End of an Era

Maureen and I have been running Maguire House for ten years. Last year, 2005, we took in $1800 and made a profit of $51. That was OK, though, because we had always intended to run the business as a hobby, and breaking even was fine. Our rewards came from our guests; our entertainment came to us. We particularly enjoyed the weddings, being a part of something so important in the lives of others. Our payback was hearing “What a beautiful house you live in,” or “That’s the best breakfast I’ve ever had.” My niece told us we put on the wedding she had been dreaming of since she was a little girl.

This year we’re much busier and we’ve become victims of our own success. We’ve been pretending that our household insurance covered us. When we got reservations for most weekends through the end of the year and some whole weeks in between, Maureen decided that it was time to look into proper insurance. The best quote we got for liability and property damage coverage was $3800! Things were getting out of hand.

We decided that after the first of the year we could no longer take paying guests. At first I was saddened that we were going to be out of the B&B business. Since Maureen works full time, and since most of our guests come for the weekends, she was spending all her free time cleaning rooms and making beds. I enjoyed the cooking and maintenance, but it was becoming a full-time job. I’m supposed to be retired! We no longer had weekends to call our own.

After talking this through we decided that this might be a blessing in disguise, an opportunity to regain control of the B&B and a large portion of our lives. It is ironic that we could have guests stay for free cheaper than charging them. We would still have family events like Oktoberfest and Mayfest. We never did charge my old AF buddies or family members to visit, or for certain charitable events. Our grandchildren could come for even more overnight visits. The University of Arkansas holds weekend or week-long seminars for foreign exchange students several times a year and looks for host families. Our place would be ideal.

I realized that I was putting off most of the things I had intended to do in retirement. Running the B&B was just one of them. We had a great run of ten years being hosts, and now it was time to say, “Been there, done that.”

I started to sense a new feeling of freedom. I had started taking the Life Writing classes because I wanted to recapture a feeling I had as a teenager of wonder and excitement about the world. Back then I was interested in everything; my hobbies included building model airplanes, collecting skulls, reading about science, electronics, and gardening. When I retired from the Air Force I thought that I would be able to pick up where I left off when I started high school. Not only would I have all the time in the world for my hobbies and interests and adventures, but I would also have the freedom and money to explore anything I wanted.

Somehow it didn’t work that way. I had lost my ability to have fun. The things I enjoyed doing as a youngster no longer held my interest. I would buy a new model or computer program and leave it in the box. It was easier to watch TV or read a book than to start a project. I would start my day looking at the list of chores I should do, and be so overwhelmed by the length of the list that I could not figure out where to start. The problem with being so busy with the B&B was that the amount of work made those decisions for me, and the decisions were all about work and no longer about having fun.

Lately I’m looking forward to the “post B&B” days, anticipating finishing some of the projects I’ve been planning for years. We have been too busy to go out on our sailboat in a year and a half, and “Dragon Lady” is suffering from neglect. There are a chicken coop, greenhouse, and tree house to build. We will be able to take more trips, even to go to St. Louis, or New Orleans, or the Florida panhandle on a long weekend. When I first retired I worked as a volunteer in the hospital emergency room, and soon should have the time to volunteer at the VA hospital or the Civil Air Patrol. Even cleaning out the basement and garage are starting to sound like fun when I have to time to do them. I have not been fishing or flying or bike riding since Maguire House opened.

I don’t think I’ll have to struggle too much to make my second retirement better than the first, in the pursuit of the ability to have fun.