The Sun and the Moon at the Sandwich Life
Lord, I'm so tired, but I know if I don't write this now I won't have a chance until next weekend with my crazy week.
Last Friday I started thinking that I really wanted to take today off for the eclipse. I hadn't planned to, as I'm super busy at work. I figured I'd take my little glasses out in the Japan House gardens and make Ernie join me and what the hell. But my sweet Leo happens to love astronomy and weather, etc; and Leo never asks for things. Occasionally he'll look at me with those big brown eyes, but he's just not an asker. I could tell he really wanted to go though...and Owen got excited too. I worked like crazy all weekend...it actually helped to have all three guys gone and on Sunday I texted my colleague and friend Nancy and asked her a work questions, and then said, "I kinda want to take Monday off for the eclipse, but I'm afraid to ask." She texted back and said, "We're all on this text so I guess you just did." Uh, yeah. Turns out it was a text going to Nancy, my boss, and my other colleague. Whoops. As Leo commented later, "how awkward, and yet convenient." So my boss kindly, and laughingly, said to take the day off if I was ok with work. The boys celebrated and I apologized for my ineptitude. Anyway....all of a sudden I had the day off.
My friend V'ron and her family were coming down Sunday night from Milwaukee to stay overnight on their way down for the eclipse. They got here, we ordered a bunch of Papa Del's and the guys and I threw together a plan. We tumbled out of bed this morning and managed to get out of the house not long after 6:00 am. We were tentatively heading toward Murphysboro. Carbondale sounded like too much of an event for me. I wanted it to be a bit quieter. We decided to aim for Murphysboro. We decided to avoid I-57, instead we took I-72 to Decatur and headed US 51. We were going to cut over to a different highway but Google advised against it. We hit traffic here and there but overall it was a pretty good drive.
At one point I got really worried because I thought we were less than an hour out and yet every time I ran Google Maps it was saying over three hours. I was panicking...I was thinking, "HELL, it's like Woodstock, we're going to have to abandon our cars and walk. Eventually I realized I had Google Maps set on bicycle... The guys gave me a LOT of shit for that one. Oh, and at one point I tried to turn down the music with the controls for the A/C and Owen looked at me quizzically and said, "Are you having a stroke?" Geez.
We eventually we made our way into Murphysboro. We drove through downtown and found a couple of possible places to stop, but then I saw a sign for a riverside park, so we headed over there. It was perfect. A gorgeous old park around a lake. People scattered around with chairs or tents but not crowded. It was beautiful and damn perfect. The sky was clear...of course it was hot and steamy. Poor Ernie...the hormones he takes for his cancer make him sweat like crazy so he was a bit miserable but we did ok. Leo and I sat and talked and Owen read his Woody Allen book for homework tucked under a tree. We had various trash snacks, mine were red wine and cheese popcorn. Honestly, the red wine upset my stomach and the cheese popcorn was stale, but the CONCEPT was so good that I was delighted.
We had about an hour until totality (so weird to type those words) and when the light started to change I almost felt weirdly dizzy. The moment of totality, when we could look up at that black circle surrounded by a ring of fire...well, hard to articulate. I know I'm not up to it. The almost unearthly light is impossible for for me to describe. When those orange/red slivers of crescents were replaced by that circle of totality....damn...I did almost want to cry.
I am so grateful. Grateful to the sun, grateful to the moon, grateful to my friends and colleagues, grateful to my boys, and grateful to my husband.