Dinner by candlelight

Sonoma is small, elegant restaurant tucked in a small, undistinguished strip mall just over the town line in Princeton, Mass. It's a fine place for a special dinner. Sandra and I went there last night to celebrate her birthday. We had just finished our starter courses when, outside, a thunderstorm was unloading noise and lightning and rain. We asked our server if they'd ever lost power while serving dinner. She said that it had happened once a long time ago, just after a number of meals had been served.

Sandra had the lamb and I had ahi tuna. Both came with colorful and tasty sides of mushrooms, root vegetables (beets, potatoes, carrots, turnip), and a flavorful risoto. We were glad that we had a few minutes to see our food because, in a short while, the power flickered once, came back, and then went out for good. (I don't remember the exact number, but a hardware engineer told me that if the power is out for more than about seven seconds, it's going to be out for a long time. It takes about seven seconds for a circuit breaker to reset itself. If the reset doesn't work, then a repair crew needs to fix it.) The staff brought extra candles to the tables and we ate in the dim light. Even the whispers of "What am I eating?" didn't diminish the romantic mood.