01 November 2012

C'est la Toussaint...

En France, c'est une autre façon de dire qu'il pleut. Ce matin, il tombe des cordes. Il pleut comme vache qui pisse tout de suite là.

The view out the kitchen window on November 1

In France, as a rule of thumb you can say it always rains at Toussaint — All Saints Day, the first day of November. This year is no exception.

Heavy rains like this morning's often knock out our satellite TV signal.

So welcome to November. I shouldn't complain, because before the satellite signal went out I was watching reports on TéléMatin about all the destruction caused by this week's big storm in New Jersey. We will have a quiet, warm day, in our house, with the heat on. Hope you can too.

9 comments:

  1. Have Walt's people come through Sandy safely? Or are you still in the 'dark' as for news given what must be a pretty damaged infrastructure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The main part of the storm went south and the west of Albany, I think. Walt said he heard reports of some wind and some broken tree branches around Albany, but very little rain. So much the better...

    ReplyDelete
  3. hey Ken! have you seen some of the online coverage of the storm? this is a pretty good overview:
    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/30/14810000-sandy-leaves-trail-of-destruction-disbelief-in-its-path?lite

    there's video and a slideshow. its pretty shocking. NYC is crippled, still. millions are without power and parts of WV are snowed in. a fire in Queens burned over 100 homes to the ground. some of the images are shocking. fortunately there were only about 50 deaths. we here in the FlyOver are used to big storms but these folks... well...its going to be a while before they get back to normal. it will take years to rebuild. i dont know what they'll do about the Jersey shore area. we here in Ohio got some of the storm, wind and some snow. but we were relatively unaffected.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi OFG, I've been following along as best I can here. The pictures of what has happened on the Jersey Shore are horrifying. But then I grew up on the coast of North Carolina so I've seen all that before, at different times. Too many houses on low, sandy shoreline... The situation in NYC is bad too, and who knows when they'll get it all straightened out. Glad you weren't too bothered by the storm.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was going to ask the same as Tim and was cheered to see your answer.

    My family are all pretty ok as they live on NJ/PA border and a good friend who lives in Granby MA had much the same experience as Walt's family in Albany.

    NYC still looks to be pretty bad although they are making some headway with clearing up the damage.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad to know NC wasn't hit so badly. We have (had?) plans to spend 2 weeks next August at Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island, NJ! It's a friend's house. She's been told it'll be at least 10 days before they can get on to the island to check the property. I know the rooms are up fairly high on stilts and the walls on the ground floor are supposed to collapse in case of a surge, to let the water through. Let's hope it all worked. I remember visiting my parent's apartment on Palm Beach Island, FL just after a hurricane. It's amazing how fast it all gets cleaned up or cleared out.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I've been monitoring the NJ situation through the eyes of my sister, Lynne, and her daughter. Lynne's house is still without power. The motel they went to the first night lost power that night, and is still out. Trees across their road make it impossible to drive out of or up to their house. My niece's school (where she is subbing) is closed for the whole week so far. But-- at least they don't have a tree on the house (as friends of theirs do), and they're not at the shore :((

    One thing I hadn't thought of for preparation for this kind of thing, is filling you car tank with gas. Friends who used to live in New Orleans suggested that one, but my niece didn't heed the advice, and now none of the gas stations around have power, so no gas-- and her tank is on empty.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to lose everything in a few hours!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ellen

    Don't know whether you will be able to watch the video! It was on the news last evening:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57543459/sandy-devastation-a-first-look-at-long-beach-island/

    ReplyDelete

What's on your mind? Qu'avez-vous à me dire ?