TROUBLE WITH TRANSITIONS: OR WHAT TO DO WHEN BLOGGER.COM DECIDES TO LOP OFF THE HEAD OF YOUR BELOVED HEADER

Yay! It is starting out to be happy day for many reasons. 

 

Our aging Peugeot is now ambulatory and sports an Italian license plate. This means that we no longer need to live in fear of having to deal with the semi-sadists at the Motor Vehicle joint who, although we ourselves weren’t able to drive, seemed intent on driving US completamente crazy for the past three months. 

 

Then, yesterday, in the wake of my having sent many friends the book announcement, it took about a minute for really nice congratulatory messages to start arriving. 

 

But the icing on the cake was, after lamenting what I feared was the permanent loss of the brilliant blog Header that my talented daughter-in-law had designed for my blog, I just happened to be leafing through the index of blog pieces when I stumbled on my Eiffel/Leaning Tower Header image from a few years back. 

 

 

See why I am so attached to this?

 

That must’ve been when Blogger.com changed the template that led to what appeared to be my well-loved Header’s disappearance. But for me to see that clever Franco-Italian image again was like being reunited with an old friend. And because I’m lucky to have geniuses in the family, it made me think that there might be a way to resurrect it. 

 

Speaking of geniuses, it was a stroke of genius on the part of my son who understands these things to link my Author Page to the blog. Just reading the titles and the opening line of each entry is making me happy and proud of what used to be my wit. Further, I’m hoping it will be a good advertisement for Letters to Men of Letters. And my clever husband who, unlike me, is NOT a technodunce will help me rejuvenate this blog that I had neglected while writing the book. 

 

So the sun is shining over here in the Lapone valley where, despite the lowish temperatures, spring is everywhere in evidence.🌷😻💚

 

*

 

HOMESICK FOR MY WELL-LOVED HEADER

(This next bit should probably be the prequel to what I wrote above, but I often feel that chronology is overrated, so forgive me if I engage in some time travel and put this here)

 

There is already a post called “How it all started.” It happens to be the very first one of this blog, but there’s more to that story. It actually all started on a styrofoam tray that once held some delicious stuffed tortelloni.

 

When in 12/25/2011 I first looked at the Magic marker message written on that pasta tray by my generous son and daughter-in-law, I saw that they had made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. It looked a lot like this. In fact, exactly like this! 

They recognized that I was a woman in need of a different type of outlet for my writing. And, knowing me to be a total technodunce, they knew I would need a large amount of assistance, which they were prepared to give. After all, anyone who knows me knows that I never used to be willing to even turn on the computer unless there was a savvy family member within screaming distance. I was the last person to get a cell phone, which I only did because my job depended on it. When you are teaching in France and responsible for a large number of Yale students, you need to be reachable at all hours. Never mind that that old clamshell phone was way too complicated for me. In case of emergency, my smart husband and four-year-old son who knew what to do were right there. 

 

I’m not sure why am telling you this. Could it be that while dusting I came across this precious styrofoam artifact? Well, that’s true, but I think the thread is transitions and the need for new beginnings, which are so NOT the specialty of my personal house.

  

In the face of your headless Header, whom do you turn to after you stop freaking out and feeling sorry for yourself? My smart daughter-in-law, that’s who! The one who knows how to design book covers and so many other things.

 

“Don’t worry, Diane we will figure it out. I can probably find a way to make the old Header work again, but here are a few new ideas you might want to consider. I’ll just describe them here and then I’ll make a video so we can go over them.”

 

Never mind that she is in a country seven hours away that is in total lockdown. In the meantime, I'm grateful for the chance to pay homage to the old Header here.