We Can Only Speculate: The Energizer Bunny Visits

The Energizer Bunny Visits

Posted by Unknown On Wednesday, June 16, 2010

My electricity went out late yesterday afternoon. For about 12 hours. In Texas. In June.

It’s surprising how hot (relatively) a home can become in 12 hours. Did I mention that it was 96 degrees with a heat index of 100? And it was dark, too. Really dark. Far darker inside than outside. Stacey invited me to stay overnight at her home. However, if I can’t stay overnight in a “warm” home, in the dark, when I still had cool running water, then Africa is probably not for me. Jill, my Lakeland Terrier, was puzzled. I explained that I was playing “Africa.” And yet Jill remained baffled. I told her that it wasn’t her problem . . . that she’d spend the next two years pool-side, jubilant on the big bed, in climate-controlled comfort.

And so this morning as the government travel office worked with me diligently to undo the airline trouble that I caused . . . as they explained to me that the PC merely wanted to ensure that I could endure a trans-Atlantic flight in steerage (thus somehow ensuring that I could endure the challenges of Burkina Faso), I suggested that SATO Travel might explain to Washington that I’d spent a fervid night sans A/C, in the dark, with a tiny battery-operated fan. Thank you, Duracell. Could it be that the PC/Washington fails to grasp the depth of my adaptability? Indeed, one might postulate: Who can blame them? Doubtless, hours in a lovely, albeit hot, comfortable home cannot equate to 27 months in a Burkina hamlet.

Change of plans. I spent the afternoon with Rusty and REI. Bug-Hut™, check. Hammock, check. I see it more clearly now: it’s only realistic. One must acknowledge the probability of sleeping under the stars. Wasn’t it me, in this very blog, who guaranteed “no Bug-Hut™”? What’s next? Granola and Kool-Aid™? We can only speculate.