I’ve been more than remiss in communication.
As you may know I had round #2 with cancer–breast cancer—which I got out of with a lumpectomy and no complications, but — radiation, etc. and as many as 8 doctor visits a month….which kind of takes the starch out of you. Just not enough energy to get to things….
And ‘things’ have sadly included WWAS….FB’s been a little easier, because there I just react.
But WWAS has been, well, — I haven’t had the energy to spare. I was going great guns on the next book until the second cancer round, and I’m ABOUT getting enough energy to take it up again—but—
Anyway, still love you all. It’s just been weird. I’ve always had energy to spare, and it’s hard to pace myself when I don’t.
Not for want of caring.
Best to all of you. Profound apologies for those who’ve tried to get onto this page that I haven’t had the strength to go through (literally: I’m not kidding: 14,000 emails (most from Russia and Albania) to try to sort out legitimate new members. I hate loose bots! Anyway, I’m doing all right, trying to bounce back from the second bout and the radiation, just not as much spring in the bounce as I used to have; and hoping that I won’t have a third. Genetics says I have a proclivity to this kind of problem—but I think I’ve had my statistical share now, if you please!
Love you all.
—CJ
My Facebook account has disappeared and I’ve been trying to reconstitue it, but I’m so disgusted that I won’t be posting there for a month or so.
Considering all the behind the scenes shenanigans and hoovering up of data at most social media, I’m glad my presence on any platform is either minimal or nonexistent. It would be like wiretapping a goodly proportion of phones a couple decades ago without justification.
Ye gods. Just spent the last 4 days enduring what amounted to a slow moving hurricane. Big parts of my island were flooded, washed out to sea, or blown away. Most parts had power outages; mine was 14 hours. In 24 hours the island got 32 inches of rain, with 80 mph wind gusts in places. This is definitely in the top 3 of storms I have dealt with since moving here.
I had seen briefly in the national (US) press that ”Hawaii” was getting hit with a big storm and wondered how it might be affecting you. 32″ of rain: oh my!!! Hope you dry out well!
I heard some area got as much as 46 inches. I can’t even imagine. (“Big rain” in my area is more like 5 or 6 inches per storm. And there’s flooding.)
And the beat goes on. After a brief lull, ANOTHER Kona Low (the technical term for the type of storm that has hit/is hitting us) came through and dumped another batch of rain. The street where DH’s computer shop is became Lake Lono, as did many other low lying streets around the island, if the ground didn’t just collapse where it butted up against moving water. A sinkhole opened in poor beleaguered Lahaina. During the first storm, a new leak opened in the roof; I scrabbled up there and patched it as best I could, and it seems to be holding. It looks like it’s tapering off, one hopes.
Despite all this, three months ago I had arranged for time off this week to pull up the 25 y.o. carpet and replace it with laminate flooring. This project is going ahead; friends are coming by this afternoon to help move the last of the furniture out so tomorrow I can start ripping out the carpet. I’ve laid flooring like this before, but a good outcome would be felicitous.
*grits teeth* I hurt. The carpet and underlying pad are up and out; the tack strips less so, as they seem to be of the original owner’s vintage and are stubborn about removal. Nonetheless, after some stretching and limbering, the laminate laying will proceed. Tylenol is my friend, and I hope not to need stronger medications.
Sympathies to you! Tylenol is indeed your friend. We have ~40+ year old carpeting in our living room and my “office” just off it, laid down by the prior owner (hence I don’t know the actual date) which desperately needs to go. But a) we have so many book cases and other pieces of furniture (and stacks of books) that we don’t know how to clear the space… and b) while we know there is oak flooring underneath, the prior owner also told us that said flooring is covered with glue from when the owners prior to her glued indoor/outdoor carpeting to the original oak floors. So we continue to live with ratty carpeting. Perhaps you shall inspire us!
Whomever decided to glue carpet to oak plank flooring should be drawn and quarter-sawn! When you get to removing the carpet, PAY PEOPLE to do it for you, from taking out the furniture to pulling up the rotten carpet. Your back and muscles will thank you. Look into having someone come in with a floor sander; they will probably be able to grind off the glue so you can refinish the floor and show off the nice original wood!
