Loud noise in the middle of the night

I suppose it could have been a raccoon dropping the lid on a trash can outside. But, I haven't been able to trace what the noise came from yet. I was up an hour trying to figure out if something had fallen off a shelf or something to try to place what had happened to cause this noise?

I even got a flashlight to go outside to see if our 3 vehicles were okay and not damaged. The one thing I likely should do now is to check if our generator (for when power goes out from winds bringing down trees in the winter) is still there too?

I think I should do this now while I'm thinking about it looking in the waterproof shed that I keep it in year around for safety even when it is running to keep our food in our refrigerator from going bad during a power outage and also allowing Cable TV and Wifi and streaming and a light in the kitchen to take place. but, there is no heater but the fireplace in the winter which is the only really difficult thing about this when the house temperature goes down to below 50 to maybe 40 something. At that point we usually move into a hotel for a few days if necessary. But, we do have a fireplace to stay warm that also has gas so it's really easy to start a fire there and we keep wood year around for this purpose nearby too.

So, between all these things we are usually okay no matter what happens and the tree that fell from our neighbors and took out part of our deck railing and destroyed just the lid to our hot tub Christmas before last has long been repaired by me and a friend who words for us a couple days a week too. So, as of now things are pretty good here at the house on the NOrthern Coast of California.

Went to check on Generator. It's still there but it wouldn't start. Maybe we waited to long to restart it. The mechanic said the carburetor jets were so small they could clog if you don't start the thing every 2 weeks or so and maybe we waited too long this time.

So, I still don't know what the loud noise was but at least I know what it wasn't. And maybe for now at least that's a good thing.