Apology: To all my faithful viewers and those who drop in once in a while

I know I haven't been around much lately and that you haven't seen anything new on my site for a while now. But, if you will please accept my apology, I will try to explain. I didn't want to write about this sooner, although I have known for a while now. But I had to be sure before I let you in on it.

I have sold my bed and breakfast. Yes, after 16 years of "fun and frivolity" :=), I am retiring from the bed and breakfast world and starting a new career....in Austin, Texas! So, besides selling the business I am also selling my beautiful Victorian house and packing up to go to Texas.

Do I know what I'm getting into? Well not completely, of course, but I have a pretty good idea: hot weather and lots of air conditioning. But that's not the only thing. This is an important transition in my life; one that was inevitable.

I have had two major careers, in my life, and a lot of other short term dalliances. Having been schooled in a variety of disciplines, I have had the opportunity to apply what I learned in many situations. While I was teaching for thirty years in Chicago I was able to teach across the curriculum which really set the stage for what was to come. Of course, I was able to use what had gone before to the fullest...and there was a lot that had gone before...mostly centered around the arts: music, theater, dance, drawing and painting.

All of these experience were brought into play again when I retired from teaching, moved to Louisville, Kentucky and became an innkeeper. And adding to those was the newest and probably the most challenging of all, so far. I became an entrepreneur. I had always said, up to that point, "I will never go into business! It's not for me." I'm an arts person and my personality and experience all fit that persona.

So there I was, 16 years ago, sitting in the middle of a beautiful Victorian house in the third largest preservation area in the United States trying to figure out how to launch a business. First thing was to decorate the house in keeping with the period in which it was built....Victorian. Knowing nothing about the Victorian period, I scoured the library for information and decorated the house myself, with a little help from local artisans, antique dealers, and established Innkeepers.

I must back up a bit and tell you that prior to starting the decorating project, I had to deal with the agencies in town which dictated how a bed and breakfast was to be run in their precious city. I went through a litany of rules, regulations, and required accoutrements and procedures, and finally brought the place up to standards and ready for the world of B&Bs.

During all this, I was shopping...for beds, towels, linens, decorative stuff, waffle irons, and all the that bed and breakfasts are made of. Gradually it starting taking shape. For support and information, I joined a local group of 4 innkeepers. Eventually the group expanded into the Louisville Bed and Breakfast Association, which has close to 20 members now. I also joined the Bed and Breakfast Association of Kentucky, which has over 100 members from all over the state.

Fast forward 16 years. I have learned a lot, from being a bed and breakfast business owner, about running a B&B, about people, cooking, and most of all about myself, in general. I know I'll miss the wonderful times I've had, the many interesting and lovely guests, the Kentucky Derby and other events, and the challenges. But I am really looking forward to the future.

I want to write...every day...all day long. I love it, and never realized how much until I started writing again a couple of years ago. I'm writing journal articles, poetry, and collecting stories for a memoir of the past 16 years as an innkeeper, among other things. That's what I'll be doing in Austin...and damn the hot weather. It wont affect me, cause I'll be sitting at my computer in an air conditioned room writing about everything and anything I can think of.

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