The beginning of the end

Friday morning dawned beautiful and peaceful. There was a huge bin of toys in the basement for the kids to play with and they had graciously let Spencer & me sleep in. We were roused by Mairyn, who was hungry. She's usually the first one hungry. We had planned ahead and brought frozen french toast sticks for this first morning. Nothing like making something that usually takes a lot of effort in one minute and thirty seconds in the microwave. I went to get her a glass of water and . . . nothing. Just the all too familiar rush & gurgling sound of no water in the pipes. (We had enough water outages in Egypt to not be fazed too much by this) I called the point of contact, a property management company located in Island Park. Sunny Sharon was just as surprised as I was and said she'd call me back.

Sharon called back and said that there was some construction going on nearby and that they had needed to shut off the water.

"It should be on in a couple of hours." she said.

"I have 4 little kids, how am I supposed to get them a drink of water or flush the toilet or wash the dishes?"

"Didn't you bring any bottled water?" Sunny asked incredulously.

"No. We aren't camping and the description of the cabin said there would be running water."

"Well, this is just as much of a surprise to me. You could go down to the Shotgun Cafe and buy some bottled water."

What? No voucher? Besides the fact that it would take a whole heck of a lot of bottles to take a shower. (the kids had gotten in the hot tub the night before and went straight to bed. They were stinking of chlorine and needed baths) I could tell things were disintegrating fast so I gave her a time limit.

"I know that you didn't have any control over this outage, but you can give the construction crew an ultimatum. If they don't have it turned on by 11 (in 3 hours time) your paying customers will be leaving and wanting a refund. Got it?" (I may not have added the snotty 'got it' on the end. but I wanted to)

Sunny Sharon assured me that things would be sorted out. In the meantime, we had some good family time, forgot the dishes, and luxuriously watched a movie first thing in the morning. What else are vacations for? About 35 minutes in to said indulgence, the power goes out. Yes. The power. Fortunately, I still have 1 bar of service on my mobile and am able to call SS. She is just as shocked at this as the previous revelation and promises to get back to me. Again, the answer is the construction crew. Big surprise. We told her that the ultimatum still stands. And we waited for the next two hours.

Grant pretending to suck Spencer's brain out. This is what happens when the power goes out.

We took some nature hikes and explored around the cabin. But I had a sinking feeling that this would not all last. I was feeling generous and waited to call her till 11:30am.

"Sharon, there's still no power or water."

She apologized profusely but she didn't know if it would even be turned on for the REST OF THE DAY!! She offered to open up another cabin, maybe switch us to another area, etc. It's not like the next cabin was close. We were in the wilds. We saw maybe 3 other cabins on the winding road up the mountain. Besides, I wanted THIS cabin. (I know, I'm starting to sound like a 3 year old) But it's true. I told her that I had put a lot of time and money into choosing this perfect trifecta of a cabin. Awesome firepit, hot tub, satellite, and internet. None of the other cabins with in an hour's drive had that, she said. Well, we will be leaving, Sharon. She was flabbergasted.

"You're LEAVING??" she spluttered.

"Yes, I told you that if things were not resolved by 11am, we would be leaving. My husband is here for a limited time from Iraq . . . ."

I went on using the newly reunited Iraq widow card. She said we could apply this weekend to another time. When? He's only here for 2 weekends. Well, she said that she couldn't assure a refund for the two remaining nights because the owner of this cabin was "particular". Particular?? Listen, this is pretty simple. We paid for power and water, none of which have appeared yet today. (it was noon by now) Our time is precious. So, we left without a resolution. It took us another hour to pack everything up and there still wasn't any restoration of utilities. I may have been crying a bit along with the kids, but we managed to salvage the weekend. More on the weekend . . . tomorrow!