*touch laminate* The flooring is nearly halfway done! I must have been touched by the Home Improvement fairies yesterday, because the laminate went in smoothly, the cuts around the door frames worked, and the worst bobble was finding that one of the baseboard mounted electrical outlets had cracked in two at some point. I had to pause and replace it. I expect to finish laying the floor today; tomorrow will be for the doorsills and trim.
I’m real glad to hear that your installing of the laminate flooring is going smoothly. It is a delightful minor miracle that all is snapping into place for (actually, “by”) you. I will also keep in mind your now-experienced advice about hiring people to do the work if we take the leap (not soon, alas) and haul out the furniture and pull up the old carpeting. I agree that whomever decided to glue carpeting to an oak floor should be (nice pun by you!) “quarter-sawn.” Good luck with the doing the final finishes!
I remember the house we moved into in 1966 still had the original carpet – good quality wool, but worn, and in places oil-stained, apparently from someone fixing their motorcycle indoors (we thought). The replacement took an entire roll of commercial-grade pile in coffee-coke-and-mustard, and they had to piece it on the stairs.
I helped remove tacks and staples from the floor at a friend’s place, where the carpet have been removed.
I catch Jesse Wald’s flyovers every few months. I responded to the first that it too centuries to buld so was gonna take a lot longer than he was suggesting to get on its feet again, such is youth. But it seems to me things are going as well as can be expected, if not better!
In 2014 I and my friend took the island cruise, and at the Maui stop, not wanting to take the tourist bus to Lahaina, took a taxi to Wailea, then the bus back through Kihei to the ship. I’ve been regretting not seeing Lahaina as was.
We’ve been getting your Kona Lows rainyside before they head inland. But unfortuneately as rain! We’re in a snow drought.
too=took
I think I had just started following CJ’s blog at that point; too bad I didn’t know you were on-island. I would have made the same offer we make to all online acquaintances: if you ever get to Maui, we’ll take you out to dinner!
That would’ve been nice. I wasn’t too impressed with Maui, perhaps because our choice wasn’t so good (nothing much there we could find unless you’re staying at the resort). I’ll try to remember your offer, though it’s getting harder and harder as an octopus. Huh? Oh, octosomething! I forget…
We went back to Kauai a few years ago in April, I needed to get her into something resembling a relaxed mode at least for a while.
The thing is, wherever you go like that, you don’t belong, and to everybody else it’s just home. I can’t forget the disconnect.
Oh, the second day, we took the bus up on Haleakala. It fogged in within minutes of our arrival, but at least I got a glimpse of the observatory dome on the edge. Not PannStars, but I knew it was “close”.
Yesterday saw the flooring done, and I am pleased. The doorsill transition pieces went in okay, with only one area giving me trouble where I had to accommodate the old carpet in a bedroom. The worst part was getting the trim in place to hold the laminate down; the pneumatic brad nailer I had borrowed from a friend was leaking air too badly to use. Fortunately I had bought a secondhand one in case, but the connector was incompatible with my air hose. The friend and I swapped the connector from the leaky gun to my newish one, and we were good to go, finished in half an hour. Now to get my furniture moving crew back on the job.
And after all that, I got an anonymous nastygram from a neighbor, complaining about the way I have been maintaining the fenceline and threatening to make a formal complaint to the county about fire hazards and providing a haven for vermin. Dear people, we got rain the past 3 weeks that would have scared Noah, and more is apparently en route. I cut the lawn as soon as it dried out enough to mow, and for all other things, I am limited by the twice weekly rubbish collection, plus my work schedule. No landscape people are available, being busy with cleanup after the storms for current clients. In short, bugger off!
This may have started when the suspect neighbor was hosing down their yard where it abuts mine; they have a large dog who uses their yard as a toilet when they don’t take it walking. As the spray hit the fence, I heard mewling, and discovered 3 kittens perhaps 3 days old. The dog immediately began barking madly and trying to scale the fence. I scooped up the kittens and put them in a carrier, intending to take them to the Humane Society if the mother didn’t return. The mother came back eventually and took the kittens somewhere quieter. Not the dog’s fault, he deserves better owners though. They have been crabby off and on, and got snotty at me after I picked up their trash when the storm blew over their can, sending it into the street.
And by the way, Happy Easter all!
I know this likely may seem to be inappropriate timing, a year late (my apologies), but it just occurred to me, and it’s about concern for self and others. It’s about the fires.
