If you have a computer you probably have a Web cam. And if you have a Web cam, you can download Skype and get in touch with friends and family, projecting your face on their computer screens.

I remember seeing myself on my screen and wondering how I could ever consider sitting down at the computer without makeup, lots of it.

Skype? Be careful what you wish for.

In sharp contrast, Susie Stauble wouldn’t flinch at her image on screen. She is Miss Maine 2009, and on Jan. 30 at 8 p.m. on TLC channel, live from Las Vegas, we can cheer her on, maybe see her crowned Miss America. Wouldn’t that be something!

We met Susie at her family’s bed and breakfast inn a week or so ago. Lolling around after a day of skiing and walking and shopping and eating and talking, our gang woke right up when Stauble appeared before us. She is drop-dead gorgeous, of course, but that’s not all there is to her. There’s her volunteer service in India, for example, and her sure, stylish singing voice. Miss Maine favored us with a song: “Smile,” the orchestration for Barbara Streisand’s long-ago rendition in the background. Fun.

The next day began a string of four snowy days, slow-down days, domestic discovery days: The pot holders need washing and there’s not a whole lot in the freezer for dinners. (Well, there was this big old ham bone and it calls for lentil soup even if your spouse never does.) By the time the sun returned — Oh, what a glorious day was last Thursday — the Christmas decorations were back in storage, the ironing stack was inches shorter, and, best of all, the furnace was working again after hours of bitter cold downtime.

Through all kinds of weather in this young year, the bad news keeps coming. In California, severe rains forcing evacuation of houses on hills stripped bare by fire in 2009. Haiti and Haiti and Haiti.

Here, work furloughs and daylight home burglaries. What keeps us going? A little good news, such as the small business support program that’s coming to us, the ongoing good work of the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition, including the continuing USDA-funded nutrition education program. And not least, the generous help streaming to the people of Haiti.

Perhaps you’ve given through your church or the MPBN phone-athon, any one of many ways to get relief dollars to Port-au-Prince. If you haven’t yet chosen your channel, consider this: the 50-year-old Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti. It survived the earthquake, but is inundated with survivors from Port-au-Prince. A friend wrote, they know firsthand the quality of care delivered there and that donations to the hospital “will be properly spent.” For more information, visit online at www.hashaiti.org. Tax-deductible contributions may be sent to: Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, P.O. Box 81046; Pittsburgh, PA 15217.