Bill and Sheila's Busy Weekend

We had a good weekend even if it was a little busier than we are accustomed to. Friday night, the pack met at Shilo's. We enjoyed a good old fashioned home style meal while catching up on everybody's happenings. My friend Robert Smith was playing there with his band so we got not only good food and good company but good music as well. Roger had a huge chicken fried steak. I couldn't believe that a single person could eat a piece of meat that size but he did ... and blast it he is still the skinniest guy in the pack. Sheila had a beautiful (and delicious) entree salad with strawberries all over the top of it. My catfish was not as good as in the past but .... After dinner, we all headed over to Mike and Jodi's for a little time in the pool. I brought a bottle of a very good ghetto vintage descendant of Ripple that we all shared. Only Jodi and Sheila wound up in the pool for some reason. The rest of us just visited.

Thursday, the owner of the Little Cabin in the Woods had called and said her place was vacant for the weekend. While she normally won't accept one night reservations, she did in our case. So, Saturday morning, we were up early and headed south for the mountains. By noon we were at the cabin, and I was out on the deck, sipping a cold O'Doul's and grilling bratwurst for our lunch.

Right after lunch we both decided to get a little sun out on the deck. We sprayed each down with sun screen and proceeded to enjoy the quiet and the sun ... at least until Sheila got up. Her entire back was covered with "grill marks" from the iron patio furniture. Apparently, it had been recently painted and our still damp sun screen had dissolved the paint onto our skin. I asked Sheila to take a look at me. Sure enough, I was "grilled" on my back and the backs of my thighs too. So. we headed for the shower and scrubbed each other until most of the paint was gone. I say most because some stayed with Sheila all weekend.

After that, we spent a big chunk of the afternoon in the hot tub and then took a nap. By sixish, I was back at the grill fixing supper. We had a grilled cracked pepper crusted chicken breast with a salad from a one bag kit and crescent rolls from a pop open can. I was amazed that the delicate little rolls cooked so well on a piece of aluminum foil on the cold side of the grill but they did. A bottle of cheap sweet Merlot finished the menu, so cheap in fact it would drive our foody/wine connoisseur daughter nuts. But, we like it. And yes, we were drinking a red with chicken, a white meat. But, the meat flavor was actually fairly heavy because of the cracked pepper and who cares anyway if we break the food police rules?

As we were sitting at the dinner table on the deck, I turned on my little Grundig shortwave radio and tried to tune in some music. The Little Cabin in the Woods is located in the shadow of a huge mountain, in a valley surrounded by mountains. The only radio signals that get in are flame-thrower FM stations that don't broadcast our type of music. I never travel without this little radio and Saturday evening proved why. In a couple of moments, we were listening to a nice selection of Strauss melodies from Radio Japan. At the end of the hour, NHK changed format a little and we were treated to half an hour or so of vocal jazz by the likes of Bobby Darrin and Mel Torme. But eventually, as the sun moved the signal faded and I began looking around for something else. This time, I picked up a pretty good signal of what sounded like Portugese/Brazilian music. Whatever it was, it was pretty and we listened to it for a while.

By this time, we had cleared the table and were back in the hot tub. The sun was getting pretty low and I figured I might be able to coax a strong, clear channel American AM station in. I tried 650 khz. WSM out of Nashville. I am glad that I did. I got it tuned in just in time to hear Ray Price on the Grand Ole Opry. I am not a lover of contemporary country. But, Ray Price's music defies description. It is smooth. It is sophisticated. It can hold its own in any genre. We had a wonderful time lying there in the tub, listening to his aging but still golden voice sing favorites like, "Night Life" and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me.

By eleven-ish we were in bed and what follows will explain why I call this blog "The Adventures of Bill and Sheila." We had an adventure. Shortly before midnight, the power failed. We knew that the power failed because the fan stopped and so did the CPAP machines that we use to breathe while sleeping. In a moment, when the power did not come back on, I grabbed my cellphone to use as a flashlight and we both stepped outside to see if we could see any lights at the adjoining farms or at some of the other cabins up on the mountain across the valley. In a while, a call to our hostess confirmed what we had feared, power was out all over the valley.

Our second surprise came when we tried to go back in the cabin. We had scrupulously locked the doors before going to bed and had not remembered to unlock them before we stepped out onto the deck. We were now locked out of the cabin in an embarrassing state of dress with no way to get back in. We also didn't have our glasses, so seeing the numbers on the electronic key code lock was a problem. So was light. The cell phone wasn't bright enough for either of us to see the numbers properly. While we could easily remember the key code to the front door, neither of us could see well enough to manage the somewhat convoluted keypad lock. We tried the electronic key code lock several times and managed to get it to really lock up for failed attempts. We couldn't even get in our car because the car keys were inside on the nightstand. Our plight became truly urgent when we heard critters moving around in the grass and leaves around the cabin.

Eventually, we woke up enough to remember that we had stashed one of our room keys outside in case of an emergency and were able to unlock the front door. By this time, we had pulled a couple of solar stair lights off their mounts and were using them as improvised flashlights. We both tried to get back to sleep but it took a while. About the time we did, the power came back on. I never sleep past seven am. I got out of bed around nine this morning.

I didn't bother to fire up the grill for breakfast. When I was shopping for the trip, I decided to give Sheila a treat and bought a small package of precooked bacon. She grows tired of my low cholesterol turkey breakfast meats. I sliced a baguette and pan toasted it in a little oil. Scrambled eggs with salsa, juice and pot of coffee from our little four cup french press coffee maker completed the meal. The food was good but nothing to write home about. But, the crisp mountain air and view over the high mountain valley made it a special time.

While I am not a wine snob at all, I am something of a coffee snob. I want my coffee right. Our french press coffee maker is another item that we travel with as a habit. Hotel room coffee makers are a mixed lot at best and you never know whether or not the last occupants of the room used the carafe' to help brew a batch of meth. The rest of world uses these things. If you have hot water, you can make coffee, good coffee, good, strong, aromatic coffee. They just make sense.

By late afternoon, after another fabulous lunch at Roseanna's in Krebs, we were back home. In a while, I will start putting our suitcase and other traveling gear away. And, I will find out what happened to the tactical flashlight and the penlight I normally carry in our traveling gear and if necessary replace them.

Sheila and I always enjoy getting away and spending time with each other. This time, despite our "adventures," we both managed to relax more than usual. When I was packing to come home, I realized that I had not been online for over twenty four hours and I had not talked to or even thought about a client for for over twenty four hours. Shoot, I hadn't even worn a watch or used my cane in twenty four hours. The time in the hot tub had temporarily relieved some of the chronic pain in my legs, knees and back. We cooked and ate a couple of good meals, drank a little cheap sweet wine and spent hours together in the hot tub, sometimes talking and sometimes not. We listened to some good music and had an adventure. It was a good time indeed.