In My Words: Kimberly Burton Allen, Writer

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Today is Labor Day…and for the first time in three decades, it’s not even a notable day for us. Living as we have done in places for which tourism is a chief industry, Labor Day always marked the supposed (if not actual) End of The Season and everyone in the hospitality industry drew a collective breath of relief. Tomorrow we called Tumbleweed Tuesday (picture the tumbleweed rolling across the deserted Old West street) and pretty much every restaurant in the Hamptons will be closed for the first time in fourteen weeks. In our business, we found that the bookings did not lessen after Labor Day, but an entirely different type of guest arrived: usually from farther away than the Tri-State area, and way more laid back than the summer crowd. Those of you who’ve (voluntarily!) transitioned into retirement ahead of me, tell me: Do people ask you if you miss your work? I can’t imagine that they do…unless maybe the askers are your old co-workers still in the

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes It has been a little over nine months since we closed on the sale of A Butler’s Manor, and about four months since we took possession of our new house in Connecticut. I have thrown myself into the organizing, painting, furnishing, and decorating of our new (old!) house with manic energy, so that yes, it’s starting to look like I want it to and feel like home. I’m very excited about what I’ve done so far and plan to share it in more detail. But through a combination of factors, I realized that what I most needed to document is how I am learning to navigate my life in retirement. With that in mind, I am reclaiming my neglected blog and committing myself to the sharing of my journey. The hardest part of starting this conversation – and I hope it will be a conversation – is that since I'm stepping into the great blue abyss of The Next Chapter, there are no clear endings for my posts. As a writer who admittedly has concentrated more on blogging over t