Good morning, All.  Thank you, Lois and Nicola.  We are feeling a bit better.  The only thing that really works for colds is time and relieving the symptoms as much as possible.  Thankfully, neither of us has anything pressing to take us out of the house.

This is interesting in light of yesterday's story about computer (in)security.  The fact that Symantec may have been hacked by way of a cyberattack on the Indian military reveals just how vulnerable computer systems anywhere are.

I can relate to your caution with respect to on-line banking, Lois.  It has made a lot about our lives easier but the worry about a failure in the system, for whatever reason, is never far from my mind.  Computers have so invaded our lives that it is almost inconceivable how we would get along without them and the internet.  My nephew remarked, at one of our family gatherings, that his oldest daughter was very impatient when internet content didn't load fast enough for her.  He remembered how much slower such operations were only five or ten years ago.  I reminded him of when every program you used had to be loaded from floppy discs because nothing except operating software was permanently installed and the only 'internet' option was dial-up.  I am not really a Luddite but I am very uneasy depending on something that nature or man can take away easily.

A couple of weeks ago I read a news story about Hispanic Americans getting caught up in immigrations sweeps and being kept in jails until they proved their citizenship status.  I wondered then what would happen if and American citizen were deported during these procedures.  This story gives an idea.  I will grant that the girl did lie to immigration officials but what did they do to confirm her story??  It looks like they didn't do much if anything.  Don't you think they might have gotten suspicious when a 15-year-old African American girl claiming to be a 21-year-old Columbian woman does''t speak Spanish??  I guess intelligence is not part of the qualifications for the job.

I have noted before how unusual our weather has been.  We aren't the only ones experiencing very warm temperatures this winter as you can see from this article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  A 60F day in western Minnesota during the first week of January???  In the last week of December one of the local (Chicago) weather people said that December had been so warm that to get a 'normal' average for meteorological winter (Dec through Feb) we would have to post highs well below freezing for the rest of the season.  Normal high today is 31F but we expect temperatures to reach the low 40s after posting a 55 yesterday.