I've been raised from the dead...

Breakfast Diva · Sep 16, 2020

Tom said:
And now ... SMOKE ... I recall you were mid coast Oregon, so Lincoln City fire?
Hope all OK.

Hi Tom. It's been a challenging year to say the least! I hope you survived the big fire out there. I know some folks who lost everything.

We had fires north of us and south of us. Smoke so think I could barely breath, but took comfort that the fires wouldn't reach us. Even on the beaches you couldn't see anything and it was difficult breathing. We're back to normal now! Well, normal as it gets around here anymore. The weather has changed into fall very early here. Gone is our typical Indian Summer.

Thanks for checking in!

Tom · Sep 16, 2020

We're OK; fire evacuation started a half mile east. We got a lot of ash and anxiety. Trying to persuade DW to put in one suitcase all she was ever going to see again was ... difficult. Be we are spared and others are not. May be putting folk up; the calls for refuge I got in first days I told them to go farther West, we were too close for comfort for anyone who had to evacuate once already.

petitdejeuner · Sep 16, 2020

Breakfast Diva said:
Hi Tom. It's been a challenging year to say the least! I hope you survived the big fire out there. I know some folks who lost everything.

We had fires north of us and south of us. Smoke so think I could barely breath, but took comfort that the fires wouldn't reach us. Even on the beaches you couldn't see anything and it was difficult breathing. We're back to normal now! Well, normal as it gets around here anymore. The weather has changed into fall very early here. Gone is our typical Indian Summer.

Thanks for checking in!

Tom said:
We're OK; fire evacuation started a half mile east. We got a lot of ash and anxiety. Trying to persuade DW to put in one suitcase all she was ever going to see again was ... difficult. Be we are spared and others are not. May be putting folk up; the calls for refuge I got in first days I told them to go farther West, we were too close for comfort for anyone who had to evacuate once already.

Almighty yikes. I’m a West Coastie too; we’ve had some truly nasty smoke but are unlikely to be in any real fire danger. Let’s all cross our fingers for the actual fire season to come.

Innpark · Sep 18, 2020

Breakfast Diva said:
It's nice to be back and see some old faces around here! I'm still alive and kicking, but barely. Life has thrown some big curve balls.

Divorce (yeah!)
Retirement for a couple of years (yeah!)
Travel (yeah!)
Move to another state (yeah!)
Onsite managers for the b&b (oh boy...definitely not smooth sailing)
Firing 2nd set of managers and them squatting on my property with help from Covid-19 (Boo!)
B&B life during Covid-19 (A Brave New World)
Full circle, back to being an innkeeper at my place, but not wanting to be here (DANG!)
B&B for sale

Whew, that all happened in 3 years.

Soooo, what else is new? hahahahaha

Please share what a fellow innkeeper should do to prevent squatters from squatting. what kind of vetting did you do?Etc Etc. This is the second time I've heard of this happening and I know you are probably saying " if only I had done..."

Breakfast Diva · Sep 18, 2020

Innpark said:
Please share what a fellow innkeeper should do to prevent squatters from squatting. what kind of vetting did you do?Etc Etc. This is the second time I've heard of this happening and I know you are probably saying " if only I had done..."

I don't know that I could have done anything more than I did. I did a background check on both of them, called references, e-mails and video calls. I also had a contract. The fact is, that if the owner is not nearby for spot checks and overseeing, most people will do only what's necessary to get by. That's not the way a successful b&b is run. These were my 3rd set of onsite managers and there were issues with all of them. This couple was the worse and once I started getting bad online reviews, they were fired. They were able to squat because of covid. The courts were closed and they took full advantage of the opportunity, including collecting unemployment and the extra federal unemployment payments. They were making more squatting than they did working for me!