And it’s about grief and its timing. After a major loss, people have immediate uncontrollable emotions (I won’t try to enumerate). But life goes on, for the most part, one way or another, and they “get over it”. They carry on, (seeming to) get back to normal; they think they are. But I was told by a psychologist I once knew in LA that it comes back, unbidden, “out of nowhere”, on the order of two years later, often. Now we call it PTSD, and in a very ancient way seem to think that having the name of a thing gives us control, mastery, over it. That’s just not so, well, not entirely at least. But it can help if one is aware of it when it strikes. OK, it’s three years later, but this boogey-man is no respector of calendars.
So continue to expect unexpected emotional difficulties, perhaps now more than in the recent past.
I mention it from personal experience. It happened to me a couple years after my parents died a week apart, years after the family broke up and carried on.
Ugh. I’ve been fighting a cold bequeathed to me by DH, who is still suffering from the aftereffects, plus DH got what seems to be a pinched shoulder nerve. Haven’t heard from our ‘anonymous’ complainants, who may have realized that getting traction about fire prevention and brush remediation might be hard when we’ve been doused by rain for the past month. Still muddling forward; after discovering a green waste Dumpster would run upwards of $1000(!) I’m going to check in with a couple of yard handymen I know and see if having them cart away a couple of truckloads would be cheaper.
Sad news on the writing front from CJ, which she posted today on her Facebook page:
“Dear readers and friends. The unhappy fact is—the numerous bouts of anaesthetic I’ve had have made it pretty well impossible for me to write. I drop stitches. Not many. No problems with daily life or doing creative stuff or enjoying life in general. But the ability to control narrative is just not what it was, and it’s just not going to be there. I’ve accepted that, painful as it is. I thank all of you who’ve stood by me patiently. The body of work is what it is, and I am lastingly grateful to my publisher, Betsy Wollheim, who has given me every extension of time and resource. And of course to Jane, who is all things.”
I’m sorry we won’t get ends to the series (serii? serieses?). But better toretire than leave half-finished stuff when the guy with the scythe arrives.
That is indeed sad. Thank you, CJ, for the body of work you have given us so far. We’re sorry you don’t think more will be coming, but are glad for what we got. Hopefully you and Jane will have a long and fruitful retirement together. We are still fans out here; keep us posted on what’s happening in your life and if we can help in any way.
What a long and prolific journey it’s been though. My shelves are definitely full of what feels like old friends. There’s a lot to look back on, but hopefully a lot to look forward to with retirement as well.
Thanks to everyone who has shared updates here all this time.
Raesean, would you mind posting the Facebook link you use? I don’t Facebook, and if I do a Google search for CJ’s page, the latest I see is 2024!
This has been discussed here before. From a post on December 2nd: https://www.facebook.com/cj.cherryh
I’m not a member and thus only get an error page. So does Google, I presume.
This is the URL that appears when I go to CJ’s actual Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cj.cherryh
Sometimes, when I decide to visit her (or others’) Facebook pages directly, FaceBook randomly (it feels like) decides to put some way old post off the person’s at the top. Then I poke around and try to find the option to show “most recent.” I can’t remember where it consistently is because, frankly, the Facebook page format is terrible.
Ektus is correct; it appears us hoi polloi without accounts aren’t permitted to see CJ’s Facebook page.
Well, she has been the “seed crystal” for a community. Community is important, and not particularly common.
I suppose this page will continue for a while those of us here can continue to use, but it raises the obvious question: “What we do now, Kemo Sabe?”
still here — https://shejeval.boardhost.com/index.php
Here is the YouTube link of the announcement: https://youtu.be/TrMCJJj3XYA?si=ZbEhNrL9CKNMN75c
Oh. It’s Jon del Arroz, the idjit.
May the fourth be with you. Happy Star Wars Day!
Ah, that’s why the radio is playing Princess Leia’s theme right now!
I will miss new books from her in the future, but I am not surprised she has to give up writing. I am glad I came back to this site to check things out after being gone from it for a few years. I would never have known otherwise what happened. I deleted my Facebook account a couple of years ago after being locked out of it for two years. When I finally got back into it, it was a mess. So I deleted it. Most of my friends on there were gone, and my mother, for whom I joined, died 13 years ago. My cats have all died. My husband and I are devoting to each other our loving support until our end comes.