The Broken Lightbulb: A Spooky Tale

Here at the inn, I have a policy: if a room is not made completely up and ready for someone to check into it, I keep the door to that room either shut or locked until it’s ready to go. I don’t like snoopy guests – and they are, every single one of them – to peek in and see a dirty or unfinished room. I just think that’s unprofessional. I’d rather have those snoopy guests wonder what those rooms look like than for them to see an unmade bed or a vacuum cleaner sitting in the middle of the room or towels stacked on the dresser. Hey, my inn, my rules. I want to present it in its best light.

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If You Need To Go North, Head East

I’m not a math person, but I am able to do basic math. Most of the time. I’m not all into the X + Y = the square root of pi stuff, but adding and subtracting and multiplying, you know the basic everyday stuff, I can handle. Most of the time the use of math is just automatic and I don’t even think about it, I just make the calculation and off I go. Most of the time I don’t even question my result. But sometimes, once in a while . . . .

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What’s Your Inn Guest FICO Score?

The other day I had a guest experience that I wish I would have handled differently. Hey, sometimes it happens. But you never know UNTIL it happens. And we all know that sometimes all it takes is one person to screw things up for everyone else. Here’s what happened?

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Making Lemonade

The best advice, when life hands you lemons, is to make lemonade. Not always an easy thing to do. Well, I’ve been handed some lemons. Lots of lemons. Cancellations have been flooding in – AGAIN. Between school starting, this new covid variant, and threats of violent weather, people were opting not to travel to Vicksburg. August is usually our month of European travelers. But, we all know they are still forbidden to travel to the US. So . . . . here we sit. Again. With a houseful of empty rooms and a lap full of lemons.

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Why’d You Call It That?

Do you ever wonder how businesses get their name? Not every business, because some business names make total sense. Like PetCo or U-Haul or John’s Corner Market. But other names, while clever, often make no sense. Amazon for instance. What does the second longest river in the world have to do with e-commerce? I mean, it’s not even the number one longest river. Why would you name your company after the SECOND anything? Wouldn’t you want to liken your business to the first of something? If I were opening – say – a hat shop, it would make sense to call it Hats Off. But if I’m going a different route, wouldn’t naming it The Nile, after the number one longest river, make more sense? I’m sure Amazon had some strategy that I’m unaware of, but to the average Jane like me, I don’t get it.

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The Unexpected Expected

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

I knew it was going to happen. At some point it was bound to. But, I wasn’t really ready for it to happen quite so quickly. Slowly the country is phasing back into normal operating procedures. We’ve been getting a few more reservations over the past few weeks. But, I don’t know what happened the last three weekends. BAM! Full houses every Friday and Saturday night. Just like that. No warning. The phone kept ringing and the I kept saying “come on.”

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Something’s Better Than Nothing

Folks it’s been slim pickings here at Casa Baer. I’ve been trying to keep my chin up throughout this pandemic but some days it’s really hard to find the silver lining. Since the beginning of March we’ve only taken in just a smidge over six thousand dollars. Usually we bring in double that each and every month, especially this time of year. We’re heading into our second busiest time of the year and are still getting more cancellations than reservations coming in. It’s heart breaking.

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Toto, We’re Not In Kansas Anymore

I’ve lived in Mississippi for almost 4 years now and there are still some things that I just can’t comprehend. Mostly I love the laid back way of life and southern hospitality. I love the charming small town feel of a lot of places in this great state. Other things, I don’t get. At all.

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An International New Year

One of the things I really like about innkeeping is meeting folks from all over the world. When we first bought the inn, I never imagined that I’d meet people from so many different countries. I truly never imagined there’d be so many people from other parts of the world interested in the deep south.

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Stairways For the Imagination

I live in Vicksburg, Mississippi, a river town with a colorful and violent history. For 47 days Vicksburg was under siege by the Federal Army, completely surrounded and cut off from the outside world. Many people lost their lives fighting for a cause they believed in.

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