Just because…

This was my eclipse view:

Not entirely. One of my neighbors had an extra pair of glasses and generously shared them, so three of us stood in her driveway and alternated looking at the sky with looking at the pavement, along with that weird, slanty light that eclipses bring on.

It was a lovely afternoon.

Posted at 8:07 pm in Same ol' same ol' |
 

42 responses to “Just because…”

  1. Mark P. said on August 21, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    Here in Rome, Ga, we were at about 98 percent. The most interesting part of our eclipse was the same thing you photographed, the crescents within the shadows of the trees. We made a cardboard viewer out of a fairly large cardboard box. It gave us a decent image, but it looks like its true destiny is as a cat hiding place.

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  2. Suzanne said on August 21, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    I had my eclipse glasses. It was pretty cool although not as dark as I expected.

    Watching Trump talk about Afghanistan. Painful to listen. He’s breathing very shallowly and is obviously struggling to stay on task, reading the TelePrompTer. Weird how he breathes very shallowly at times like these.
    Of course, he’s talking about himself & how he has studied the situation extensively and he will be able to solve the problem.

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  3. Suzanne said on August 21, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    OMG. He just called the terrorists “losers.”

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  4. Deborah said on August 21, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    I was watching Rachel and Trump started his talk on Afghanistan and I lost it when he started to brag about how HE called for a thorough investigation of Afghanistan and how much HE studied the situation etc, I had to turn it off before I vomited.

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  5. Suzanne said on August 21, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    I am drinking or I would have barfed.

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  6. Charlotte said on August 21, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    Hey Nancy — planning to start swimming again as my teaching gig comes with access to a pool — need goggles recommendations. Looked at Amazon today and there are a zillion of them — have one you like?

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  7. Little Bird said on August 21, 2017 at 10:06 pm

    I was in the next room when Deborah was listening to The idiot speak. Even I was commenting about his unlikely studying from a room away.

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  8. jcburns said on August 21, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    Here’s our best picture, which I think I’ve Instagrammed, blogged, and Sammy blogged.

    And although interest in the eclipse I’m sure has dropped to zero, five minutes ago I came across a hefty and quite beautiful post about it which not only talks about the math, but the history behind the math. And turns out Steven Wolfram (the author of selfsame post) also put up a great calculator site that would have given me in breathtaking detail how much our totality would last–did last–out there in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Cornelia. One minute, nineteen seconds. Yep.

    Math, wow.

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  9. Sherri said on August 21, 2017 at 11:29 pm

    Thanks for that link, JC!

    Two tweets about the eclipse that I thought were unfortunately apt:

    https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/899709102460456961

    https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/899691644047556608

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  10. Dexter said on August 22, 2017 at 2:11 am

    All staff poured out onto the lawn at The Bryan Times, glasses on. Hillbillies and local Trumpite Johnny Reb flag wavers were prone in truck beds staring at the sun. The local Carnegie library property was asses to elbows as people needed to share the event communally. I looked for what my little grandson called “little eclipses” of filtered images on tree leaves which were prevalent during the last partial event about 20 years ago…guess the angle was wrong this time…I viewed the image for a second through double-reflected sunglasses like we get after eye exams. Trump came out on a balcony and stared straight into the sun bare-eyed , and then an aide rushed him with viewers.

    The Secret Service is broke as whiskey-dick…TrumpTribe has done it, the goddam sonsabitches. And now, Trump, great critic of Iraq-Afghanistan incursions & invasions, has taken ownership of it all and is ordering thousands of USA military personnel into Afghanistan . To paraphrase ret. general Barry from msnbc, all we can hope for is Taliban soldiers get tired and go away. Isis? Whatchagonnado? Helifino.

    Goin’ car shopping today…going to buy a gold-plated Mercedes, to be picked up Thursday…the day after the $650,000,000 Powerball winner I have. 🙂

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  11. Deborah said on August 22, 2017 at 2:43 am

    Trump has been itching for military conflict for months. He’s gotta do something to raise his approvals. He also seems to be asking for terror activity in the US. Well, I mean non-white terror activity. He’s looking for his Bush with a megaphone moment. What an ass.

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  12. nancy said on August 22, 2017 at 9:11 am

    Charlotte, advising you on what goggles to buy is like advising you on what bra to buy — I can’t possibly do so without knowing the shape of your face and head and what your tolerance for pressure is around your eye socket.

    Besides, aren’t you the one who sinks?

    The best advice I can give you is to find a place that sells swimming gear, go to the goggles section and start pressing them to your face to the best of your ability given the packaging. There are two basic choices — inside or outside the eye socket. Inside goggles are smaller and some people find them uncomfortable. Outside ones have a wider variety going from slightly-larger-than-the-inside-kind to almost like scuba masks. Speedo.com has a wide selection.

