November 29, 1999

Dear Margrit,

Thank you for the check and for your two letters.  As you requested, I shall make no substantive reply, but strictly limit my comments to business matters.  Please do not misinterpret my silence as assent, as indifference or as dispassion.

I enclose an electric bill and a telephone bill that I have paid. Please reimburse me only to the extent, if any, that you wish.

Permit me to summarize, in an unavoidably business-like tenor, my position with regard to your occupancy of the house:

1) I want the house to be available to you for your personal use for the rest of your life, without any obligation on you to occupy it, or to make repairs occasioned by ordinary wear and tear.

2) While you are occupying the house, I offer, to the extent and only to the extent that you wish, to continue to assume responsibility for maintenance and repair of the house as heretofore at my expense.

3) While you are occupying the house, you have the right to have repairs made by contractors hired, supervised and paid for by yourself, provided you assume financial responsibility for damage from ill-advised or improper work.  You have, however, no obligation to make any repairs.

4) As I have said before, and I apologize for repeating myself, you should consider yourself financially responsible for damage to the house that is a result of negligence on your part.  Chief among these risks is fire from garaged vehicles and open flames, and legal liability for personal injuries sustained by visitors, especially children and elderly individuals.  You may reduce these risks to very low levels by being careful and conservative in your use of the house.  Alternatively, if you have an emotional need to live dangerously, you are free to protect yourself against these risks by purchasing home-owner's insurance.

5) You have no obligation to maintain a car as a decoy in front of the garage during any absence.

6) You do have an obligation to Klemens, Margaret and myself to leave the house and the grounds for our use as you found them when you moved in, ordinary wear and tear excepted.

You may choose to prepare a list of repairs that you wish me to undertake when next I come to Konnarock, assigning relative priorities to those that are most important to you.

Dein Jochen