We had a very long power outage

last night. Power was finally restored about forty minutes ago. We slept through most of it.
When I surfaced there was enough natural light for me to make out the time - my usual rising time. I padded out to get the two weekend papers from the front although there was insufficient light to read them. (I saw no point in allowing them to get any wetter.) The flip lid of the rubbish bin had blown open at some point and there was a considerable quantity of water in it. I tipped that out as well.
All around me though everything was much darker than usual. There were no street lights and no lights in any of the houses. The natural light was just a faint misty grey. It was quiet too. The power units providing heating to at least three neighbouring houses were not working. The pump on the swimming pool at the end of the street was silent. Our house is also silent.
Inside there was no faint hum from the refrigerator. There was no small green light to tell me the freezer unit was working as it should. The clock on the microwave oven was no longer there. The tiny red dot of the standby mode on the television set was not there. I could see well enough by then to put the breakfast things out.
I lit a match. It flared and then settled into a glow. I lit the gas. My mother insisted on a gas cook top although we have an electric oven. It was, she said, unlikely that both the gas and the electricity would go down at the same time.
I warmed milk the old way, in a saucepan instead of the microwave oven. I ate my breakfast slowly in semi-darkness. Then I wrapped my paws around my warm mug and contemplated life without electricity. It would be quieter, but less convenient.