Hi there.
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Hey Dewey!
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Welcome Dewey!!! Glad you found us.
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Got time to give an update?
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Oh, wow. Not sure where life was the last time I offered any update. Sorry if some of this is old news.
Left CMH in 2014, simultaneously coming out and accepting an interim pastoral gig in the Finger Lakes region of NY, kind of near Syracuse.
Accepted an installed call to a congregation here in Louisville in 2016, where I've been ever since.
Met a wonderful man online in 2013. He was born in Hong Kong, toddlerized in Taiwan, emigrated to Canada as a child. Trained as a systems engineer, worked in the telecom industry before he became a professional violin maker. He's now internationally recognized as one of the top living makers in the world, so there's that. We went through the insane immigration process to get him into the U.S.; he finally moved in very late 2018. We were married, in my church, in March of 2019.
I've been at this wonderful congregation for eight years now. I arrived here just months before the Trump election, and tried my best to help serve and lead this congregation through that era and all the ongoing divisiveness - as well as through Covid, overlapped with the solid year of protest/occupation in the wake of the murder of Louisville native Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and too many others. Became a kind of "accidental activist" in the social justice movement as a result. At this point, I realize that I've got fewer years in the vocation ahead of me than I do behind me - probably going to hang up the cleats in a few years, but that isn't official or definite yet.
We're living the dream, or some semblance thereof. Continually working on rehabbing our little "double shotgun" house - known affectionately as La Maison Laide - in an eclectic, wonderful, walkable near-downtown neighborhood here in town, and working on its two (perfectly) postage-stamp sized front and rear gardens. We've been enjoying meeting many fascinating beople while renting our guestroom on Airbnb, and we would be deeply offended if any of you traveling this way didn't stay with us. Here's a link to the website we made for the place, along with links to book it:
https://lamaisonlaide.weebly.com/
I've also got a mystery novel about to come out; the publisher is expecting a mid-September to early-October publishing date. And yes, I'd also be deeply offended if you didn't buy a copy of the book, but more on that in the coming months.
When I first started posting in the forerunners to this forum, and the newsgroup that preceded even that, I often spoke about my daughters, referred to only by their respective ages. When I started posting, they were known as Eight and Four. They're now Thirty-Two and Twenty-Eight. Oy.
Also back then, I generally referred to my wife as SWMBO ("She Who Must Be Obeyed"). I obviously no longer need to obey her, but for the record, we still see each other routinely, we're on good terms, and she likes my husband, who for the purposes of forum discussion, I guess I'll refer to as The Luthiest Luthier, or just LL for short.
And some of you might remember that way back in the day, I was very conservative, part of the solid right-wing bloc of members in forerunner forums. If you hadn't noticed, I've also done a complete one-eighty, being about as progressive as is humanly possible, all arising out of my theological studies and trying to live out those beliefs authentically.
So - there's a Decade-at-a-Glance summary of DeweyLOU.
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Great update! I think I knew most of it, but happy to be reminded and very happy to have you here.
BTW what kind of piano is that in the photos?
Finger Lakes region of NY
Which lake, if I may ask? My mother lived along Cayuga Lake for a while, so I've spent a little bit of time around the Finger Lakes, absolutely gorgeous area!
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I was in Auburn, New York, which sat on Lake Owasco. Skaneateles Lake was about five miles to the east, and Cayuga Lake was just a stone's throw to the west. For a while I lived just about midpoints between Owasco and Cayuga, and had the pleasure of boating on Cayuga a couple of times.
The piano is a 1911 Further & Stemmer upright, the same piano we acquired for the girls to take lessons on when they were small. At some point it picked up the nickname "The Antichrist," given by a piano mover who had to move it, at great personal peril, in some really precarious ways in a few different houses. I almost got rid of it when I moved to Louisville, but kept it due to the pleading of Thirty-Two. It was a good call. Even though I no longer play, we have a fairly steady stream of pianists and other musicians, local and visiting, as guests at social gatherings at our place due to LL's musical connections. In addition to friends plopping down to knock out a show tune or two, it's actually had some surprising folks sit down and play it. Just a few weeks ago, this guy was at a musician's reception at our place and played a bit:
https://www.msmnyc.edu/faculty/william-wolfram/ -
I was in Auburn, New York, which sat on Lake Owasco. Skaneateles Lake was about five miles to the east, and Cayuga Lake was just a stone's throw to the west. For a while I lived just about midpoints between Owasco and Cayuga, and had the pleasure of boating on Cayuga a couple of times.
