Update 02/23/05: Some photos from the week leading up to the final day. These, along with the first set, are available here. First stop is Aran's in Canoga Park with the bedroom set. I don't think that I got a photo of the bedroom set, but I did get lots of photos of Ula with bedroom set piled up in the background! Wonder why that is? Yes Elan, she's even cuter now!! :) Next was Beth's in Hollister with chairs, a safe and tile tables. Then on to Clint's in Oakland with a microwave, Beth's old safe, Grandma's love seat and ottoman. No pictures at Clint's yet, but will get some next week when I visit him. Finally, there are lots of shots of the interior of the house.

Next I'll add some photos of all our lives at 4200 Gregory Street.

Update 02/22/05: Unloading day. Unloaded the trailer in about an hour. Amazing because it took me 7 hours to load it because of all the tarping, but it stayed bone dry so it was worth it. I took photos as I unpeeled the layers, got the piano on a dolly, etc. Hope it's worth your time to take a look. I had fun! Can't believe the amount of energy I have after getting these teeth "outahere." Click here for the unloading photos and here for the last days in Oakland (more to come on these pages). Last 2 photos are of Marn's plane box and toolbox -- have her trophies too but forgot to photograph. Love, Dad. P.S. - also a pile of old redwood that I took photos of - hoping to talk the guy out of it - great bldg. material. :)

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Hi All - This last week Kristin and I spent a grueling 8 days finishing up the move out and clean out of the Meuser family home. Very very sad indeed! But hey, after 6 months IT IS OVER. See below for photos.

It rained the entire week. While the crew was here to haul away all the discards Monday (21st), the skies roared, flashed and released large rocks of hail upon us. The "godesses" didn't make it easy on me, I tell ya.

I had the biggest load ever. Van and trailer were loaded to the max. Kristin reminded me that during Xmas, she and I used to stay in the living room by the fire and listen to all the political talk around the dining room table (this will sort of make sense in a moment). What happened to the political talk? Speaking of politics, I bounced all over the state with that trailer. Bounced to Hollister, bounced to LA, bounced through Marin. How come some of the wealthiest places in the world have shitty, broken, bouncy roads -- GREED!! I bounced all over heading home 'til I hit Humboldt County and enjoyed our, comparatively, glass smooth roads -- one of the poorest counties in the state!

More on the politics of greed - or is it the greed of politics (both I suspect)? - later. Hint: It's got something to do with why our lives DO amount to a "hill of beans" where everything that "counts" is countable and counted - e.g. houses are no longer homes, rather, they are investments and priced, like ours, out of reach of most including ourselves! Greed-o-bean-o accounts for why our earth and all its beings, living or not, are counted up, valued (well DE-valued really) and headed right down the ol' shitter. Damn -- all that driving makes me think too much OR maybe I haven't been doing enough thinking, writing, fighting, demonstrating and politicing enough lately -- yeah, that's more like it. :)

Lots of living, dreaming, loving, learning, fighting, hating -- all of it -- went on in this house. Everywhere you turn you see Dad's handywork and many others as well. Dad drew the plans for the original house, the bedroom addition and the new family room. Your great-grandfather Chris Nygard did the brickwork outside. Chris and Uncle Bob Hansen did the fireplace in the living room. Dad, a couple of neighbor kids and me built the bedroom addition and deck. We also laid the patio, did the steps. I think Kristin had a hand in the patio too. Marie and me and all the kids, at one time or another, cleaned the house. Dad and I built the fences and retaining walls and the new brick wall by the big Redwood. We also did the oak panelling in the living and dining rooms. Several times I was underneath the house with a jack and blocks of wood adjusting the floors and door jams. Aran, Louie and me did the foundation work for the fence. Dad, Aran and I built the backyard shed, Clint helped around the yard often and worked with me on several projects. I re-roofed the house, painted it, inside and out, fixed this and that --- on and on and on.

In the garage I built soap box derby racers, a sailboat, bows and arrows, a go kart, worked on/customized many cars. Marnie spent countless hours out there building model airplanes. Dad and Kristin built a studio/darkroom in the garage. Just the tip of the iceberg. Kristin can fill you in on what went on with her in the garage and the rest of the house with Mom or Dad.

It was the place where the family gathered -- our close families and extended families. Still wrestling with the fact that after 54 years -- we shut it down - Finis!

Somehow this nearly 60 year old made it through. I tell you, getting rid of these teeth has done wonders for my energy, allergies, eyesight, etc. -- not to mention my wonderful new smile :) Maybe like Elan, I'm just half way through. I brought home the piano -- a thing I can do because when I was in my 20s I used to move pianos up and down stairs in San Francisco. Actually -- 35 years didn't change things much. First I had to build a real heavy duty piano dolly -- I bought the parts and built it in Dad's garage -- its last family project! Then, like I was taught, I picked up one end of the piano to about a 45 degree angle and pushed the dolly in place with my foot. It worked. Next day Kristin and I rolled it out the front, down a ramp and into the garage. Plan was to load it on the trailer the next day with help. I realized, though, that I had to get it on the trailer last night so I grunted, groaned and yelled and pushed it up into the trailer myself and then took it off the dolly the way I put it on. Wednesday I get to do it all over again (I'm taking tuesday off to go cruise in my once-was-a-table-saw chix mobile ( see https://michaelmeuser.com/my-75-z-car/ ).

This was the last of many many loads. I'm putting a lot of it into a mini-storage temporarily. There's lots for you all to look at and go through so when you come ... you have a project.

Well, I'm pooping out. Too many 17 hour days in a row although I feel surprisingly good. Kitties were way happy to see me though they had wonderful daily care courtesy of Marie and Vee. We all did a lot of living in that house and also played a big part in its life. I'd love to hear your stories :)

I'll be adding more to this narrative and adding more photos. The first two pose Kristin and me in front of the house about the same way we were posed in an earlier photo about 52 or 53 years ago. When I dig it up, I'll post it too. Click here for photos to date.

Love You All

Dad