Monday, June 26, 2017

Eclipse (and a few more things)

As you probably know already, there will be a total eclipse of the sun across the United States on August 21st. When I first saw a map showing the path of totality I got excited because it is only about a three or four hour drive from where I live. But more lately the Scrooge in me has been coming out. I think about the traffic and the crowds because everyone is going to flock to somewhere on this narrow, 70 mile wide, path across the U.S. I picture traffic jams and general chaos. But still, it's the last chance I will ever get to see a total eclipse of the sun.

Then this morning I found this eclipse simulator. You just enter your city or zip code and it shows you what the eclipse will look like where you live. (or for any location) If this is accurate it looks like the sun will be eclipsed about 90% or more here. Technically not total but close enough to make it not really worth it to drive four hours and deal with the crowds.

Oh, and I still have my eclipse shades that I bought for the last partial eclipse we had, so I'm all set.

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I did say, when I switched back to Blogger, that I was likely going to neglect the blog but I still feel a little bad about it when I go a whole week without posting anything and there are things I want to blog about, like a whole bunch of books. Well, maybe four books that I really have to mention sometime. But not today. Why not? I don't know. I just have to be in the right mood. Know what I mean?

I have been fairly active on Twitter lately. I am @uppityokie in case anyone's interested. I mostly retweet stuff but I do occasionally post a complaint or smart-aleck comment or a "wow, cool" or something and sometimes even get into actual little conversations with a couple of people. I'm typically on it on my phone during the commercials while I'm watching TV in the evening and I also check it a few times during the day.

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Forgotten English looks like a fun site but I haven't taken time to really look at it yet.

Finally, enjoy these lovely images by Igor Zenin

1 comment:

  1. I feel the same way about the eclipse. It'll be more partial for me (by a little) than for you, but that's good enough for me. I'll probably use the pinhole technique to view it (unless the person who teaches astronomy sets something up).

    But yeah. I mean, it will be great for the economies of areas in the totality path, but ugh, too many people. (And if I know hotels/restaurants, some of them will have "eclipse specials" that mean jacked-up prices)

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