Dear Marion,

Thank you for your letter and for your tolerance
of my indecisiveness. We had planned, as you know 
to return to Belmont in early August so as to be
there on your return from France. With the hearing
presently set for June 18, - the Court might yet 
change it, who knows? - our plans for July and August
are uncertain for several reasons:

The trip to Virginia three weeks ago was surprisingly
easy. If as I expect and hope, the return trip will
be correspondingly effortless, I shall be much less
reluctant to shuttle back and forth, at least in the
forseeable future. After the hearing comes the Court's
decision which may be handed down within forty-eight 
hours or might be delayed a matter of months.(The last 
Appeals Court decision had a gestation of 9 months.)
This decision might be an order for more deposition
testimony, or a final disposition of the case which is 
unlikely to be so favorable that I would find it 
undesirable to appeal. 

The appeals process is as follows: I must file a notice
of appeal with the lower court within 30 days. The lower
court clerk then assembles the record. There's no telling 
how long that might take. Once the record has been assembled
I have 10 or 20 days to pay the docketing fee. Once the
case is docketed in the Appeals Court, I have 40 days to
file the brief and the appendix. The last time around, I
filed a notice of appeal on June 4, 2009 and it took 82
days, until August 25, 2009 to assemble the record.
Assuming I filed a notice of appeal on July 15, 2013, 
and the record were assembled in 82 days, I shoudn't 
need to appear in the Appeals Court until the first
week in October.

Hypothetically then, if after the hearing on June 18, 2013,
we returned to Konnarock on June 21, 2013, we might stay
here for six weeks, then back to Belmont on August 3, 2013.
Then on August 15, 2013, we might drive to Konnarock once
more and stayed until October 10, we would have another
8 weeks in Virginia, for a total of 20 weeks! What more
could I ask?

Obviously much could happen that would force me to change
these plans. The car could break down, I could break down,
Margaret could break down. We might be needed in Belmont.
We might get tired of Virginia and want to go back sooner.