“Storm Ciaran batters the coast”

That's the headline I just saw go by on Sky News International out of the United Kingdom. I think the storm might have veered slightly north of the predicted path, reducing its impact on us. We are a four or five hour drive south of the English Channel. Still, the Channel Islands — Jersey, Guernesey, and Sark are just off the Normandy coast and are faithful to the British monarch, but are not part of the U.K. — took the brunt of it, they're saying. On the Normandy coast up there is the village of Carteret, which is where the people who founded a colony in North Carolina, where I grew up and which is now known as Carteret County. CHM and I had a friend who owned a house in Carteret in Normandy and I went there, several times with him, numerous times between 1992 and 2005.

Here the power failed at about midnight and came back on at eight o'clock this morning. I lay awake listening to the wind howl for an hour or two during the night, but then the gusts died down and I could relax, even if I didn't sleep much. The sun is peeking through the clouds right now, but it's still pretty breezy out there.

The power has gone out again twice, each time for just two or three seconds, over the last 40 minutes. Those small blips are really annoying. They are just long enough to cause the router to turn off, and it takes several minutes to get it started again. Same with the TV and some of our computers. Those take a while to restart too. The good news is that the fiber optic connection to the internet is working. I was afraid a tree might fall on the cable, which is strung up on short telephone poles along the road that brings cars, electricity, and fiber up to the hamlet. Who knows how long it would take to get cable repaired if a falling tree pulled it down. More tomorrow, after we get some damage reports from the more seriously affected areas.