I should have seen it coming. After all I planned to leave early to begin my long weekend.  First the entire BOT meeting had to be scrambled and renumbered, reposted to the web and proofed. Then a BOT member had the wrong date for a meeting and I had to find the email sent to her with the correct date, that she just misread (finding an email in Gmail all clumped together is a different issue – but switching over to Outlook helps), then the professor in charge of accreditation emails to say she’s lost all of the narrative she was sent weeks ago and needs it in ten minutes to meet with the chancellor.

Okay, fires all out at work (never let them see you sweat, but keep extra deodorant in the briefcase). La daughter calls and wants to visit for just a minute before we go out of town and could I take her to the bank. Sure since I’m going anyway. But once there, she realizes she’s forgotten something, so drive back through campus to pick that up, get to the bank, wait in line – it is a holiday weekend – finally get to the window and of course the machine has run out of paper so she has to change it.  Finally depart bank and since running late, pull through the drive through to pick up something to eat, it is after 2 by now. And the batteries in the drive through microphone go out and have to be changed. I should have turned back then.

Drop the daughter off and head for the rest of the errands before I can leave town. Should have beaten hubby home by an hour, instead he beats me and I still have stuff to do, but finally finally around 4:30 we’re on the way.

I have made arrangements to stay at a bed and breakfast for the night, only this place isn’t a fine mansion, it’s little tobacco barns that have been refurbished and you’re staying in a rustic cabin, just the two of you.  Takes about an hour to get there – hubby has the tracking instincts of an injun and never gets lost so that’s cool.  We drive in and see some really quaint and very attractive little cabins.  We head to the office to check in and find our instructions pinned to the door – cabin unlocked, key inside.  Then the owner returns from walking the dogs to let us know that about ten minutes ago, the power went out, but it should be back on in a couple of minutes. There’s a flashlight just inside the door and a candle in the bathroom.

Okay, a minor setback, but not too bad. The cabin truly is adorable.  Downstairs is one big room with a fireplace, rustic with big wooden furniture and cushions with stylized bear and deer on the fabric. A large bathroom with a two-person Jacuzzi awaits us when the power returns.  The upstairs is the bedroom – a king size bed, made out of logs with matching armoire and a stand mirror.

You can skip this paragraph, but for research purposes only (of course) had purchased that KY Yours and Mine and I can give that a thumbs up.

Okay, power still not on, so we decide to find some place to eat.  Not that hard though we have to travel nearly half an hour to find a restaurant with electricity. Long line but we visit and just enjoy being together. Food was good, a little spicy and plenty to bring home for later. But later when we arrive back at the cabin means still no power and now full darkness.

The flashlight provided is a good two inches long and okay, bright enough to get up and down the stairs and into the bathroom – where there’s no water because the pump is down – but not enough to really get around.  One report says the power should be up any minute, another says by 10 p.m. and a third says 4 p.m. tomorrow.

We settle in to wait for a while longer. This was supposed to a rustic get away, right? He’s listening to his IPod and I’m reading on my Kindle.  Who needs electricity – well the air conditioner does.  There’s a nice breeze with the door open which no doubt is why the mosquitoes are so drawn to it. I was beginning to feel like I was at the Outer Banks – those suckers <g> were dive bombing us now.

I’m the one that finally called a halt. I was doing this to help him out of his funk and that did seem to happen (see above skipped paragraph) but I know when to cave. Took an hour to get home, but we had lights and water and air conditioning and hey, we can go back and see Harry Potter again this evening…