Gurgle, bling, the roar of the crowd, and zzzzzzzzap! Ah, the sounds of a warm spring evening.

Actually, in order, those were the sounds of my dinner cooking in the microwave, my computer getting e-mail, the fans at Fenway doing a wave (on the TV), and the cutting off of all of them by the sudden loss of electricity. I'll never take power for granted again.

In this age of intant messaging via computers, DVDs, the Global Positioning System in your car, and , of course, the Ronco Food Dehydrator, it's strange and humbling that the electric power for four towns can be brought down by the simiple pecking of an inquisitive crow. But that's exactly what happened last night as the bird pecked its way into a set of live wires at an electrical station 20 miles away.

I was unlucky enough to be not only waiting for my dinner to cook, but also enjoying a baseball game on TV and typing on the computer. And in one instant, it was gone. Computer down. TV off in a flicker. The VCR clock light evaporated. Lights gone in a crackling, dimming haze. Then, of course, the most important victim: the rice in the microwave.

It took an hour for the power to return. Do you know what happens to rice that's been sitting in luke warm water for an hour? Exactly. A beige, fleshy mass that resembled the Blob in it's embryonic stage. Quickly expanding, yet not fully cooked, and not worth saving.

But I'll be damned if I was going to go to the Domino's that sits so conveniently next door. I haven't started running again for nothing. But I suppose any meal you eat at 11PM is bound to stay with you, even if it's not "fast food." So that's my excuse: I've gained weight because a crow caused a massive power outage.

By the way, no word on whether the crow survived or not.