MINNESOTA Moments

Welcome a new blogger -- Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Today I'd like to introduce a new writer to this blog. For those of you familiar with Minnesota Moments, this will be a familiar name. Audrey Kletscher Helbling, our southern Minnesota correspondent, will now also be a blogger for us. Audrey is an exceptional writer and Minnesota Moments has been fortunate to have her writing for it since the beginning.

Below is Audrey's first submission to this blog. For those of you who read the March/April issue of Minnesota Moments, you'll know that Audrey enjoys hanging clothes on her line outdoors as much as she can. Go figure. I'm just the opposite. Anyhow, welcome, Audrey!

A good reason to use the clothesline

I love writing. It can be especially fun when I’m writing about a passion — like hanging laundry on a clothesline. I’m an avid clothes-hanger-outer, just like the three women I interviewed for a story in the March/April issue of Minnesota Moments.

But once in awhile, like on rainy days and in the winter, I’m forced to use my dryer. One Tuesday morning in late November (maybe it was early December), I was multi-tasking, washing and drying laundry between writing. It was one of those first really cold

mornings of the season with a temperature of 8 degrees. I hadn’t used my dryer in weeks and just a day earlier I had hung clothes outdoors in balmy 30-degree sunshine.

As is common along the busy street where I live, I heard the approaching sounds of wailing sirens about mid-morning. I didn’t bother to look up from my keyboard, until the screeching stopped, eerily close to my house. That caught my attention. I looked out the window, directly at a fire truck. This isn’t good I thought as a fireman walked toward my house. I sniffed the air. No smoke smell. But maybe flames were shooting out of my attached garage.

I hurried to the door. “What are you doing here?” I asked the fire fighter.

“Are you using your dryer?” he asked, peering around the corner of my house to the north side, where steam billowed out of the dryer vent.

“Yes,” I answered.

Water dripped from the hose atop the fire truck as he inspected the vent and then walked leisurely back to my front door.

“You scared the fill in the blank here out of me,” I blurted.

“You scared us too,” he answered, then headed back to his rig and to the station to await his next “fire” call.

Audrey

Enjoy a taste of spring

Hello to all. As you can see from our home page, our spring issue is out. It should be arriving in mailboxes and on newsstands this week.

And for those of you who are not subscribers to the magazine, we've added a free trial offer option to our website. Simply fill it out and we'll be sending you a free copy of the magazine to read. There are no strings attached to this offer and no gimmicks. You won't be hounded by telemarketers (see my following blog installment to learn what I think about those calls). We just know that once you get to see Minnesota Moments, you'll want to join our list of subscribers. At least, that's our hope.

We hope you enjoy the latest magazine.

Mike

Wrapping Up March/April Mn Moments Issue

We are just wrapping up the March/April issue of Minnesota Moments as I write this. People are always amazed at how early we have to get an issue done in order to get it printed and in people’s mailboxes or on newsstands by the beginning of the publication cycle.

Besides the writing, photography, editing and design that go in to each publication, a series of proofs is printed and read by several loyal wordsmiths. Without their help, the magazine wouldn’t be what it is.

I’m sure we make mistakes from time to time, that’s only natural. But we try to minimize their numbers by rigorously proofing the magazine several times on its journey to the printing plant in Long Prairie.

Besides each story being edited before the layout process has begun, the stories are proofed twice on paper and once more electronically, by a number of different people. These people don’t get credit for their work, but they truly are the unsung heroes.

And no sooner does one issue of the magazine come out, than work begins on the next issue. And in some cases, we work a year ahead. That’s a necessity, especially if you want photographs that look like they were taken during the season in which the magazine eventually is published. For instance, our November/December issue is printed in mid-October, before Halloween. Not a lot of snowmen and Christmas trees to photograph at that time of year. And with a press deadline of mid-February for our March/April issue, we couldn’t shoot anything this time of year that would resemble springtime, even in Minnesota, where springtime sometimes looks a lot like winter.

Mike