I know what is like to want... no a better word is NEED to rant and just get it out.
At the old dojo I mentioned, I was the one several of the lower rankers came to for them to rant. It left me no one to rant to. You are left in a very precarious position. You have people ranting to you and you have to be there to listen and help them in the ways that you can. At the same time, you have to be careful of what you say because you still want to be respectful to your sensei (even in their all too frequent hiatus). You don't have anyone to talk to and if you are like me, you are left not sure what to do.
I personally could not talk to my sensei because I knew that it would be taken the wrong way. I learned from the mistakes of some other higher students before me. I often sat and pondered about what I would say and how I would go about saying it and it all got scrapped because it came back to the same conclusion that it would somehow be blown out of proportion.
Quite sad actually.... and because of this I feel like I can relate to you and your problems.
As for my husband, I am not sure how long he stuck around teaching at that dojo. I do believe that once my husband left the dojo shut down because the sensei was too lazy to make the drive. If you don't want to make the drive, then don't open up the dojo so far away. Some people just don't think..... I think. HAHA.