Con lo que está cayendo - in this rain (and more)
It's winter and raining occasionally now, so I've recently had the opportunity to hear sentences like "¿Cómo vamos a montar los caballos con lo que está cayendo?" which translates as "How are we going to ride the horses in this rain?".
What I find interesting is now that my attention has been drawn to that phrase, I've noticed that it's also used more metaphorically (the rain situation is a more literal usage : "with what is falling" (from the sky)). For example, the Spanish opposition party recently criticized the socialist government's happy-go-lucky spending during the financial crunch by saying "¿Cómo van ustedes a gastar ese dinero con lo que está cayendo?" which translates as "How are you going to spend that (amount of) money in the present situation?".
A Google search shows more uses of this phrase, but always in the sense noted above: in this present (negative) situation. Oddly enough, I didn't find any mention of this phrase on the language forums.
Brad
