Dear Klemens Thank you for your letter. Thank you especially for not being angry. I endorse your plans about the Nantucket house, and I am reassured by your obvious competence in dealing with the hypothetical problems. I think you should make whatever use of the red car you think best. If I were ever able to drive again it would be a miracle, but living in the expectation of miracles is dysfunctional. On 05/01/2022 07:16 AM, Klemens Meyer wrote: > Dear Daddy, > > I am not angry, but I am agitated, and I will write down some of what I think, so that after that, I can practice violin. I am attending a “virtual” course on home dialysis from 10 am until 8 pm tonight; during the 2-3 pm lunch break, noon in Utah, where the meeting is being held, I will have my lesson. It runs tomorrow all day as well. > > As I begin to write, I remember that my “enough is enough” email took 2 hours to compose, and completely shaped that day. I can’t afford what might take 3 or 4 hours to write this morning. I will write my thoughts about your trauma and distress on another occasion. I will limit myself now to practical remarks: > > 1) the refusal of the Town Clerk to allow Sabine to register probably reflects the disappearance of 174 School Street from the voting rolls when you and Mommy moved to Konnarock. I am confident that this matter can be remedied. > > 2) The insulation and rough plumbing inspections at 3 Red Barn Road occurred without controversy. The plumber has told me that he knows the current plumbing inspector well. I see no reason to expect that the final plumbing inspection will pose difficulties. If I need to hire an electrician to satisfy the requirement of the electrical inspector, I will do that. I disagree with your judgment that surface wiring is unconventional. If it is rejected, it would in fact not be difficult to incise the plaster, make an internal connections, and repair the plaster. The reasons that I don’t even consider that possibility are a) that it would delay the completion of the house another season, whether I did it myself or hired it out; b) that I don’t want to argue with you about what is necessary, or about what is a good use of money. > > As for the Historic District Commission: if I need to put up Potemkin dividers to simulate divided light windows, I will do that. If the HDC requires expensive changes, you are correct: I will hire a very expensive attorney to advise me as to the prospect of success of litigation. If it seems that litigation is too unlikely to be financially profitable, I will evaluate the costs and benefits of other strategies. Once the house is finished, it will have great value as a rental property as well as to the family. I expect to realize that value. I will not attempt to rent it without a Certificate of Occupancy by finding tenants who don’t mind living in uncertainty, or who are willing to sign a hypothetical unconventional rental agreement releasing me from responsibility should they be evicted. > > I am sorry that it will be repugnant to you, and that you will probably interpret it as a rejection on my part as well as another humiliation by the brown authorities, but If rebuilding of the house required to realize that value radically changes its appearance, I will shrug my shoulders, because I will not interpret it as a threat to my person and identity. > > That is the issue, and I have taken 45 minutes to write about it. > > Please consider whether you are still ready to have me move the red car to Nantucket. It would seem to me perfectly reasonable to regard this as a temporary change in “garaging,” with the thought that the car could return to Belmont, should you have use for it, as soon as the fall of this year. If you do not want to part with the car at this time, I will look into the possibility of purchasing a used minivan which has been driven 30,000 - 90,000 miles, for an amount between $15,000 and $25,000. Those are the prices, at least, that I saw last night. > > Love, > > Klemens > > > > On Sun, May 1, 2022 at 2:16 AM Ernst Meyer > wrote: > > Earlier, I thought I would postpone writing this letter until tomorrow, > but now I could not sleep because I realize that I would be thinking > about it all night, and it is better for me to write now and to try to > forget and sleep. I'm also mindful that what I have on my mind will > make > you uncomfortable and perhaps angry, and that you will reply "enough is > enough". I love you. I ask myself is it better for you that I should > tell you my thoughts or that I should keep them to myself. I cannot and > will not try to tell you what to do. I will tell you what I think. You > do not have to read what I have to say. You surely do not have to reply. > > I admit that the 18 years of controversy in the courts with the Town of > Nantucket have left me with a post traumatic distress syndrome. It is > necessary to have shared the distress in order to be able to recognize > the trauma. No one who has not shared the distress can understand the > trauma. It is because I fear that the Nantucket authorities will do to > you what they did to me, that I write to you. > > At issue is the series of inspections which you plan to request from > the > Nantucket Building Department. The securing of the plumbing inspection > is, in fact, not your obligation but that of the plumber. The wiring > inspector is bound by a code to which he will adhere. It is however > possible that he may require the appointment of a licensed electrician > to replace Rex Rowley. I cannot predict whom you would find, what the > new electrician would require or what other complications the > appointment of a new electrician will entail. I have no intuition > as to > how the fire department inspector would interpret or whether he would > accept the surface wiring, which is not conventional. I believe that > there is at least a 50 percent probability that the Historic District > Commission will refuse to comply with the regulations and demand > extensive and very expensive, esthetically repugnant rebuilding of the > house. Hypothetically you could at great expense hire lawyers to > appeal > to the Board of Selectmen, to Nantucket Superior Court, to the Appeals > Court, but the likelihood is that you would be so distraught by the > process that you you would dump the house on the market and sell it for > whatever you could get, and subsequently feel very much overwhelmed and > depressed. > > At the same time, the legal obligation for the wiring is Rex Rowley's > not yours and not even mine. It is my obligation, as holder of the > building permit to obtain these inspections. If I choose not to ask for > inspections but to wait until they are demanded by the authortities, it > is because I am at a loss of words to describe the depravity of the > administrative and judicial processes of the Commonwealth. The house is > now ready for use. All members of the family may make use of it. But to > demand that it be inspected prior to use is to ignore the risk that > inspection by Nantucket authorities may cause the house to be lost. > Forgive me. Please don't be angry with me. I understand that I may be > very wrong. Good night with all my love. > > -- > Klemens Meyer KlemensBMeyer@gmail.com Mobile 617-549-5539