Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letter, and for your readiness to
make a special trip to Belmont only to visit us. I can't
remember that we've been recipients of such honor since
my parents came to visit us on Nantucket forty-eight years
ago. Come to think of it, - they came primarily not to see
us but to see Nantucket. Friends and relatives do stop in
from time to time but partly for bed-and-breakfast convenience
and only partly for affection. It's difficult to disentangle
the two, and probably better not to try.

The difficulty with the plan you suggest, your flying to Boston
on August 10, our driving to Virginia together some time between
the 15th and 20th and your then flying back from Greensboro to
the Twin Cities on the 24th, - the difficulty is myself. "Why is
it always you, Ernst," was what Dr. Johnson, the Clinical Chief
of Ophthalmology said to me when I broached to him the embarrassing
subject of the mistreatment of "service patients" as the opening
salvo in my legal contest with the Eye and Ear Infirmary... The
difficulty is myself, my incapacity for committing myself about
what I would be or should be doing two months from now.

The four grandchildren are in a very real sense like the birds
that come to the feeder. There one moment, gone the next. When
I asked Klemens in a telephone conversation a few days ago, he
opined that to Leah, Benjamin and Rebekah it wouldn't make any
difference if we were here or there, but that Nathaniel might want
to practice speaking German with me; and since I've waited patiently
for twenty years to speak German with him, I wouldn't want to
break off a conversation with him because of a commitment to go
to Konnarock at a particular time. Of course I understand that
he is much higher on my list of priorities than I am on his.
Probably even more important are Margaret's feelings about the
grandchildren; she misses them very much when we're in Konnarock,
but understands well enough that in Belmont they pay attention
to her only when they're hungry. That is happening with understandably
decreasing frequency as they grow older.

There is the uncertainty about the lawsuit. Judge Macdonald cancelled
the June 16th hearing, and may reschedule next month or next year or
year after next.  That's what happens when challenges to administrative
decisions are put on the "fast track". I wonder whether he thinks he is
punishing me because I told him at the last hearing:"Your Honor, if an
inspector who intimidates and tampers with prospective witnesses is
deemed capable of an inspection of fairness and integrity, then you
and I will have to find a new definition for the term integrity."

There's considerable uncertainty whether or when I will want to go to
Nantucket to put the finishing touches on the wiring, so as to get
it ready for the electrical inspection. There are three options:
1) to comply with the Inspector's order and defer further stays in
our Nantucket house until the plumbing has been approved, 2) to tell 
Mr. Ciarmataro I'm about to sit down on the toilet, and challenge
him to get a court order to tell me to get off, and 3) simply to defy
the Inspector and see what happens. The Town's reaction to the
"Response" which I filed yesterday may help me decide. In the end,
Margaret's wishes about our going to Nantucket may make the difference.
Her health is fragile.  The day will come when we can't travel
_anywhere_; whether that day is at hand, I know only after I've had
breakfast from morning to morning.

There are the few patients who remain to me. So long as their chronic
problems are under control, I have no compunction about leaving
Belmont for protracted periods of time; but if one were to have an
acute problem as I was about to leave, I would be obligated to stay
until it was stabilized, - because I have no physician on whom I
can rely to "cover" for me.

I'm inexperienced. I haven't set foot on an airplane since 1992,
and know nothing about purchasing tickets. Margrit, as you remember,
was forever flying around the country and would manage to purchase
discounted tickets only a few days or at most a week or two in advance.
Would the opportunity cost of your buying a one-way ticket to Boston
and deferring the purchase of the return ticket to a few days - or a few
weeks - before your return trip, - whether from Boston or from Greensboro
or Charlotte or Tri-Cities, - would that opportunity cost be an
inappropriate birthday present from a half-demented cousin? I know
you're not on food stamps, but you're not so impervious to favors,
I trust, as never to accept presents.

Aside from missing Nathaniel's concert, there might be no reason for
deferring your trip to Belmont to have it coincide, as originally
planned, with your trip to France.  Margaret and I would gladly adjust
our schedule to be in Belmont when you were ready to arrive.

Another sober alternative, it seems to me, would be for you to purchase
tickets now to arrive in Boston in the week of July 31, - then you could
help me feed Eric, Leah's rabbit, while they're on Nantucket, and if you
want to stay only 2 weeks, set a firm date to return from Boston the week
of August 14.  Everything, as I understand it, depends on how important
it is for you to attend Nathaniel's concert, and how badly you would want
to come to Konnarock as distinct from limiting your visit to Belmont.
Let me know when you've decided. A telephone call might help.

Jochen