under the weather
Sometimes there's beauty buried beneath disaster. NYC has been digging out from a difficult blizzard; people lost their lives, thousands were inconvenienced, and now there are allegations that the sanitation workers deliberately "slowed" their removal of the snow just to send a message to the mayor. I pray that's not true…but until the investigation is completed, I'm going to focus on the positive—the spirit of the city can't be crushed by a bit of snow! I walked to the post office today and it was packed, yet everyone was in a good mood. On the way over, folks would step aside and wait for others to pass since the sidewalks aren't much clearer than the roads. Inside, a man with a booming voice hollered, "I ain't had no mail for four day–FOUR DAYS! Where you suckers been?" And I thought, oh Lord—he's going postal. But then he burst out laughing and wished everyone a happy new year! And at least half the people in line turned and wished him a happy new year, too. The postal clerks were in a good mood despite the long line, and were joking with one another about how they managed to get 
to work that morning. I headed over to the garden afterward and tried taking some photos with my phone; wasn't able to zoom, but can you see the heron perched on the left tip of the Torii? Lovely…the snow wasn't fresh; kids had made snowmen here and there…but it was still beautiful and those of us walking the cleared paths smiled as we passed one another. I had just congratulated myself on not getting a single cold this season, and now I'm coming down with one—of course. So I stopped at my favorite soup spot (El Gran Castillo) and got a big container of their delicious chicken noodle soup (noodles AND potatoes AND cassava, plus giant carrots); decided to take the train home but had no money left on my metrocard and so just missed a train. Added money, noted the fare hike, but went down to the platform and within ONE minute another train arrived. We were stalled for a minute, but the city is up and running again…
Came home and was thrilled to learn that Wish was named favorite historical fiction novel over at Starmetal Oak Book Blog. Thanks!
I also got an email from the AmazonEncore team letting me know that if you have a Kindle edition of Wish, you can now SHARE IT with your fellow book lovers:
Some of you have undoubtedly heard the rumors that the kindle will soon allow book purchasers to lend their content out to their friends and family. Today is that day…
Kindle books can be lent to anyone with a kindle or a free kindle app, this includes IPad, PC, Mac, BlackBerry and more. You can tell a book is lendable by looking at the "Product Details" section half way down the Amazon Product Details page…
All of us know the joy and excitement of reading a good book and passing it on to someone else, now this can be experienced with the kindle as well.
If you have more questions about this program please check out our help pages section for lending.
