Yes, self-imposed exile to the country estate is not all that bad; it certainly is peaceful and I can amuse myself with re-arranging my glass collection and waiting for the mailman to arrive. Yes, I'm bored already, so I took a cab to see KiKi. I brought him a special meal and took him for a walk; he had noticeable difficulty walking and seemed to walk off balance. It was as if we were mirror images of each other, and although and my dizziness and imbalance did seem to go away, it was a well-taken warning about burning that candle. It was also amusing to receive so many calls offering to bring me food, even my remedy for everything, chicken soup; if they only knew I had enough food on hand to survive the Siege of Leningrad (and very well, I might add).

I took another cab to meet with Jeremy and Riley and it was agreed that I will turn over the Court to them for the time being and concentrate resting and on just WHAT I am going to do about the tsunami of holiday visitors coming next week. How did Christmas get so close? These are not my relatives (most of them died under suspicious circumstances like being smothered by a pillow), but those of my housemate, Terry. The entire family joins together like some Dr. Suess/Twilight Zone episode and harmless games are played and all sorts of family warmth is enjoyed, mostly out of a bottle. It's fun for them, but if I have to play that complicated Christmas gift trading game one more time.....

And, as was pointed out, in skipping the antics of this town for a while an opportunity will arise to bring some things out of the past. The Story of Peggy the Pig will finally be one of them; it is right up there with have Lori and Dori, the conjoined twins I hosted a dinner for. And--since we DO pay our bills--there's always delivery from Gulf Liquors ("I'll take six bottles of scotch and three bottles of gin; same brand"). No, only kidding.