On the 8th of May, I was flying from Manchester, NH to West Palm Beach Fl, to visit my mother for the first time since the pandemic hit. It was one day past my two weeks following my second covid inoculation, the earliest possible flight I could get and it connected in Chicago at O’Hare international airport. Yeah, go halfway across the country to the west to get from the northern coast to the southern coast.
Needless to say, I never made the connection. I had another (3rd) heart attack walking between gates at O’Hare, was taken off the jetway in a stretcher and raced via ambulance to Recurrection Medical Center in Chicago.
Eventually (after about a week) I was scheduled for triple bypass surgery, had that, largely recovered from that and then had to be driven by car back to New Hampshire (the surgeons would not allow me to fly owing to the pressure differentials). The alternative was a month of days at some rehab facility in Chicago…while my house went unsold, while my shipping pod was delivered but not filled, while….
Nope. I had to get back and I did. It was a 16+ hour odyssey by car, during which time many friends stepped forward to help; some put in serious time and effort, others lent moral support – ALL are greatly appreciated. Normally, I’d mention people by name to thank them, but many involved are not in the SF/F fields and I’m not sure if they would or would not appreciate the attention. I will find ways to thank them, though there is nothing that would be the true equivalent of what many of them did. Again, thank you all.
I’m now home but the final aspects of my moving south have become even more complicated, owing to the fact that I am greatly restricted in what I can do physically. Virtually everything remaining requires that I get someone to come to the house, perform some or a series of tasks and then move forward to the next thing.
But progress is being made.
Come the end of June, first couple of weeks in July, the house will have been finalized and I will have actually moved – or will be on the verge of moving. We will also be making announcements close to that time frame regarding resumption of publication of the magazine, some changes to our subscription system and more.
I won’t lie, it’s going to be a slow recovery, both for me and for the magazine, but it will be in recovery. So please, just a little bit more patience and understanding from our family, friends, fans and everyone else. Just a little more and we’ll be back on track.
I’m glad you came through that surgery okay. Don’t worry too much about resuming publication; your health is more important. I had some big surgery myself, actually around the same time you did, that I’m still recovering from and it’s put me back in some of my writing projects. The most important thing is to recover. In doing that we can work much more efficiently.
Heal up, buddy. Get well, and don’t worry about moving or the website or magazine.
Without your health you have nothing.
Get well, Steve!
Your first priority is you. Magazine will wait. And so will we.