Dear readers,
This newsletter's title image came to me via @sobore on Twitter - one of those rare times I stumbled upon a gem in the stream of tweets: Per @sobore, a school janitor in Izhevsk, Russia makes snow art with his shovel every morning to bring joy to the children. Isn't this enchanting? I was especially moved because it is such a touching example of
the fact that art can be made of anything, by anybody, anywhere!
I'm writing this newsletter sitting by what might be the last fire for me this winter. It's been blowing snow all day and with our drafty 1920s windows, the living room was cold without the fire.
Tomorrow I'm taking off on a three-week trip, first to see my family in Germany (it will still be
winter there, but my sister's house, where I'll be staying, features a tiled, built-in stove, not an open fireplace like I have here in Chicago). After that I'm off to Israel to see my son and daughter. It will be decidedly springtime there. By the time I get back, spring shouldn't be too far off here.
Publishing
this article was a welcome reminder of how easy publishing can sometimes be: A friend told me about the Jewish parenting site kveller opening a site for Chicago, and her gentle nudge, "Can't you write something for them?" got me thinking. I could, couldn't I? What would be local, parenting-related and have some Jewish content? First I thought of Passover, but
that was too far off, and then, badaboom, badaba, inspiration struck! At the time, Tu Bishvat was around the corner, and taking the kids to see the greenery at the conservatory was a decidedly local activity and a cute connection to the New Year of the Trees. I wrote it up, sent it to the editor listed in the announcement my friend had sent me, and woosh, the following week the article appeared. I even got paid for it. Sometimes, the publishing stars align and it works
out.
On that note, I am pretty close to signing a book contract for my memoir manuscript, and that has been anything but easy. More on that soon, I hope. The attic at the Hemingway Birthplace Home
Incidentally, the kveller article was also an example of how the same effortless, meant-to-be experience can keep on giving. A few days after it appeared, I was contacted by a journalist, who was writing an article about kveller expanding locally and asked to interview me as one of their local writers.
The article will be in the March JUF News issue, which should come out any day.
At the end of the pier, on a mild day in February, a message...
I've been doing a lot of digital organizing since my laptop died in January. I'm still amazed how
used I was to the old machine and how long it has taken not only to get comfortable with the new one but also to have files where I want them to be. I guess getting used to the new Windows 10 setup (especially Outlook 2016, oh, I am not happy with that one!) can be counted under "staying flexible."
The death of my laptop taught me a few things: - replace the old machine before it dies (even though I had access to the
hard drive and ultimately didn't lose any files, this is the first time a machine died on me and I do not recommend going through that)
- back up your files! Duh, I know, but it saved my behind big time that I not only had access to my old hard drive, but that I also had my most crucial files available to me on the Cloud; this kept
me working during the two weeks until my new laptop arrived and was set up
- don't take "this can't be done" for an answer. The Geek Squad was tremendously helpful, nevertheless they maintained that my old Outlook files could not be recovered, which was a minor disaster for me as a lot of information lives in my Inbox and
Sent Items. On a whim, I asked the computer consultant at work if he could recover them, and he did it in a few seconds! Oh was I happy!
So much for now. I wish you a springy month of March, wherever on the globe you might be. By the way, I just realized that the fee of the service I use for this newsletter went up because I passed the 500 subscriber mark. How about
that?
Happy writing, and happy living! |
|
|
|
