Well, the weather people promised a very cold couple of days and this morning certainly qualifies.  The temperature on the morning news broadcast is 12F and expected to go lower.  Right now we are considering rescheduling a couple of appointments we have for today and tomorrow.  We'll see how the car does.

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Good Tuesday, Everyone.  The inauguration dominated the news yesterday--actually the TV coverage overall.  We watched very little given our errands yesterday and then we ignored most of the rest.  TV has become background noise more than anything else.  Our expectations of colder temps have come through--low this morning so far is 1F (in Chicago but -1F closer to us) with a well below zero wind chill.  But we should get somewhat warmer for the next week.  Even our little birds that visit the feeders are staying in their nests more.  Can't blame them.

We just had a bit of a chuckle.  I read a headline on NBC.com: Ex-Illinois Governor set for halfway house after prison term.  Why the chuckle?  Illinois has two ex-governors in prison.  Pulled up the article to confirm that it is George Ryan who will exit prison for the halfway house after six years.  His allies are still trying to get his conviction overturned.

It looks like the 'water wars' are escalating.  And, since the drought hasn't ended by any means, I expect  more such skirmishes in the near future.

Mom just came back in from starting up the car so it can warm up.  She stopped to look at the thermometer (which she usually doesn't do) and commented that she thought it was broken.  I asked why and she said that it was reading -14F.  Well, it actually reads +14.  She read the bold line at 32 as though it were 0.  She laughed and said she has to clean her glasses.  But it is really cold when she stops to look at the temperature.