    I broke my favorite pair and wore my tighter inside-socket ones for a few days and found them nearly intolerable, so I bought a pair of outside-socket and never could get the adjustment right. They leaked, which is maddening. I went back to the inside-socket kind and found I could tolerate them just fine. It was a matter of getting used to it, I suppose.

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  13. Charlotte said on August 22, 2017 at 9:29 am

    I do sink! but I also had YEARS of swimming lessons at camp, and then lifesaving in high school — so I have a pretty decent stroke. The U of Utah has a beautiful pool up on the benches and in grad school I discovered shorty swim fins, which I loved because not only do I sink, but I have tiny feet. With fins, I could swim like a pretty decent swimmer … so that’s the plan. I’ll find out who sells real swim stuff here in town and go try out a few pairs of goggles. The fitness center is right on the way back to the far lot where I got a parking pass so my plan is to teach 3 classes, swim and drive home …

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  14. Julie Robinson said on August 22, 2017 at 9:56 am

    Charlotte, I agree with Nancy about trying on goggles, so you have to find a store that doesn’t have them all packaged up, will let you take the packages apart, or let you return the ones that don’t fit. My other recommendation is to not fall in love with pricey ones, because time and chlorine means they don’t last very long, no matter how carefully you wash and rinse them. Ditto with suits and caps. This teaching gig is sounding better and better!

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  15. Peter said on August 22, 2017 at 9:59 am

    Charlotte, I had Barracuda and Speedo tiny goggles and I always had some problem with them. A guy at the pool gave me a pair of $10.00 goggles that look like something a six year old would wear – I feel like the old folks who have those whopper wrap around sun glasses – but boy, they go on easy and NOTHING gets in.

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  16. Charlotte said on August 22, 2017 at 10:14 am

    Julie — I think it’ll be a good gig. With the house paid off, this will cover my basic expenses, and get us both health insurance (thank you Union of Non-Tenured Faculty). I’ll still need to pick up freelance gigs, but at least I don’t have to try to survive on them …

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  17. Jolene said on August 22, 2017 at 10:19 am

    Though it’s certainly true that Trump is an ass, I don’t think it’s accurate to say that he is itching for military conflicts, at least not in Afghanistan. The accounts I’ve read indicate that he has caved to the pressures of his military advisors , who argued, as generals are wont to do, for more troops.

    Who knows what the right answer is? We have done so much wrong since 9/11 that it’s hard to see what can possibly be done to make things right.

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  18. Jolene said on August 22, 2017 at 10:22 am

    I’m impressed that, as a non-tenure track employee, you were able to get health insurance, Charlotte. In most institutions, adjuncts and other instructors barely get paid, and benefits are an impossible dream. That union is a thing to be admired, indeed.

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  19. Julie Robinson said on August 22, 2017 at 10:22 am

    Yay for Unions! My Republican mother is sitting pretty in retirement thanks to her city union, who included the library in with police and fire negotiations. She has a generous pension as well as Medicare supplemental insurance that leaves her with no doctor or lab bills, and just a few small Rx copays. I doubt that current retirees get this sweet of a deal, but she’s about the only widow I know who doesn’t worry about money.

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  20. Jolene said on August 22, 2017 at 11:00 am

    Here’s a cool story about watching the eclipse from a plane. It’s a local news story, so there’s some on-air banter, but still interesting and fun. Toward the end, the reporter describes how the pilot maneuvered the plane to stay in the path of the eclipse as long as possible.

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  21. Sherri said on August 22, 2017 at 11:21 am

    Alaska Airlines flew an invitation-only chartered flight for the eclipse: http://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/alaska-airlines-flight-offers-dramatic-view-of-solar-eclipse/

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  22. Sherri said on August 22, 2017 at 11:33 am

    Despite what the article says, the eclipse didn’t cause high tides. The moon would have caused those tides because of its position relative to the earth regardless of whether it also happened to be in position to block the sun.

    http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/oops-after-accidental-release-of-atlantic-salmon-fisherman-being-told-catch-as-many-as-you-want/

    For more background on the issues surrounding farmed Atlantic salmon in an area where wild Pacific salmon is an industry: http://crosscut.com/2016/08/salmon-farming-on-the-rise-in-washington/

    (Wild Pacific salmon tastes much better.)

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  23. Sherri said on August 22, 2017 at 11:35 am

    That second link should have been: http://crosscut.com/2016/08/salmon-farming-on-the-rise-in-washington/

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  24. Suzanne said on August 22, 2017 at 11:45 am

    As someone somewhere pointed out:
    When it’s the war in Afghanistan, after 16 years and no progress, the GOP says pour more money and more people into it and stay there until we have verifiable progress, no matter how long it takes.
    When it’s the war on poverty, doesn’t matter how many years we’ve been at it, they say it’s been long enough, and things aren’t improving, we can’t verify progress (people not starving to death would be enough, I’d think, but what do I know), so let’s wind things down, quit pouring money in, and call it a day.