I’ve been to all those places! Wonderful in the summer, beautiful but bitter cold in the winter!
The piano is a 1911 Further & Stemmer upright,
It’s very pretty! Glad to hear is still gets played!!
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So fantastic to read your update, Dewey.
️ (my) Steve is on the way home from a cross country trip Maine in our little truck camper to visit a bunch of old friends from college and previous jobs, (and I was supposed to fly out meet him for a week in the middle but had to cancel), he is having a blast seeing beautiful parts of the country and I really want to do this with him at some point (if I can get my back fixed) - and it would be awesome to stay in your airbnb. -
Love your home, especially the gardens! So much my style both inside and out.
What's the hosting experience been like?
Also, can't wait to hear more about your upcoming book.
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Welcome, Dewey
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Love your home, especially the gardens! So much my style both inside and out.
What's the hosting experience been like?
Also, can't wait to hear more about your upcoming book.
Thank you! The house has had a lot of updates, and still has a long way to go, but it's much nicer than when I first bought it. I've done most of the work redoing the kitchen, bath, and other parts of the house; the gardens are almost entirely the work of LL.
Hosting for us has been almost without exception a wonderful experience. Our only glitch was maybe our first or second guest, who didn't get the message that we're a non-smoking property. They both smoked like chimneys, and we had to do a complete, deep cleaning and ventilation of the place to get rid of the smell after they left. Other than that one experience, it's been great. Some of our guests are extremely private, staying within the guestroom and keeping to themselves, which is fine. But most of them are more sociable, and we'll sit and chat, have some wine, sample bourbons, etc. Just since we started this past September, we've hosted guests from around the country and Europe, along with a few Asian expats as well. We've hosted professional musicians, authors - a real interesting variety. Our most recent guest owned a winery, which was cool. One of our first guests was a former winner on the Moth Radio Hour, and his partner was a classmate of my younger daughter's at the same small university in Switzerland where she did her undergraduate work. They were Chicago cliff dwellers who loved the idea of being able to end the evening toasting marshmallows around the fire ring out back. In any case, it's been a very fun way to meet people and make a little side cash.
We don't do instant bookings. Since this is our home, not an investment property, we want to know a bit about who would be staying in our place before accepting. And even at that, we only book the room for dates when we're actually present/in town, just for a bit of added security. We generally like to be present to welcome a guest and see them off, although we're a little flexible with that, especially if we get a good vibe about the guest. We offer a pretty good array of fruits, yogurt, and other snacks in the guestroom. Local regulations prevent us from actually cooking for a guest. Last month, though, we had some guests in from DC during Kentucky Derby Week, though - who, as you might suspect, pay a steep premium for the room, especially due to how close we are to Churchill Downs - and we told them that each morning, we'd be having a nice hot traditional breakfast at such and such a time, and "if we accidentally made a little extra," they'd be welcome to share it with us.
The book is titled Plausible Deception. Here's the basic plot:
Dan Randolph, a Presbyterian minister, and his violin-making husband Greg Zhu travel to Los Angeles for an international violin makers' convention. Part of the convention is a competition featuring the work of some of the finest violin makers in the world, including Greg. While there, the rare and world-famous Jackson Stradivarius violin is stolen - and Greg is one of only six people who knew it was even at the convention. While trying to help clear Greg of the theft, the two men help the authorities as they try to solve the mystery, safely recover the violin, and return it to its rightful owner before it can disappear on the international antiquities and arts black market.
There's a lot of biographical content, and a lot of the events that are described are based on actual events - although the famous violin was never actually stolen, and the line is intentionally blurry where the biographical/autobiographical bits end and fictional embellishments for the sake of the story begin.
Anyway, I'd better get back to work...
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@DeweyLOU Looking forward to your book! It sounds like a great read.
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Wow, nice to read the update and hear more about you!
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Oooh thanks for the plot explanation! Sounds great!
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The book sounds excellent!
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@Jodi I d settle for it just being not horrible.
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