Couldn't rake the leaves yesterday. Too cold. Too wet. And I booted the chance to get them up during the surprisingly nice weather on Saturday. Now it doesn't look like they'll get raked until this weekend. Gray and wet and miserable nearly all week. So light a fire. Fight the gloom.

And look on the bright side. All this drippy weather is providing a bit of moisture for the soil. It's soaking in nice and slowly. Also a good thing. It hasn't amounted to a whole lot. But we're about a third of the way throught the month, and we've had about a third of the normal cumulative rainfall we expect in December. It's not exactly a gusher, and the water tables still need a lot more. But at least we're not losing ground for now.

Forecasters say we're stuck alongside a stalled cold front. We're on the colder north side for now, and it's warmer to our south. But that boundary will be moving around some. Warmer, wetter air riding up over the denser, colder air at the surface in our region produced this morning's fog.

Scooting along the front are a series of weak low-pressure systems. Every now and then they'll slide out of the Southwest and slip through here with some showers and plenty of gray skies. Here's the radar loop.

This pattern will likely persist through Thursday, forecasters say. High temperatures will remain in the low 50s, which is unseasonably mild. This morning's discussion down in Sterling says they "wouldn't be shocked to see mid-60s" Tuesday.

The overnight lows won't get much below 40 degrees until a stronger cold front arrives on Friday to shove all this stuff out of the area. The weekend looks mostly cloudy but noticeably colder. Make time for rake time.