Solar Eclipse & a decision

It does not get much more exciting in fly-over country than being in the path of a solar eclipse. Make that in the path of a total solar eclipse. We have to take what we can get in the heartland and oh, did we take being in the path of the eclipse- the totality of the eclipse on Monday, April 8th. The last total solar eclipse in Ohio was in 1806 and one won’t pass again in Ohio until 2099. Not all of Ohio was in the totality path; our town was just inside the line. Being on the outskirts of the line (though still within it) meant that the total eclipse didn’t last as long as it did for those areas in the middle of the path line. 

The solar eclipse was a big news event for weeks prior to the big day. School districts, including ours, began taking April 8th off of the school schedule a few weeks ago. {I think they used a calamity day.}  Some businesses closed for a couple hours near the time that the eclipse was going to be in effect so that employees could view the eclipse. Some businesses took advantage and tried to parlay the eclipse into business. Can’t fault them for that!

Not sure how many caramel apple businesses are in the path of the totality; perhaps our town’s caramel apple business was the only one in the country offering a class to make a solar eclipse caramel apple!

The town of Riverside, near Wright Patterson Air Force Base, declared a week long state of emergency due to increased traffic near the base. 

I mentioned in my last post that my aunt from Michigan had called to see if she could come to visit us so that she could see the eclipse. She arrived on Sunday so that she would be at our house in time to see it. Donnie decided to work at home on Monday to avoid possible traffic disruptions. Alyssa was excited to have the day off of school... 

The day was a beautiful one- a threat of cloudy skies threatened to obscure the very unique solar event but the day ended up being sunny and not very cloudy at all. The eclipse was going to be visible to us around 2:00 pm and the total eclipse would be visible around 3:13. We headed outside a little after 2:00. 

These two also decided they would make a decision about where to go to college today. Pre-eclipse, they hadn't decided. Was it going to take the moon passing in front of the sun to make a decision? Apparently so.

As for me, it was the first time that I had been outside since Easter Sunday when I hobbled into the house after arriving home from surgery. I was still a’  hobblin’ but had much less drugs/less shock on Monday than on Easter Sunday...

At 2:22

You can’t really tell here but the sky had started to darken. This was at 3:04.

Some of our neighbor friends converged on our driveway in deference to my mobility challenges. 

At 3:07, we noticed that the street lamps had turned on. It started to get noticeably darker and cooler.

At 3:08

At 3:09

At 3:10

At 3:13, we all started cheering when we saw, well, didn’t see, the sun when we gazed at it. It was amazing! 

Abby sent me this picture that she took at school. She had class right in the middle of the eclipse. Her professor had told the students that he would let them during the eclipse to watch it. She took this photo. I think it is interesting because it looks like it was darker there than it was here. “Her” eclipse lasted longer than ours did because her location was closer to the center of the path.

Every location within the yellow lines was in the path of totality. However, the closer your location was to the middle, the longer the eclipse was visible. We are located between south of Dayton and north of Cincinnati. We barely made it in the yellow; I am sure glad that we did!

Alyssa and her best friend Avery spent a good part of the day together and decided that they are going to attend Ohio State University. The decision was a good capstone to a historic day!