Dear Cyndy,

My tenacity about my "work" has its neurological explanation.
Aware of the frailty of my memory, I cling to what I have been doing,
as if my projects, such as they are, constituted the only reliable
framework of my existence. It's in that spirit that I have just finished
scanning 312 pages of supporting documents, storing them in the computer
memory as well as on compact disks, whence I should now be able to print
without too much effort the 11 additional copies which the Supreme
Judicial Court will are demand if it grants my application for direct
appellate review.  If the printer functions and the software performs
as they should, the pages will be collated by the machine, and I will
be spared the mindless task of dealing out individual sheets of paper,
like large floppy playing cards, onto 11  - and in some instances 18
separate stacks. I will still need to print out separately the various
tables of contents, and with a punch to put holes in ten to fifteen
sheets at a time, for the metal clips which hold the pages and their
covers together. I hope that I'm correct in my assessment that the
most time-consuming tasks are behind me. Each day I check the 
Appeals Court web page to find out what new action, if any, the
court has taken. As of today, nothing is going on, and I suspect
it will be many weeks before there is any news of consequence.

Thank you for telling about your deliberations about buying
the Granfield house. I'll try not to succumb to the temptation
of telling you what you should or should not do. By the same
token, I mustn't be indifferent to the consequences which such
an investment would have for you. I can tell you only about my
own perspective. I wouldn't take on such a project unless it 
were one with which Margaret was able, and willing, and indeed
eager to help me. My chief concern and obligation is to her.
Planning for Klemens was precarious enough. Planning for my
grandchildren is virtually impossible. Their priorities are
very different from my own.  Konnarock means almost nothing
to them, - it's not where _they_ grew up and went to school, -
Their interest in Nantucket is limited. School Street is a
place about which they are ambivalent.  Right now, it seems
to them more important to get away than to return. If I owned
the acreage in Canaan that is yours, and if I wanted a house there,
I'd build my own, rather than buy what my neighbor wishes to get rid of,
unless they were ready to "give it away". It's all a matter of the price.
Under the circumstances, I wouldn't buy an existing house unless
the price was so low, I couldn't affort not to.
What my grandchildren want from me is not in Konnarock or
on Nantucket or on School Street. What they want, and what,
unfortunately they will probably need, are the assets, not 
the property itself, but the value of the property. How best
to preserve it for them is a conundrum that I can't resolve.
I keep thinking about it.

Now that the legal work is temporarily out of the way, I'll
turn to my writing. I'll want to make sure the oil burner
is functioning properly, and do some inside painting. Nothing
extensive. My concern about a possible leak in the underground
pipe from the well to the basement was a false alarm. The
submersible pump has been delivering water since our return
and there's no recurrence of the puddle in the driveway, - which
I now suspect may have been the consequence of calcium chloride
that spilled - or was dumped - from the State Highway Department
truck which went off the road early in the summer. One less
problem to worry about.

Please reassure Elizabeth, when and if you consider it appropriate,
that she is always welcome to use 174 School Street as a base of
operations when she visits Joanna, subject of course to her
ability and willingness to tolerate our idiosyncracies. I might
write to her myself in a few days, or I might not, depending on
my mood.

Please give my best to Ned, and stay well yourself.

Jochen