I haven’t been online that much the last 5 days. I was on my first-ever business trip. I work from home for a small vacation rental company in Florida. I handle all their tech work and rates, setting up and maintaining the property management system, as well as handling reservation inquiries and things like that. All of that is pretty easy to do remotely, as long as you have communication.

My manager just bought the business from the former owner, so it was time to get together and plan for the future. We brainstormed and discussed where we think the company should be. It’s nice to be appreciated and I know I am valued.

Now I am back home. It’s chilly and rainy today here in the North, but I couldn’t live where I rent in Florida. It’s hot. Even in October. I don’t like the heat. I don’t like the crowds. I don’t like the storms. I drove around Pensacola Beach and saw all of the damage there from Hurricane Sally.

There were some nice open-air restaurants. I was safe, wearing a mask, even though Florida’s governor opened Florida up completely with no mask mandate. Almost every place I went was outside where I could distance myself from people. Since they were dealing with Hurricane Delta while I was down there, the wind was blowing constantly at a good clip.

I was in the minority, though. Plenty of people were wearing masks and practicing social distancing, but many more were acting like there wasn’t a pandemic going on. When I left from the airport in Portland, Maine, there was 100% compliance with the mask mandate inside the airport. When I returned home yesterday from Florida there were plenty of people inside the airport not wearing a mask even though it was supposedly mandated inside the airport. On the airplane, there was 100% compliance at least. Middle seats were empty and on the way back my row was empty except for me.

I’d say my first-ever business trip was successful. Now it’s time to get back to work, both here on my blog and at home.