Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letter with the account of the
Dutch cow who went to China and joined the resistance
against the Japanese invasion. I'm appreciative of 
your openness to exotic fantasies, better than to
be fettered, like myself, to worn and familiar imagery.

My own experience tends to travel back and forth on
the same rutted trails. Yesterday Klemens and I made
the quarterly trip to Nantucket, - on account of
Margrit's death, almost three months overdue. The
previous visit had been om November 1, of last year,
while Margrit was here recuperating from her
herniorrhaphy.

We found the Nantucket house was intact, and,
notwithstanding the heavy rains, everywhere dry.  The
1995 Dodge Minivan which guards the house wouldn't turn
over.  But the deep cycle marine battery which I had
used for illumination before the electric power was
connected, sufficed to start the car's engine, and
after letting the car idle for some hours, it's battery
was sufficiently recharged to start the engine on its
own. Whether that battery will hold its charge is
another matter.

Aside from a minor repair of the video surveillance
system, there was nothing to do but to vacuum clean
the floors which were littered with insects, bugs,
innocuous tenants of the house whose life cycle had
expired. At four p.m., four hours after our arrival,
the taxi returned to take us back to the boat. We
unplugged the electric heaters, locked the door and
once more set out for the mainland.  We arrived in
Belmont about 9:30 p.m.

For the 270 minute boat trip - 135 minutes each way,
I had printed out chapters 37, 38 and 39 of Die Freunde,
anticipating that I might invent a few paragraphs to
append to the nascent chapter 40, but I accomplished
nothing of the sort, concluding that if I am to make
progress, I must devote more time and energy to the
project than in recent weeks.

Still no word from the appeals court. We have tentative
plans to go to Konnarock next Monday, but whether we
will be disposed to leave as scheduled, remains to be
seen. Stay well, and write me, if you have time, about
the films that you see. 

Jochen