My wife’s surgery went fine, and now we are into recovery mode.
Her gall bladder was actually about 3-4 times enlarged, and her stones were so big that they needed to widen the laparoscopic incisions to get them out. We’re just glad that the surgery remained laparoscopic, and that they didn’t need to make larger non-laparoscopic cuts.
So her recovery time might be longer than the typical laparoscopic recovery, but the outcome was fine outside of this.
Here’s the plan…
Andrea should be coming home tomorrow. I will have help from family with our 4-year-old. I’m going to get a couple of pens done in the next few days with their help.
Then I’m planning on going back into full production mode on Monday, with family helping with the little one.
By Monday, I should have a good idea as to what Andrea’s capabilities are (very limited, I’m sure), and also what family can do to help.
On Monday or Tuesday, I’ll send emails with tentative dates to everyone who is backordered. I will ask everyone to still be flexible with these dates for expected delivery of their pens.
I’m pretty sure that family help will allow me to work 9 to 5 every weekday next week, but I’m also sure that there will be exceptions. I’m anticipating that Andrea will not be able to deal with wrangling our four-year-old for another two weeks (?) Who knows at this point?
I’ve received so many emails from people giving good thoughts, and I’d like to thank each of you. It’s really tough to see a loved one in pain when you are helpless to assist. It seemed like I got an email on my phone every 15 minutes from one of you that lifted my spirits. I shared each of these emails with my wife, and she was overwhelmed with gratitude. Many thanks!
A lot of my clients have told me to not worry about pens, and focus on family. Don’t worry, I definitely have, and I will continue. However, I love making pens, and it’s quite therapeutic for me. I’m not going to neglect my family obligations by any means…don’t worry, family comes first, but I also need to run the business and our family will be helping with Andrea’s recovery and watching the little one. There’s no paid vacations when you are self employed! My family knows this, and they, along with friends are lining up to help out.
Updates to backordered clients will remain timely.
Also – I will include a recent family picture that I like. It won’t be long before Andrea will be healed up enough to hoist Andrew like this again!
The DC show was quite successful, certainly one of the best shows that I’ve ever been to.
I had an outstanding time, but a hitch came along with it.
My wife had some abdominal pain throughout the entire show, which culminated in us leaving earlier than what we wanted to on Sunday.
After a long drive home and an ER visit late last night, we found that she needs to have her gall bladder taken out.
She will have a consult with a surgeon tomorrow morning, most likely going into surgery the same day.
Since the Edison Pen Co. is a one-man-show, I need to ask my clients to please be flexible with timelines and communication as a result.
I’m sure that my responsibilities as a husband and father will need to spill into my penmaking responsibilities in the next week or two. We have family that can help with our four-year-old, but I’m sure that I’m still going to be taken out of the shop some and will be slowed down.
So I will be working in my studio as much as I can this and next week, but I have no idea at what rate.
Please bear with me through this event, as my productivity with pens and communication might be a little slower.
So far, it seems like this should be a routine procedure, but prayers are still appreciated.
I will be attending the DC Pen Show this coming weekend.
I will have my entire inventory, along with examples of materials. I will bring my nib adjusting tools as well.
Also – I will have two pens that will be going to a charity auction right after the pen show when I return home.
The auction will be hosted on a website and will benefit Cherished Creations.
These two pens are very special, and both are like no other pen that I’ve done in the past. They both turned out very nice, and I’m super-proud of them!
If you miss the show, stay tuned to the website, as the pens will make an appearance here after the show!
I’m proud to introduce my newest model, The Huron.
I’d like to discuss a little about its design.
On most of my pens, the design calls for a step from the barrel to the barrel threads. A good example of this is the Pearl. The Pearl has a dramatic step from barrel to barrel threads. It is an integral part of the design.
Some customers have told me that they would prefer that this step was not present on their pens. With this in mind, I have designed the Huron.
The transition from the barrel, to the barrel threads, to the section is smooth and seamless. The section is also longer and less dramatic in it’s curve. The clip sits a little lower with a larger finial. All of this leads to a pretty slender and elegant design, similar to early American pens.
When prototyping this pen, I was seriously torn between two clips.
I did some market research by sending pictures to friends, collecting opinions on the webcam, and posing this clip dilemma to people whose opinion I trusted.
The opinions were so extremely polarized, that I was only further perplexed.
I started thinking…"I’m a custom penmaker, right? Why not offer them both?"
So with this pen, the customer will have a choice of two clips. There is a segmented clip, as well as a straight clip, as show below.
Both of these clips are available as rhodium or gold plated, however…the straight clip with gold plating will not be here for another couple of weeks, as they need to be plated.
Obviously, the pen is available in the materials shown on the Huron Main Page, but any custom material that you and I can dream up is available.