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.

Good morning on this first Friday of the new year.  Again warmer than normal--by a lot.  They were saying that an ungodly number of record high temps were set yesterday.   And the weather people expect that to continue for the next week.  I am not a great fan of cold weather but I do like my weather to be seasonal and it hasn't been for a long while.  This erratic weather with unseasonal temps is not good for the plants--as the freeze in Florida shows.  Expect higher prices for orange juice--again.

I have read more and more of my favorite bloggers saying that their accounts (e-mail, blog, or other) have been hacked of late, Nicola.  It is totally annoying even though I did get things back to normal quickly.  We do have cell phones--only.  A few years ago we decided to eliminate the land line.  It seemed to us that the only ones who called us on the land lines were telemarketers and wrong numbers.  We preferred having cells as a safety measure while driving around.  I can sympathize with your problem because I used to live in an area where cell reception was spotty and unreliable.

Continuing on the theme of hacking, Red Tape posted a warning about a very scary new virus that can allow a hacker to steal your banking log-in info, use it in fraudulent transactions, and hide the fact from you when you check your account--as the experts have recommended.  And expert quoted at the end of the article recommends that one simply avoid getting the virus into one's system in the first place.  My question--HOW??

Let's see what I can do today.  We have both been fighting through colds so we spend much of the day sleeping or vegetating.  We only do what we absolutely have to as we get the energy--which isn't all that often right now.  They had a story on the news last night and this morning which claimed that driving with a cold is the equivalent to driving drunk.  Yeah, but how do you get around that.  You can choose to not drink when you know you have to drive but you can't choose not to get a cold.  Call in sick??  Yeah, try that with some of the bosses I have known!!

Karoli posted this at Crooks & Liars this morning.  I think anyone who goes into politics these days have had to have their common sense surgically removed, along with their hearts and consciences if they are Repthuglican.  The attack on compulsory education I could dismiss as an aberration if I hadn't read some months ago of an effort by some Repthuglican to directly rescind such laws in Missouri.  It is ironic that on the one hand we are told that for this country to be competitive globally we have to have an educated work force and on the other we see these efforts to kill primary and secondary education as a public enterprise.  As to the move to require any legislation to be justified with a specific article of the Magna Carta--obviously those boy haven't read the document thoroughly or considered the wisdom of tying modern laws into an 800-year-old straight jacket.  Although it is very much related to the Christianist view of putting all of us into a 2000-year-old straight jacket that has been modified many times in the intervening time and which most of them haven't read (or understood) thoroughly.

Well, I think I need a nap.  Take care and see you next time.

Good morning to you all.  Unseasonably warm again today.  Much of the snow has melted at least in the sunny areas.  Most of the next week should be the same if the weather people are accurate.

The Repthuglican Traveling Clown Circus has moved from Iowa, which can go back to the insignificance in which it usually exists, to New Hampshire, which will bask in its quadrennial spotlight until after its primary.  Politics is such a strange game.  John McCain decided to endorse Romney whom he described as honest and straightforward--ignoring the fact that he characterized Romney as a 'flip-flopper' during the last Presidential primary cycle.  Bachmann is out but Perry has decided to stay in.  And not a single Repthuglican isn't pandering to the Religious Right.  Damn!!!

Damn on another front!!  Hotmail froze my account this morning because someone hacked in and used it to send a bunch of e-mails.  I had to give them my cell phone number and get a code to unlock it.  I don't know what would be a good enough punishment for the @$$hole.  Oh, well the account is back.

Hey, Kay, you may have gotten the lake effect snow that set up just east of us and affected Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.  Hope our warmer weather comes your way.

Hello, Everyone.  About 10F warmer than yesterday at this time.  We are on the upward trajectory for temperature and the next week looks to be in the 40s.  Mom always says that one extreme follows the other.  Last winter was unusually cold and snowy.  So far this one has been warmer than usual with very little snow.  Most of our precipitation has come in the form of rain.  However, we have two more months of winter, if you count from December 1, or three, if you count from the Solstice.  Either way it is certainly not nearly over.

Sorry about your garden, Nicola.  I know weather happens but that doesn't mean I have to like the results of it.  'Pitching' is an Americanism for 'throwing out'.  Here that is reserved for something that is worn beyond any repair or use.  Not many things get to that point.  I have an old nightgown that though not reparable will be cut up into strips that can be crocheted into rugs, mats, or bags.  When I check my t-shirts some of them will go that route also.  If I can put something, or part of something, to a new use I generally do that.

I was wondering how you were doing with the weather out there, Lois.  I remember some of the fantastic snows we got in Ft. Collins that seemed to melt away as quickly as they came.  Hope your boys aren't as bummed out as Kuma is here.  He doesn't understand that his fur coat is only partial protection agains the kind of cold we had over the last couple of days.  Nor was he at all happy when I opened to door and he got a blast of snow in the face thanks to the high winds.  He suddenly decided he didn't want to go out after all while, of course, he blamed me for not doing something about that awful white stuff.

Good morning to you all.  We have sun but still have a few snow flakes fluttering down.  Later I will go out and clear the doors and paths on the patio and clear what is left on the car.  The landscaping people who work for our landlord have already cleared the sidewalks outside the patios.  The high winds that came with the snow cleared a lot of the snow so it won't be too strenuous.  I did have to go out (thankfully before the temperature dipped below cold into the frigid range) and settled the milk jug cloches more firmly over my blueberries.  They have lost most of their leaves but the stems are still nicely green so I have hopes they will survive the winter in good shape.

