earendel's "North to Alaska" trip - Day -1

[earendel]

Yes, I'm starting this little travelogue with the day before we left town because some of what transpired on that day (Thursday, June 19) had a bearing on the next day's events.

As I have noted on previous occasions, my darling elwing plans trips with the methodical precision of a general planning an invasion. She has everything scheduled to a T, which is wonderful - most of the time. The problem with such meticulous planning is that if something goes wrong, it can throw everything off, as I shall proceed to illustrate.

Our youngest son's birthday was June 21st and we had arranged to take him (and the rest of the family) out to dinner on Thursday, the 19th, since we'd be out of town on his actual birthday. elwing had factored this into her schedule, so no problem so far. On the way home the radio reported "scattered showers and thundershowers" and sure enough we ran into a downpour just a couple miles from home. Worse than that, as we approached the turnoff to our subdivision there was a fire truck across the road and a police officer directing traffic. We couldn't figure out what was going on until we got home and found that we had no electricity. The problem was a downed powerline. This was NOT part of the schedule. elwing had planned to do some last minute laundry and packing of the essentials, and I had some work to do on the computer (church-related stuff). The power didn't come back on until the wee hours of the next morning (our departure day), meaning that we had to do our last-minute packing under flashlight. As one might expect, several things were forgotten in the disorganized rush, plus the laundry didn't get done.

[MarleysGh0st]

As I have noted on previous occasions, my darling elwing plans trips with the methodical precision of a general planning an invasion.

The general didn't have her bags packed days ahead of time?

[earendel]

As I have noted on previous occasions, my darling elwing plans trips with the methodical precision of a general planning an invasion.

The general didn't have her bags packed days ahead of time?

For the most part yes, but there are always things that need to be added at the last minute because they can't be packed earlier. In elwing's case, particularly, this includes cosmetics and "favorite garments and shoes" that she wants to take but can't pack in advance. There are also other things that, despite her lists, are thought of at the last minute.