"Remember, Dwight, you cannot introduce yourself as the former owner of this house."

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Of course, what you're seeing here in this video is 2D. I'm in an immersive 3D experience. I had to remind myself that I could not just walk up to the front door and introduce myself as the former house owner.

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This $10 app that runs on the Oculus Quest 2 called "Wander" allows you to explore the world, jumping from here to there or wherever. In many places, you can "walk along the road." The video above shows Wander, using video data from Google Street View to give you an immersive experience. I instructed Wander to take me to 4339 North 39th Street in Phoenix, Arizona and that's what it did!

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Beginning fourteen amazing years in this house from 1982 with my bride-to-be

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I never thought I would get married. But Louise changed my mind. We met in June of 1981 and fell in love. She moved into the two-floor condo I was renting in Tempe, Arizona on South Mill Avenue. After living together for a while and deciding to get married, we started looking for a house to buy. It would be her third one, but my first. 

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Wedding and reception in our back yard

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We got married in our backyard of our new home on March 20, 1983. The half-acre lot, with 27 citrus trees, provided a spacious and verdant lawn, along with shade trees. My brother-in-law Sven became a mail-order minister so that he could officiate our wedding.

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We had a budget, potluck wedding, with both ceremony, music, and reception in the backyard. Several of the 110+ guests told Louise and me it was the most unique and special wedding they ever attended.

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This house saw the launch of an enterprise...

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We created and launched "The Magical Poet" in this house, as well as ending my 15 years as a tax rebel.

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This house saw me change careers...

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In April of 1987, Louise supported me in changing my career of 20 years in computer software programming to that of a life coach.

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This house saw a good divorce...

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After a ten-year relationship with many good times together and learning a lot, we decided to go our separate ways. Our partnership and friendship were pretty good, but we were both missing passion and excitement in our relationship. I remember one six-month stretch where we slept in the same bed with no sex. We had read books, tried therapists, even had a session with renowned NLP creator Richard Bandler. To no avail. I bought her out for her stake in the house and remained living there.

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The house saw the budding of a new romance...

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I had developed a close friendship with a Japanese woman, Yuko. Previously, she had been my client and I worked with her to negotiate a good divorce with her American husband, which included addressing child custody issues with their young son Lucas, never suspecting our future together.

 

Yuko and I were talking on the phone regularly after Louise and I were separated. One evening, as we were talking, I screwed up a little courage and said, "It would be very nice if I had a chance to cuddle with you sometime." After she got clear about my definition of cuddling, we scheduled an afternoon cuddling session at her place when her three-year-old son would be with his father.

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Nestled down on her sofa together, after a bit of nice cuddling, we both discovered we wanted more. 

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We were married in March of 1993.

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This house saw me as an "uncle in training"...

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I decided not to have kids when I was twelve years old. I sealed the deal when I was twenty-five by getting a vasectomy. Lucas still had his father John who was quite active as a joint-custody dad. I saw myself as an "uncle in training" since I did live with Lucas during a considerable part of Lucas' everyday life. I think I did a pretty good job.

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This house saw me discover Japan...

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In August of 1995, I visited Sapporo, Japan for three weeks with Yuko and Lucas. It changed my life.  Eventually, in November of 1999, I moved to Tokyo, to leave the USA and begin my life in Asia, never looking back.

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The house saw a second good divorce...

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Yuko made an indelible impact on me. I grew so much with her. Among many other contributions to me, she was a major impetus in my finally being willing to confront my attachment to "being a good guy." Choosing a divorce with her was the biggest choice of courage in my entire life. If she had made the decision first, that would have been easy for me. But, for various reasons, even though she was unhappy in our relationship, she was not willing to initiate a divorce with me. 

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Again, I am deeply grateful to her for creating a super divorce with me. After our separation and property settlement, neither of us was active in getting the divorce finalized. Then one day we drive down together to the Maricopa County government complex. Just before we got out of the car, Yuko asked me to pray together for the "highest and best good" to be served in our getting everything finalized. I was touched and impressed by that.

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All the clerks were great. "Go here," "Fill this out," "Sign this," "Pay this fee," "Go there." After an hour and one-half, we celebrated being officially divorced.

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My good friend Debie Friedman did a good job of putting the house on the market and getting a decent offer on the house right away.

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"Thank you, Dear House!"

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So I look back now (through Oculus, Wander, and Google Street View) at you my former house, 40 years after we began together, thankful for all the great years you gave to me in this my life odyssey. 

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P.S. snapping the snapper in the act

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Did you notice the shadow of a car in the video above? When I'm turning around in the 3D VR video so that the sun is at my back, you can see the shadow of Google's Street View car and its 360-video setup as it recorded the 360 panorama that we are viewing in the Wander app.