I ended up eating lunch on my balcony during the eclipse. I didn’t have eclipse glasses, so I couldn’t gawk up at the sky. My experience was watching my neighborhood transform into a set from “Twilight Zone.”
Shadows were pronounced with a strange thickness along the lawns. The warm blue sky felt covered with curtains rather than clouds. Birds were singing impatiently and squirrels were scampering nervously.
The street that I watch everyday was muted with an unfamiliar shade. My eclipse experience was watching the familiarity of my block transform for twenty minutes.
I didn’t drive over a hundred miles to watch complete darkness. I stayed with what I knew and experienced it in a different light. I kept it simple.
…and just like that, it was over.
I went back inside and turned the light off that I needed when the moon came across the sun. I rinsed my plate and started a load of laundry. Something I should have done yesterday when it was dreary and rainy.
My historian grandchildren and great grandchildren will be left with a boring story. Grampa ate a salad and did his laundry during the Great Eclipse in 2024.
The Eclipse didn’t bring a trophy to West Lafayette, Indiana and the White Sox lost to the Cleveland Indians. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with a baseball team that is one and nine.
I guess I’ll take Brian Wilson’s advice and be true to my school.
