Страница 29 из 59
February 3, 1967: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
At the moment, [Gi
February 17, 1967: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Building-we seem to be frozen in a nightmare. The glazing units still have not arrived-the manager won't even promise a firm date. The water closets and hand basins which were supposed to be in stock in San Jose (it now appears) do not even exist and we must wait until the factory again makes a run of that color. One of the soi-disant "mechanics" who loused up our water system is now suing us for "wages" -- trial on the 24th. We have developed a great big bog of quicksand in our driveway, so it must now be rebuilt at God knows what expense. In the meantime, the wiring progresses at painful slowness...
But our house in Colorado is sold at last and at not too great a loss-not much immediate cash out of the deal after closing costs and commission, but nevertheless I am much relieved. Gi
June 27, 1967: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
Nothing else of any real importance today. Gi
July 10, 1967: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
This should be the last letter I'll have to write on a card table; Gi
Our soil is black loam on top of sand on top of hard pan. I think we can control this driveway situation simply by treating it as a permanent watercourse, accepting that and installing a slaunchwise steel-reinforced concrete ditch alongside. But I du
We stayed home on the Fourth of July and worked -- did not even get to fire our ca
We are both in good health and in quite good spirits. It is still a long haul, but we can now see daylight at the end of the tu
October 26, 1967: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
...Then your check arrived and all was sunshine. That check almost exactly pays for the driveway-quite a complex and expensive structure because of underground drains for that quicksand problem-and leaves money on hand and November and December royalties for taxes, finish work inside (ceilings and recessed light fixtures), and this and that. No sweat. Utter solvency. Joy. So we declared a holiday, went downtown and bought Gi
October 14, 1968: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
After a delay of ca. 5,000 years I have formulated a basic natural law and named it, not for myself, but for the man who first noticed it: Cheops' Law-No building is ever finished on schedule. The guest house has been 90% finished for the past month. It is now 91 % finished. I am working hard every day at my desk. Deus volent, I will yet get some fiction written.
CHAPTER VIII
FAN MAIL AND OTHER TIME WASTERS
March 13, 1947: Robert A. Heinlein to Saturday Evening Post
"Green Hills of Earth" has brought me in such a flood of mail that it has almost ruined me as a writer-I don't have time to write. None of it appears to be from crackpots; about half of it comes from technical men. All of it shows that the United States is still made up of believers and hopers, for they echo the brave words I heard last summer, while standing in the shadow of a V-2 rocket: " -- anything we want to do if we want to do it badly enough."
March 17, 1961: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
...The rest of my time has been taken up playing scrabble (Gi
March 9, 1963: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
...I am clearing my desk of mail (pounds of fan mail and I'm tempted to burn it! -- they all want quick answers, and only one in fifty encloses a stamped and addressed reply envelope) -- and when I have that out of the way I will cut this new book, Grand Slam [Farnham's Freehold} or whatever we call it, and try to be free about April Fool's Day.
February 4, 1969: Robert A. Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame
(Speaking of the time burned up by overhead work such as that-poor Gi