Current Events IV: All The News That Fits

[phillipa]

My husband and I traveled to the path of totality. We flew to Dallas, then drove two hours northeast to some random field in the middle of nowhere close to the Oklahoma border to avoid clouds.

It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. What was amazing to me was how daylight seemed almost normal up until totality. Like, even with 95% of the sun covered, daylight only appeared slightly dimmed.

It was a long drive to get there and then a long drive back, but it was worth it.

[ratscabies]

Now THAT was the way to listen to Pink Floyd!

Some helpful pot taker on Reddit posted the time to start Dark Side of the Moon so that Totality coincided with “And everything under the sun is in tune, but the Sun is eclipsed by the moon”, so I had the boombox all queued up. The stoner (or Apple) was 2 seconds late (perhaps the difference between Akron and Cleveland?), so Totality landed on “And all that’s to come,” but it was still very cool.

Here’s a couple shots from out front of Chez Scabies:

A shot of totality using my iPhone 13 Mini. Even the corona blew out the camera, but I like the shot as it shows the chemtrails of the Delta Totality Flight, which even as a Million Miler, I didn’t hear about until Friday.

And a crop of a shot, again with my phone, looking through the glasses I got at a service plaza on I-90 coming home from Albany on Sunday.

[Margo]

Apr 9, 2024 10:20:12 GMT -4 phillipa said:

It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. What was amazing to me was how daylight seemed almost normal up until totality. Like, even with 95% of the sun covered, daylight only appeared slightly dimmed.

I know! Well, I haven't experienced totality. I was in Boston where the max coverage was < 93% and it was still way too bright to look at without special glasses, and the rest of the world was only slightly dimmed, like it was an hour later in the afternoon than it actually was.

My mother lives in Toronto, though, where the coverage was 99.93%. A town only a half-hour ride away was in the zone of totality, as was Niagara Falls. Anyway, in the videos of the eclipse in downtown Toronto, it became quite dark, like in early evening, and all the streetlights turned on.

[tazmin]

I love reading about everyone’s experiences with the eclipse. I think it’s so interesting. ^_^

[batmom]

We were in Moab this week so saw it there. I'd say about 70% coverage. We hadn't really prepared to view it since we weren't on the path but just as we were leaving the visitors' centre at Arches, a park ranger started handing out the little glasses so we watched it all. I also stopped people on the trail to share the viewing. It was fun.

[ratscabies]

Gig in Stamford, CT tonight. Since we’re driving to NH next week, it was decided we would take the direct Delta flight from CLE to LGA, rent cars, and drive an hour to Stamford.

Then, THIS happened, and we sat on the ground in Cleveland for an hour (after taxiing around to the other side of the concourse) because “air traffic went down at LGA”.

When we finally headed out to the runway, the pilot said “they found the unplugged cable, and plugged it back in.”

Then add the THREE HOURS it took to get the rental car for the band’s gear, and it would have been faster and less stressful to just drive.

As the Ramones manager said to Riff Randall in Rock n Roll High School: this is the big time, girly. This is rock n roll!