that I don't care about the future. Of course I do or I wouldn't floss. But my children's children's children's children? Sorry, but I have too many things to worry about to be filling aquifers for a bunch of people I've never met. They'll have all those time capsules anyway. That should be enough.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm totally anti-rain because I'm not. There are times when rain can be quite helpful. Say you feel really fat in your bathing suit and the boss is throwing a pool party. You dread it for weeks and then, voila! At the last minute, through no effort on your part, you're granted a stay of execution. It rains. Or maybe you were at Filene's Basement and you scored a great deal on a DKNY trench coat. Then you'd want it to rain, but only lightly of course, because in my experience those things are usually water resistant, not repellant.

What causes a drought? If you go to one of the drought sites on the Internet, and there are many, you'll read explanations like this: ``The immediate cause of drought is the predominant sinking motion of air (subsidence) that results in compressional warming or high pressure, which inhibits cloud formation and results in lower relative humidity and less precipitation.''

But that's just technical mumbo jumbo. What it really comes down to is this: if you, and a lot of people like you, take an umbrella along, it won't rain. If you don't take one, it will. Or, as the formula is written in the scientific world: Too many umbrellas carried to work for too many days = drought.

So when you leave the house this summer, remember: It's time to stop talking about the weather and do something about it. Pack your Totes.