I was kind of excited to see the eclipse today! I’d been too scared to look at the one in 2017–the news made it sound like we would go blind instantly if we so much as opened our eyes outdoors–so I chose not to. But then several people were talking about how amazing it was and I wished I’d seen it. So, I decided I was for sure going to watch it today. Especially since we live very close to the totality path.
At around midnight last night, it occurred to me that I never got glasses so that I could look at it! Jerry had taken today off work (not for the eclipse, but it happened to work out that way) so he went out this morning on a mission to get glasses. Everywhere he went said they sold out weeks ago. He finally found some at a 7-11 about 35 minutes away, and they only had a few pairs they set aside in the back.
I debated driving to Luna Pier (or even riding my bike), which is a small nearby town–and the only place in Michigan that was in the totality path. However, Noah came over and said the traffic was INSANE everywhere. The line to get on the expressway was backed up for miles! So I figured I’d be happy with the 99.98% totality and avoid the traffic 😉
It was supposed to happen at about 3:12 pm, so we headed outside about 20 minutes beforehand. Jerry brought out his welding helmet from work and that actually worked much better than the cardboard glasses. We passed it back and forth, waiting for something exciting to happen, but I have to say, the eclipse was very underwhelming.
I found it more interesting to just look around us because the atmosphere seemed really eerie. It reminded me of the moments leading up to a tornado–where it looks like you’re looking through a filter or something. And then it was jarring that the temperature dropped a LOT and it got super dark outside within minutes. I hadn’t thought about the temperature dropping like that, but it makes sense when the sun is hidden!
While the whole thing didn’t exactly live up to the hype, we had a good laugh–Jerry was trying to get selfies of us but we couldn’t see anything with the helmet/glasses, so the pictures were all over the place.
Eli’s baseball games have started and he plays 38 games(!) this season (two months). That is a LOT of baseball. I have to get ready to go to a game right now, but I’ve been working on some fun projects lately so I’ll post pictures of those tomorrow. (Hold me to that!)