Nicola's comment on my last post reminded me of the changes in my attitudes toward snow over my lifetime.  As a child I loved the snow.  I can remember only one time when we had enough snow at one go to cause officials to cancel school so an impromptu vacation was not likely but the cold weather provided the opportunity for different sports and activities.  But as an adult I found the snow simply an inconvenience at best and a danger at worst.  I remember a couple of real hairy almost serious crashes because I had to go out in nasty weather for whatever job I had at the time.  Luckily I emerged from those without even a dented fender.  Now I can relax and enjoy the season because I don't have to go out in the weather.  I have been retired for three winters now and was unemployed for two before that.  We carefully choose when we go out on our errands and make sure we can hunker down for at least a week or more in case we do get snowed in.  Even the big blizzard last winter only kept us homebound for five days while we got the patio shoveled, the landscaping crew cleared the sidewalks, and the city plowed the streets.  It looks rather pretty outside now with the sun on the snow.  I can enjoy it.

This is going to be an unusual day and probably the first of many.  With the new year I have a lot of sorting, pitching, and donating to do  and at the same time clean up the room that has become a catch all over the last few months ago.  We used to spend a lot of time there because that was where our computers were.  When Mom's old iMac died and mine was dying, we got a pair of low end MacBooks.  Since they are wireless equipped laptops we moved our computer use downstairs to the living room unless we have to use the printer (which isn't wireless.)  As a result that room has become a disaster area which really must be cleaned up.  So I do a bit and take a break with the computer, do another task and take a break with the computer, etc.  Right now I am taking a break from my first task--clearing out the storage bins that held (originally) my out of season clothes.  I have three empty small bin, one half filled large bin, and two bags of clothes that will find new homes via the Goodwill store.

The Self Sufficient Gardener has an interesting post but I don't think I will follow his advice totally.  I agree with his assessment of ground cherry having tried it last year.  I found the taste more like a very dilute strawberry drink--not enough flavor.  Although it produced well, I will put in strawberries.  But I like trying different and unusual plants and I look for plants that are suitable for our climate.  I put in my old faithfuls--tomatoes and peppers--but try some new items each year.  Some I won't try again (ground cherry and Tigger melon) because we didn't like the flavor.  Some because the plants don't really play nicely with what I already have.  But I have found some gems--the Dragon's Egg cucumber and stevia.  I have to balance two factors--I only have several large containers and that limited space will not under any conceivable circumstance provide enough to totally take care of our needs.  As such my gardens will always be evolving which makes it ever new.

Grist posted this item today which explains why we don't buy our groceries at Wal-Mart and haven't for  several years now.  But we have found lately that we have to be careful of our local groceries as well.  A while ago I recounted how we put back some margarine (a name brand, at that) because, from the oily residue on the packages and the carton they came in, it was clear that the product had not been kept at a proper temperature and had partly melted.  We also do not buy the bagged salad greens--that is simply asking for food poisoning.

Good morning, Everyone, on this first Monday of the new year.  We woke to snow--light for now.  The weather service has a winter storm warning out for northern Indiana beginning just east of us.  How much we get depends entirely on how this system sets up because we are on the edge of the snow bands coming off Lake Michigan.  But by the end of the week we should be back in the high 30s and low 40s.

I don't know how people afford fireworks either, Nicola.  But then some of my spending would probably amaze those who buy fireworks.  I just wish they had a quieter sort of frivolous spending.

Crabby Old Lady (a.k.a., Ronni Bennett) at Time Goes By expresses my own frustrations with the current election cycle perfectly.

*******Happy New Year*******

Well, here it is---2012.  It has been a very long time since I partied to bring in a new year and this year did not change the pattern.  We went to bed at our usual time--no champagne, to funny hats.  We did have some idiots who had to shoot off their fireworks and woke me.  I wish they would just go to the nearest 'official' fireworks display.  I also don't do resolutions.  I went through years of making ambitious (over ambitious, perhaps) resolutions that last, at most, a month leaving me feeling guilty.  Instead, I assess what I do throughout the year and plan small changes.

This morning, as on so many over the last month, I looked at the thermometer hanging on the outside of the patio door and wonder if somehow it has broken because the temperature it registered was way too warm.  Well, like every other such morning, the morning news confirmed the thermometer.  The new year is continuing the old year's pattern.  Unseasonably warm days punctuated with normal or slightly below temperatures.  The weather people are predicting a 'major' winter storm is coming in and, as usual, how much snow we get will depend on exactly how it sets up and how much 'lake effect' snow comes with it.  But by the end of the week we should see temperatures back in the mid 40s so most of it will not last long.

I wonder if 2012 will continue another pattern from 2011--earthquakes.  Over the weekend Tokyo and Ohio registered quakes--7 in Tokyo and 4 in Ohio.  Luckily no results to match the March quake/tsunami in northeastern Japan, or the Christ Church (New Zealand) quakes, the couple of quakes in eastern Turkey--to name just a few.

I didn't read Krugman's latest, Kay, but what I have noticed most is that they all argue from an ideological/religious bias--and all of these positions are held with a religious fervor that easily matches the intensity of the Wars of Religion of the 16th and 17th centuries.  The problem is that none of the economic models are the absolutes their adherents claim.  Most of them were formulated to explain what recently happened  but, as the phrase that has been attributed to Mark Twain says, history doesn't repeat, it rhymes.  This down turn does not repeat the Great Depression and the Keynesian theories came out of that episode so the prescriptions based on those theories may not work as expected, if at all.  However that doesn't mean I advocate cutting the Federal spending especially not on the social side.  Those kind of cuts simply increase the number of people without jobs and without any means of subsistence.  Most of those who advocate such cuts argue from their own moral bias and they will never feel the pain of the cuts themselves.  As to the politics--well that is basically about what 'we' are going to do and who exactly that 'we' encompasses.  All too often, as I listen to the Repthuglicans, I feel that I am being read out of the 'we.'  Too old, too poor, too dependent on programs that I paid into but now they don't want to continue.