Forum Moderators: open
Sure, of course people may be out of town at any time - or maybe they're even at their local library or market, or out doing the mall (like all respectable women are supposed to do on a regular basis, for example). :)
It isn't worth getting strung out about, no matter how critical at the moment; most things will look different to us if we think about how important they'll seem six or eight monts down the road. But for *really* hot items the safe bet, imho, is to grab hold of a likely suspect from among Mods & Admins.