What I'm Reading This Week #34
Hello you sassy beast! Ready for another flip flappin' fantastic weekend? Yes indeedy, Ally Sheedy. It's been a week of working ahead for me as I try to work on ideas for holiday posts. I know, no one is ready for Christmas but spit balling stuff is actually getting me excited for the season. I like to try to give myself the month of December off from writing new posts (except updating weekly happenings) so all I have to do is respond if needed. It lets me take a little mental break during the holidays to try to enjoy what I can then hop back into the new year hopefully rested and ready to roll. We did book our 30th anniversary trip, which is the same one we had to cancel this year and of course got travel insurance. It's just nice to have something to hopefully look forward to and it makes you go "where the heck did 4 1/2 years go?" because it seems like just yesterday we were celebrating our 25th. Do people even celebrate their 30t...
I had high hopes for my little "eclipse viewer" but local weather had other plans. I was at work and a co-worker asked me if I was going out to see the eclipse when the time came. I said yes and showed him my paper viewer and he proceeded to take out a small welding mask he brought to work with him. In the back of my mind I thought, well I'd better make sure I can find him when the time comes...
ReplyDeleteSure enough, thanks to the weather being cloudy my paper viewer just wasn't getting enough direct light to work, as you can see in the picture above. Actually I was impressed by the Mrs. Picture because I couldn't even get mine to look THAT good. So I invoked plan B and looked for my co-worker who was just walking out with his welding mask.
Sure enough, that welding mask was so dark that you could see the eclipse perfectly without any eye damage. I was able to look through it several times during the height of the event and he was kind enough to share it with other people who were coming up to us and asking if they could look. It was a shame so many of us were unable to get eclipse glasses. I even actively tried buying some 3 weeks or more ago and even then they were sold out. So I'm thankful I got the chance to see it but I do wish I could have shared that moment with the Mrs. It was pretty cool and I love stuff like that. I'm also glad that a lot of the people at my work got to experience it with that welding mask because I know it's something they'll remember well. So in 2024 I'm going to be ready with my own welding mask!
It was pretty cloudy here too so my plans for paper plate viewing didn't pan out. What am I going to do with all those plates now? The school managed to get some eclipse glasses, I assume they are the approved ones. I hope. And I borrowed a pair and stepped outside to check it out. I only had a short time between classes but it was at maximum so that was pretty cool. My son's class spent time outside too and he was really excited by it. They had glasses, but I kind of wish they had done the paper thing - I have similar memories of doing that to your Mr's.
ReplyDeleteI gotta say, I was with the Mr. on this one. For some reason I was really excited to know it was happening, even though I knew I wouldn't be able to see much with the clouds. I did see weird shadows on the deck and made sure I was outside at the time it was planned and it did burst through the clouds a bit. In Carbondale in southern IL at the college is where the main event took place that had the longest lasting viewing which was 2 min, 38 secs, and it looked like it was pitch black out. People were either in the camp of being a nerd (like moi), or meh, didn't really matter either way. We had one when I was a kid and I remember being at school for it, but this one was kind of cool I thought, and a big reason why is with all the crap that's happened in the past few weeks in this country, it was nice to see people coming together for something outside of all the negative, to just focus on some old fashion science. See, total nerd. LOL!
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