Eclipse Day Diary, 4/8/24
I woke up to buzzing out in the yard. It was the Wasson’s groundskeeping crew starting on the spring cleanup and mulching of my yard. I went out to check on their work. I have some plantings I wanted to make sure they saw and didn’t pull them out thinking they were weeds.
I did my morning exercises and ate a breakfast of oatmeal, fiber wafers, milk, and blueberries. Read part of yesterday’s paper. Clipped obituaries of people I knew to have my staff laminate and send with a handwritten note from me to a family member after the primary. All unsolicited mail stops about a month before the election and resumes afterwards. This is so the state isn’t paying for an incumbent’s mailing in the weeks before an election.
Wasson’s pond maintenance man also came to open my little pond at the end of my deck. Hopefully a couple of goldfish will have survived the winter. I didn’t see any today but since the water is still cold, it make be a few days before they venture out of their hiding place. Since I had to get the summer pond equipment out of the utility room by he deck and it was such a beautiful morning, I put away the winter covers of my air conditioner and deck table and chairs. I need help getting the deck umbrella on the table so that will wait for another day. I also pulled out the three hose caddies and wheeled them to their usual spots near outdoor faucets.
The groundskeeping crew finished at noon. I asked them if they had another job this afternoon. They said no, that they were getting off for the rest of the day for the eclipse. They have their eclipse glasses and are as excited as I am about seeing the eclipse.
I drove to the downtown post office at noon to see if I had any contributions. Friday is the end of the reporting period so I want to report everything that comes in. I thought there might be heavy eclipse traffic but there wasn’t. It was just normal traffic. I did see several people on foot, probably headed for Canan Commons. After picking up the mail (no contributions), I drove around delivering campaign yard signs to a few people. Then I watered my plants in my sunroom. After that, it was time to go over to a friend’s home on Riverside to view the eclipse.
I took a bottle of wine with me (and a yard sign) and my eclipse glasses. My friend had prepared a tasty charcuterie board to go with the wine. We set up a table with an umbrella outside on her patio and got ready to watch the eclipse.
The House Democratic press secretaries asked all of the members to take some photos so I took photos of us eating and wearing our eclipse glasses, including a selfie that turned out pretty good. I texted photos and comments back and forth with my daughters who were also on the path of totality: one in Strongsville. OH at her mother-in-law’s house and the other in Syracuse, NY where she lives. The Syracuse daughter was having Bloody Marys and “Phases of the Eclipse” pizzas with her husband and friends. The group in Strongsville didn’t seem to be eating or drinking anything but maybe they just didn’t talk about it. I had read in the StarPress how to get involved with the eclipse more than just watching ii and signed up at eclipsesoundscapes.org, took the online apprentice training and the quiz at the end. I download my Apprentice Certificate and signed up to take the next step: Observer. During the eclipse, I paid attention to sounds, sights, smells, and tastes so I could report them after the eclipse.
The eclipse was awesome! The time from start to finish sounded like a lot of time but experiencing it and watching the moon move across the sun seemed to go quickly. We felt the breeze pick up and the temperature drop as the eclipse approached and achieved totality. We could hear birds and neighbors but I didn’t noice other sounds. As the eclipse waned, there was a sudden chirping of birds in a nearby bush. I couldn’t tell what kind they were. Afterwards, as I was backing out of the driveway, a friend and his 4-year-old son rode past me on the new Riverside trail so we stopped to chat about the eclipse.
When I got home, my cat greeted me. He had just got up from his napping the house so probably was totally unaware of the eclipse. I filled out my eclipse soundscapes observer report on line and printed my observer certificate. I walked around the yard to look at the landscaping again and planted some herb seeds I had gotten from the Master Gardeners a few months ago. We’ll see if they germinate. I had a late light dinner of leftover Easter ham, a boiled egg, milk and a clementine. Then I watched the beginning of the Purdue/U Con basketball game which was got off to an exciting start. Early on, it looked like Purdue might pull off an upset but as the game wore on, they lost steam and by the end the score was a 15 point spread. I did my set of evening exercises while listening to my audiobook American Buffalo, finished up this diary entry and headed to bed.