A few days ago I posted a warning about the virus carried in an e-mail supposedly Obama's inauguration speech, and tonight I rec'd this from Walter Ruf in Florida:
You may have been warned about some worms etc., in connection with Obama's inauguration.DO NOT OPEN ANYTHING THAT COMES THRU TO YOU. I JUST READ A GERMAN NEWSPAPER OVER THE INTERNET AND THEY WARNED EVERYBODY TO BE CAREFUL,there are criminals out there!

Thank you, Walter - I hope people see this and realize the danger. I haven't seen anything in our newspapers about this, but I checked on snopes.com and it is real.

Our weather moderated today. I think our temperature was only in the low 20's, and it snowed most of the day, but it felt like spring after the way-below-zero weather of the past week. Tonight we have a reading of 10 above - not bad at all.

Our friend, Louise, slid off the road on Rt. 15, just north of West Danville today. She wasn't hurt and her car was fine. She said it was a soft landing against a snowbank that kept her car from rolling completely over. There was traffic behind her and four cars stopped to help. They pulled her out of her car, a woman put her into her car and took her home, called the wrecker for her, and generally looked after her. Louise is 90-ish and very agile of mind and body, and looked at it philosophically. She had her seat belt on and told me "it could have been worse, but the snowbank kept my car from going over completely and the belt kept me from going over completely, so it was alright." She told me several times how nice everyone was to her and how grateful she was that so many people stopped to help. Tomorrow she's heading out again. I asked her if she wanted Fred or me to take her wherever she needs to go, but she said no, she would be fine. She's not going to leave as early tomorrow, she said, so the roads will be better. Good idea.

That's one good thing about having plenty of snow and high banks along the roads - if you do slide off the road, there's something reasonably soft to catch you. Sometimes. I think it's great she isn't nervous about driving again. She's a very good driver and cautious - this is her first experience going off the road and she's been driving all times of the year since she and her late husband moved here 30 or more years ago. Most of us have had at least one unexpected slide on ice while driving our winter highways, often with at least a dent in a fender or a piece of trim ripped off the car. I suspect she wasn't going very fast - she usually doesn't - so she may not have hit the snowbank too hard.

Enjoy the inauguration ceremonies tomorrow.