Diary Day: April 8, 2024
Awake at 6:50, but I relax, listening to a few minutes of a book on tape (on earbuds, B still sleeping) because I’m not going into work today. Instead, I’m working from home because of the eclipse!
After a few minutes, I head downstairs, make tea, emptying the dishwasher while I wait for the water to boil and the tea to steep. I must have finished the dishwasher quickly, because I end up under-steeping the tea. It’s a little weak. Oh well.
Since today is the day of the eclipse and we are in the “zone of totality”—it’s amazing how that phrase took off—I check the weather. I’ve been checking the weather the last few days, slightly obsessively. It would be just like Muncie to be cloudy enough to obscure this rare astronomical event. Right now it looks like 50-50 chance of sun. At the moment, around 7:30, it’s completely clear with bright blue sky.
The day feels odd—like a holiday, even though it’s not.
I turn on tv news for a few but there’s nothing too exciting or interesting. I switch to reading, in preparation for tomorrow’s class. Around 8:30 I make a second cup of tea. It’s beautiful out, so I decide to walk around block before further reading. A clear blue sky, mid-50s temp. Will the clear sky hold? Friend from CA texts with hokey eclipse joke as I walk.
I return—this time I’ve let me tea steep for far longer than necessary. So one weak, one strong, balancing out.
I move up to my office space above the garage, and continue to read for tomorrow’s class. I settle in to read for about 90 minutes, alternating with a few emails between each chapter. I have read the book before but it’s been a few years so it’s like reading from scratch. It’s a good book, so I don’t mind. Around 11, I spend 30 minutes on phone with C about class plans. I scan an article looking for data to share in class tomorrow. Then I spend another ten minutes on the phone with H about work stuff. I am back to my inbox, mostly clearing junk but answering a couple of messages.
At 11:55 it’s time to get a run in before the big events begin.
After changing and drinking some water, I start out on my standard 3-mile neighborhood loop. I realize I didn’t do my customary pre-run stretching and feel a little stiff. As I go, I notice a few driveways filling up with people getting ready to watch the eclipse. A few out-of-state license plates. One person is setting up a telescope out. I loosen up and the exercise feels good. My mind wanders, as it usually does when I run, in a way that it doesn’t when I do other kinds of exercise.
I sit for a couple of minutes, shower, shave, make some tuna salad, and eat a sandwich. B returns from a quick run to the store, with some beer and wine. I check the sky. Looks like it’s getting hazy at 1:45 but not heavy clouds. We should see the sun okay.
Around 2, we gather out front. B and I set up table and chairs. L, a neighbor, stops by and chats. We keep checking out the sun as moon creeps across. Several groups of neighbors on our street are out. There’s a pleasant, holiday atmosphere. After a while I pour a beer. Going all in on the holiday concept.
The experience of the eclipse is incredibly cool. We can see the moon creep across the sun (with our special, protective glasses) and gradually the light gets eerie. The totality is incredible. It gets quite dark (our light-sensitive front-walk lights go on). There are lots of oohs and aahs. I try to take a picture, but I don’t have the right settings/lens on my iPhone so it’s not very good.
As light returns, we walk across the street and visit neighbors. A couple of family members from Michigan are in town for the event. An awkward conversation ensues with one of them, an elderly former music teacher who taught locally during the 1960s. She reminisces about teaching and then suddenly, randomly, she begins talking about how even Black students liked her. They had natural rhythm, she adds, as if this made their amity toward her more impressive (I think that was her point. It was a little unclear). Our neighbor intervenes, using humor to tell her that the observation is not appropriate. (He seems embarrassed.) He then tells steers the conversation to another topic. A strange, casual racism interlude.
After a bit more chatting, we return to front yard, I finish my beer (#2), and we watch sun return. It’s now the instant-communication phase of the event, as we text photos to friends and family and share impressions. A little after 4, we move the lawn furniture back. It feels a little strange: it’s too late to do much work but too soon to fix dinner. All through the day, there’s a feeling that our normal schedule/rhythm is off. It’s not unpleasant—it’s fun in fact—but it’s odd, too. B goes back to visit neighbors, I sit on back patio to read, and to catch-up on this diary. I feel a little tired—I’m not used to having beer in the afternoon. To wake myself up, I get up and fix a light in front of the house that is off kilter. J texts about getting a drink, but not tonight—I’ve had my fill.
B returns. I finish reading, head in, planning to make some veggie tacos. We confer about dinner, decide to order pizza instead of making tacos as proposed. I guess tomorrow will be taco Tuesday.
I order pizza online, read for a few then head out to get it. It’s a take-and-bake style pizza, so I bring it home and heat it up. We eat in the family room. We’re not much for formal sit down dinners these days.
B puts on The Voice, I settle on the couch in the living room and do a little prep for tomorrow’s class. I have time to do the prep in the morning but since I have a little time I do it now, and figure I can use the morning for other tasks.
Back to the family room around 9:10, as the NCAA men’s basketball final begins. This is part two of Indiana’s exciting day: first a total eclipse through the middle of the state and now Purdue is in the final. It becomes clear pretty quickly that UConn is a little better team. Purdue hangs around but by the end of the first half UConn is creeping ahead and the game grows less compelling as UConn asserts itself.
Nevertheless, I watch till the end. To bed around 11:30, read a few pages of a novel and drift off.