1998-05-17 Woozle writes to Mubbie

Dear Mubbie,

This is the fourth time I have sat down to type you a letter. Each time, the phone has rung and then I had to go do something else (like go to sleep, usually). So you can see how busy they’re keeping me up here!

Thank you for the newspaper clippings. It looks like it was quite a madhouse down there! They say it was "bigger than the Olympics", but of course that’s not saying much. Lynne filled me in on it. Wish I’d been there – though I’m just as glad I didn’t have to drive through the traffic!

I miss both Anna and Livia a great deal, as you might imagine. Anna puts a brave face on it but I can tell it’s a strain for her. I believe Livia showed you my "plan of escape" – my current thinking is that if I don’t hear something definitive from Pierce after another two weeks, I’ll start putting out word that I’m available July 1. I don’t plan to quit until I have something else lined up, preferably in Atlanta or Durham.

I’m still planning to be down in Athens the last week of July regardless. Hopefully I’ll be able to start doing some long-distance work at that point.

You were talking about the railroad ties – I was thinking of buying another batch of 16 and using the leftovers to line the Red House driveway along the lawn-side. I don’t know exactly how many that will take, but I don’t think our driveway will need more than 4 - 8 of them. There should be enough left over to make a good start on the RH driveway and I can get more if needed after that. We can probably use the hand-truck to cart them around, though I may have to get something sturdier.

I’m delighted that Livia is quitting her job; not only will this give her time to help me out in some of my endeavors, but more importantly it will give her a chance to relax a bit (if she’s capable of such a thing!). The work I’m doing for Pierce is dreadfully dull but I think a large part of its onerousness is simply the isolation up here. With any luck I’ll be able to put an end to that by the end of the year.

I’ll see you in July. Take care & don’t get flooded out!

All the best,