Author:
Joe Atk
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Date Posted: 17:53:29 12/20/09 Sun
Wes, take care and get yourself well. We want the best writer to keep writing.....
I have quit reading other stories, as your are so much better.
Joe
>Hi all!
>
>I’m slowly getting better, although I’m still not back
>to normal. I was just getting so damn bored with
>sitting in the living room chair in a cold sweat with
>the computer at an awkward angle and no convenient way
>to type or do anything else that I had the computer
>set back up in my office where I do my writing. At
>least I’m now sitting at a halfway comfortable angle
>and have my familiar things around me. I’m going to
>try to catch up on e-mail and stuff that I’ve shorted
>the past ten days.
>
>To make a long story short, I had a bad staph
>infection that I do not understand, not can I figure
>out where I got it. At that I spent five days in the
>hospital and probably should have been there longer.
>I’ve been sleeping irregularly and have discomfort
>finding a position where I can be comfortable for
>long. But today I at least feel like I’m getting
>better and getting a little bit more energy, and
>wanted to be doing something rather than just sitting
>there with a dazed expression on my face and nothing
>to hold my interest.
>
>A few days ago I said I had an announcement but not
>the energy to write about it. So, now I’ll go back
>over it.
>
>I’m sure most you know my daughter has spent the last
>two and a half years in China in the Peace Corps and
>as a student. It was a real adventure for her, and one
>of the adventures is that she met an English guy
>there, Dan. They visited here last summer, and headed
>back to where Dan was working on has degree in Chinese
>studies.
>
>Or, at least everyone including Dan thought he was
>working on his degree. Turns out not; along toward the
>end of October they discovered that he had not
>received any credit for his last two years work and
>was not expected to. Needless to say, we got a very
>dispirited e-mail. Both Amanda and Dan were getting
>burned out by China anyway, and after a very long and
>hectic day with multiple e-mails, phone calls, Skype,
>Google chat and I think carrier pigeon between China,
>England and here a whole new plan for Dan’s future had
>been worked out. He and Amanda decided to move back
>here, where he will spend several semesters getting
>basic American college credit at a local community
>college, following which he will enroll in a Chinese
>studies program at a state university (unless, of
>course, he changes his mind -- he’s been in China for
>five years and like I said is pretty burned out on
>it.) They were out of China fairly quickly, spent five
>weeks in England with Dan’s family, and showed up here
>on Sunday after I’d been in the hospital for four days.
>
>Now again, most of you know that in real life I run a
>little local weekly newspaper. It is so small that I
>don’t have anyone to back me up on a lot of the ins
>and outs of getting the paper out, and with me in the
>hospital there was only one way a paper was going to
>get out. Amanda grew up around the paper, learning a
>lot of how to run the software and computers in
>general, and although she’d never actually put a paper
>together and hadn’t been in the building in over three
>years she was the only hope. She really came through!
>So there I was, flat on my back in my hospital bed,
>phone in hand, coaching her through things like
>finding photo files. This, mind you, is after she’d
>been back in the states for less than 12 hours. It
>wasn’t the greatest paper we’ve ever put out but it
>worked, and we’re going to have to do it pretty much
>the same way this week, although I’ve been able to do
>quite a bit of work on it at home. I won’t be able to
>go into the office tomorrow as I have doctors
>appointments and am still on a catheter but we should
>be able to make it work.
>
>So, as it turned out she turned up just in time. More
>than that, after Kathy and I have been empty nesters
>for a long time it’ll be interesting to have the kids
>home -- and I say kids, because while Amanda has been
>an only child I have come to really like Dan. Maybe
>I’ll actually be able to have the taste of having a
>bit of a son for a while.
>
>Anyway, thanks for sticking with me and your showings
>of concern. I suspect it will be a while before I’m
>back to creative writing but at least I’m able to
>contemplate it. I have many e-mails to answer,
>especially to the SOL contingent that is currently
>reading Magic Carpet, but I’ll chip away at that to at
>least get something constructive done.
>
>Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
>
>-- Wes
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