short eternity

Last night the lights went out. Sitting at the kitchen table with the kids, mouth full of dinner, when "click" everything is black. A few seconds later, "click", computer re-boots, lights come up, an alarm down the road begins to sound. Kids are a bit freaked, go outside with Chrissy to check on things, and it would seem that the street light are out still. People with torches up the road.

I wonder what would happen if the lights went out and did not come back. How dependant are we on flicking a switch and lighting our homes, heating our water and cooking our food. How far are we really removed from the majority world if these systems that we accept so ubiquitously were to fail?

I think of this as my hot water system in my home is FUBAR and my kitchen tap for the hot water is broken again.