Total Eclipse!

You guys. I saw a total eclipse in my backyard. And it was EPIC.

I had been so excited about the eclipse. I bought the glasses in May. The week before it happened, I had anxiety dreams that I missed it.




That morning for breakfast I made egg-in-the-hole and sausage eclipses. We finished eating just five minutes before first contact, and all rushed out to peer at the tiny beginnings of the moon's bite out of the sun.

For the next hour, we played with cameras and distracted Ivy with play, as the light started to get weaker and stranger, looking up periodically at the progression. We saw Sirius and Venus come out pretty early on, and though the light was super weak the shadows were still super strong. It got chilly.

We set out a sheet for shadow bands, but weren't able to see any. And I didn't catch Baily's Beads either, nor the diamond ring at the very beginning of totality, but then suddenly it was cold and dark and I whipped off my glasses and THERE IT WAS. It was bigger than I expected, mostly because I'd been watching it for an hour through the eclipse glasses. I could hear the neighbors cheering from their backyards. I kept saying things like "that is AMAZING!" because it turns out we overuse words like that and have none left for the rare things that actually are amazing. I actually cried a little bit. Ivy watched too. And then the diamond ring sparkled and we rushed to put our glasses back and I covered Ivy's eyes until it was bright enough (a few seconds later) that I was sure she wouldn't try to look again.

I may have taken one halfhearted photo of totality with my iPhone, knowing full well it wouldn't come out. It was a reflex. Mostly I just sat in awe. And suddenly it was over and the light got stronger and the day got warmer and now I have to wait seven years and travel across the country if I want to see the next one. Which I do. Because that was epic.