Diary Day
April 9, 2024
This was a splendid day! The news media, friends and family had been discussing the solar eclipse for months with the crescendo arriving today. Everyone had glasses and was aware of when the event would start.
In the morning, it was a routine day for me. I threw in a load of wash and did some minor tasks around the house. But there was excitement in the air!
At 1:00, I went to my church as we had invited people to come to our yard to sit, eat snacks and view the eclipse together. It was fun and about 2:00, I left to go home to see it with my husband. I drove by the Delaware County Fairgrounds and there were cars in line waiting to get into the grounds so they could view it from that site. I also drove through Ball State’s campus. That was definitely another lively site. Students were sitting outside in and around the campus. Some had glasses on and some didn’t. Since the “eclipse” was just starting, it didn’t seem too unusual that they didn’t all wear them, but I hoped they prepared. The BSU Planetarium gave away thousands of glasses, so they were easy to obtain beforehand.
I stopped at my friend’s house for about 10 minutes to see their party and greet her grandchildren who I hadn’t seen in a year. I couldn’t stay long because I knew the sun wouldn’t wait for me and I needed to get home. The weather was warm and beautiful. We had rain on days before and after this one, but we were very fortunate with the weather.
When the time of “totality” came, I think my husband and I were both a little surprised. It was amazing that the air was cooler, and the sounds of nature were still. One thing I didn’t realize would happen until close to the day of the eclipse was the 365 sunset of light that surrounded the horizon. The diamond ring effect of the eclipse was very beautiful, too. The panoramic shot of the sunset ring came out adequately on my phone video, but the pictures I tried to take of the phone with using a sunscreen filter didn’t show anything. My phone may have been too old. I kept thinking how terrifying and amazing ancient people must have felt during one of these experiences. I was also in awe as to how our scientists can predict it all so accurately.
We sat outside until about 4PM and watched as the world lightened up again. Then we went inside and watched news coverage on the local, national and Weather Channel. It was like we couldn’t get enough of it. The follow up photos from around the country were beautiful, too. It was all people could talk about that day and for several days afterwards. I can so how someone could become an “eclipse chaser!”