Anyhoo...Hick DID pick up a 44 oz Diet Coke for me while in town, and a 44 oz Diet Mountain Dew for himself. Didn't even charge me for mine, either. Once home, he went out to mow grass. I popped out on the back porch every 10 minutes, donned my eclipse glasses
and checked on the progress of the total solar eclipse. Let the record show that it happened around 1:14 here in Backroads, and started from right to left. With the sun almost directly overhead, I didn't have to sit out in the yard and watch for it. I could enjoy the air conditioning between observations.
Here is totality. In person, through my eclipse specs, it did not look like this! There was the narrowest light ring around the edge, but here it looks larger. I guess a cell phone isn't meant to take pictures of a total solar eclipse. Even though they've been improved since the last total solar eclipse in Backroads, back in the 1400s.
I was looking towards the nook where the kitchen sticks out, in the direction of Poolio. Here are before and during photos for comparison. Let the record show that the solar lighting on Poolio's deck came on during the two minutes of totality.
Waiting, waiting, waiting...
and we have complete coverage. The flash went off to take the picture, so it looks deceptively lighter. It was not total darkness, though. Looking to my right, I could see out towards the front road. Here's before and after in that direction.
This first one is right when the eclipse started, around 11:35 a.m.
Again, the flash went off for this picture during totality, making it look lighter than it was.
There was a lovely glow along the horizon during totality. Those clouds were giving me fits while I was waiting for the total eclipse. Not those exact clouds. But others that were creeping in. One of them obscured one of my ten-minute viewings around noon. I'd never seen clouds move so slowly in my life as that small one I was waiting to get over the sun.
Afterwards, as the sun was re-emerging from the moon's shadow, I turned the other way, and got this cloud.
At 12:54, it had been creeping up on the sun, and I was fretting that I would miss the total solar eclipse because of it. It headed past at the last minute, rather than obscuring the sun. Thanks, Even Steven, for letting Val see her total solar eclipse.
For all of you who clicked on today's post to see a found parking-lot penny...so sorry to give you this total solar eclipse instead!
It certainly was an exciting event. And usually I avoid anything that has a whiff of science...
ReplyDeleteWould you by suction-cup shoes to keep you from flying off as the earth spins? I think The Good Feet Store has them on sale...
DeleteIt was certainly interesting. We only got ninety percent here in Portland so it didn't get all that dark.
ReplyDeleteNot as dark here as I expected, even with just a thin ring of light left at totality.
DeleteNice coverage of your eclipse experience, I didn't think to take pictures but we only had about 65% coverage anyways, started at the top of the sun and moved down, looked like a banana in the sky during the "totality" part, it was pretty cool we watched the entire thing checking in every few minutes.
ReplyDeleteToo bad Hick missed out on the parking lot gig, but happy to hear that he brought you a diet coke and didn't even charge you for it, that's better than a penny for today.
Yes. But I'm sure Hick bought ME the 75-cent soda, while he had the $1.69 soda. Even though they were both 44 oz. (The gas station chicken store has been running a special, buy one and get the second for 75 cents.)
DeleteWe didn't see it down here under the equator because of course your noon-time is halfway to midnight for us. I'll watch the TV news tonight and see if it gets shown there.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of your house and deck and poolio too.
Well, Backroads hasn't had a total solar eclipse since the 1400s, so I'd say we were due.
DeleteThanks for the house compliments. The plans called for the porch to stop at that kitchen nook, but I told Hick that I wanted to be able to go all the way around. That's where I walk if the driveway is getting rained on.
The only thing I'm not crazy about is that unsightly picket fence out front that Hick added last year, with some fence he found in a shed up on our other property.
The eclipse was awesome, smudged daylight. But forget that, tell me, is that a laminating machine on your porch?!
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh. You can take the teacher out of teaching, but you can't take the quest for a laminating machine out of the taken-out teacher!
DeleteThat is actually the back of Gassy G, the gas grill Hick got at the auction, with a red chair in a carrying bag ($5 at Country Mart) laying on top.
If I may direct your attention down the side porch, though...that wooden rack is part of a stand for an old washtub. Maybe with a ringer thing too. It was $40 at the auction. I asked Hick about a washtub, and he said, "Washtubs are $75 or $80 minimum!"
Oh, and the two chairs have been there a couple years now. They were free, at the end of somebody's driveway. I think another shack might be necessary.
You are right about all the hype. The traffic was not that bad here, either.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing most of our traffic stayed around Hwy 55, near Festus/Crystal City, and didn't veer down Hwy 67 as expected. We're the first town that has lodging and restaurants right on the highway.
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