Thanks to those of you who left such sweet comments on my Monday post about my back issues. Two days of rest, pain meds and muscle relaxers have brought me to a point where I’m feeling well enough to head into work in a few minutes. I’m not feeling great but I’m feeling better, and better is good!
Last Friday night, Sarah was away overnight at a youth event so Steve and I decided to make use of a restaurant gift certificate our church just gave us for Pastor’s Appreciation Day.
Now this was not a certificate for just any ol’ restaurant, mind you. No, this was for Owens Restaurant, a place that has been a family owned, Outer Banks dining tradition for over 65 years. This was also a restaurant that I would not dare step one foot into without a gift certificate clutched in my hand because the prices would undoubtedly give me a massive case of indigestion.
The food, as you can tell from this picture, is fabulous—both in taste and in presentation.
Since Steve’s day off is (usually) Friday, he’d been out fixing stuff and doing lawn work so he was pretty grimy. He hopped into the shower (well–he didn’t literally hop), while I donned a lovely ensemble, freshened my make up and spritzed on some perfume.
Once we were both suitably bedecked and bedazzled, Steve escorted me to the car, opened the door for me and we drove away holding hands, chatting companionably, and looking forward to a special evening together eating fabulous food.
Alas. It was not to be.
We pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, headed up the sidewalk and were just about five steps from dining bliss when it happened.
Everything went dark. Every. Single. Thing. The lights at the restaurant and every single light on every single building within view went completely dark.
I told Steve, “Well! Nothing like getting a warm and hospitable welcome when walking into a place of business!”
We poked our heads into the restaurant to see if anyone knew what was going on but all we saw were hurrying, scurrying employees holding candles, trying to figure out how they were going to feed their already-seated customers succulent meals without the benefit of electricity.
Steve and I made a pretty quick decision that we were going to have to forego our special meal; we started driving north along the Outer Banks main highway hoping that we would be able to drive to the end of the outage and find another restaurant. We quickly discovered, however, that this particular outage had no end; there were no lights anywhere, for miles and miles and miles.
As it turns out, every single one of the 30,000 people who call the Outer Banks home were inexplicably without power. (We found out later that some wires at a particular location were so contaminated with salt buildup that they became a conductor for the electricity within the lines, causing the power lines to burn through. Who knew that salt could be so powerful as to cause people to be powerless?)
After seeing several accidents (due to stop lights being out) and witnessing police directing traffic at major intersections, we concluded that the best and safest thing for us to do would be to head home. And so we returned our aforementioned bedecked and bedazzled selves to a dark house and a disconcerted doggie and stood forlornly in the flashlighted gloom of the kitchen pondering our dinner options. (By this point it was 7:30 and we were ravenous.)
I finally remembered that I had some black bean burgers in the freezer so Steve put those on the grill and melted some cheddar on top; we added some chips and leftover marinated bean/veggie salad and we were all set!
So in the end, we did end up having a candle light dinner after all; it just wasn’t quite the sort of dinner we had imagined.
Our culinary presentation left a lot to be desired when compared to the exquisiteness of Owen’s fabulousness but oh well. It was tasty and the company was good.
Just as we were eating our very last bite, the power came back on! We hooray-ed and hallelujah-ed and put on our comfy clothes and snuggled together on the couch with Summer to watch a movie.
And the good part about the whole night? We still have dinner at Owens to look forward to!
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I just saw online that there are still over 150,000 people without power in the northeastern states. Even being without power for an hour or so Friday night made me greatly appreciate the power when it did come back on. I can’t even begin to imagine what those people are dealing with who are going into their third WEEK without electricity.
May God watch over them and also watch over the diligent men and women who have worked (and are still working) so very hard to restore electricity to those who are still without.
In this month of Thanksgiving-ness, electricity is one of the things right at the top of my list that I am so very thankful for.
My brother-in-law is a chaplain in the Navy and they are without electricity at this point. They are fortunate in that they were able to relocate during this, but many many people cannot and are literally living on a thread until this is resolved. It is something for which to be thankful this season, I know you and Steve will enjoy your dinner even more when you finally get to go. You have taught me such an appreciation for my pastor and his family,
Lisa, can you even imagine being in your brother-in-law’s shoes and being without electricity this long? I know they will have one Huge Rejoicing Party when it finally comes back on. Thanks for your words of encouragement about teaching you appreciation for your pastor and family; that is so sweet.
Michelle, I appreciate your kind words about our marriage. I guess it’s the dates that don’t work out quite as planned are the really memorable and special ones! 🙂 And the black bean burgers were really good!
You two are an excellent example of what marriage is all about – happiness … with or without electricity. 🙂
I hope you’re feeling better, and will pray for those who are without/working hard to restore power.