I’ve been thinking for the past couple days about going to Germany to join the runaway cow Yvonne. In case you haven’t seen the stories about her, she escaped just moments before being sent to the slaughterhouse and has spent three months wandering free through the Bavarian Forest.

She is a renegade bovine, and I applaud her.

But it’s a dark moment when I’m ready to throw it all away and become Thelma to a dairy cow’s Louise. And if you live in Lutherville, or any other area without power, you know exactly what dark moment I’m talking about. Perhaps your moment is still happening (my most sincere sympathies).

We got off pretty lucky in our Lutherville neighborhood. Power came back on after about three endless days. But my kids’ school is one of 13 Baltimore County schools still without electricity.

“Say it ain’t so, Joe!” I wailed when I received the now daily phone call from Superintendant Joe Hairston informing me that school would be canceled for the fifth day in a row.

My husband had much more unkind things to say, but luckily he muttered them under his breath.

There are bright sides to life without electricity or school. My children have played outside all day, every day all week. It’s like an old-fashioned summer as the pickup baseball games extend for hours. And my fridge and freezer have never been so clean. I said goodbye to their contents days ago.

But, it’s really time for everyone to get back to school. I have a soon-to-be kindergartner who has forgotten what her teacher looks like. The “Meet your teacher” day seems like weeks ago. The school supplies once so cheerily placed on desks are now gathering dust.

And, let’s face it: Nothing can make you crankier than forced candlelight. I have a friend who just got her power back on Thursday afternoon. She said she was so cranky she could barely form a sentence.

I should have invited her to come join Yvonne and me. We could roam the Bavarian Forest carefree—no worries about finding impromptu childcare or whether cereal can be counted as a healthy dinner. But then I found out that even Yvonne’s frolic had to come to an end. Apparently she got lonely and jumped a fence to join some other cows.

Maybe they had electricity.