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  25. Jolene said on August 22, 2017 at 12:12 pm

    David Fahrenthold, who won a Pulitzer for his gumshoe reporting about Trump’s sleazy foundation prior to the election, is continuing to monitor his business activities. Here’s a photo that shows how his intemperate remarks regarding the violence in Charlottesville have affected bookings for charity galas at Mar-a-Lago. There’s a separate list for other events–lunches, lectures, and such.

    As we’ve seen, these cancellations are only part of the backlash Trump has suffered. Here, James Hohmann talks more generally about how he is alienating the elites his businesses depend on and whose approval he yearns for.

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  26. brian stouder said on August 22, 2017 at 12:23 pm

    Today’s reason to sigh – and/or chuckle darkly:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/08/22/trump-planning-arpaio-pardon-ex-sheriff-says-ll-see-what-happens.html

    The part that caused me to chuckle darkly:

    “We’ve been fighting this and appealing this, but no one will really look at our defense,” Arpaio said, claiming that he did not use “racial profiling” but used race as a “criteria.” He complained he wasn’t given a jury trial.

    “Of course, if I had a jury, I never would have been convicted,” he said.

    Because – you know – a jury of HIS peers would understand the difference between ‘racial profiling’ and ‘using race as a criteria’, amiright?

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  27. Jolene said on August 22, 2017 at 12:33 pm

    Also, isn’t the choice of whether to have a jury up to the defendant? Is there something Arpaio’s case that would have precluded having a jury?

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  28. Peter said on August 22, 2017 at 12:58 pm

    The best part about Crazy Joe Arpaio is that if he’s pardoned, that will be an admission of guilt, and he’s still insisting that he’s not guilty.

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  29. Deborah said on August 22, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    Trump is speaking tonight in a building my husband designed. That’s kind of weird for him, he said. In the lobby of the Phoenix Convention center there is a giant sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, it’s a giant mirror. Trump will love it because he enjoys looking at himself, but not the message on it. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6wcUW7PCqLU/SaDCwiXqIZI/AAAAAAAAArY/UzRetp6uXmA/s1600-h/Convention+Center+Art+mirror.JPG

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  30. brian stouder said on August 22, 2017 at 3:15 pm

    Looks like a beautiful, airy space.

    And, they’ll filter out anyone who would be less-than-completely-smitten with the urine-POTUS, so there’s that

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  31. Dexter said on August 22, 2017 at 4:46 pm

    My daddy taught me to dog-paddle when I was a tiny tot. I learned more strokes by observation and peer criticism & advice. A guy in Vietnam who had been trained to swim by intramural coaches at Ohio State perfected my technique as we had plenty of ocean beach time …so I am a competent swimmer. I never liked goggles or fins as I sought out bodies of water to conquer…I still need to swim L. Ontario to complete the Great Lakes grouping. Of course I swam The Great Salt Lake. What a trip…pretty hard to sink in that lake. Problem: no showers open… I had to drive 200 miles caked in salt and book a motel room looking like a ghost…the deadpan hotel lady never cracked a smile or said a word. God bless her. I looked terrible.

    Trump is inspecting progress on his wall today? SHIT SHOW THEATRICS! 🙁

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  32. Deborah said on August 22, 2017 at 6:14 pm

    Ed of Gin and Tacos has another good piece out on another venue, it’s so satisfying to watch how he is expanding his audience http://theweek.com/articles/719293/making-progress-race-doesnt-mean-weve-solved-racism.

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  33. Andrea said on August 22, 2017 at 6:46 pm

    Has this been canvassed here — the 8 page memo detailing Rep. Rokita’s needs?
    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/18/todd-rokita-boss-aides-staff-instructions-241709

    such a princess!

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  34. Deborah said on August 22, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    Right wing hypocrisy yet again http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/22/opinions/linton-hypocrisy-by-gop-filipovic-opinion/index.html

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  35. Hattie said on August 22, 2017 at 7:05 pm

    My son in law went to Eastern Oregon and saw the total eclipse. He said it was completely worth it. Can’t wait to see his photos and vids.

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  36. Deborah said on August 22, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    Scout, are you there?

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  37. Julie Robinson said on August 22, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    Andrea, the article re Rokita was in our paper a couple of days back and I enjoyed reading it out loud, with appropriate inflections, to my husband. In a just world he would be defeated and have to serve as personal assistant to Louise “I sacrifice more than other taxpayers” Linton Mnuchin.

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  38. Sherri said on August 22, 2017 at 8:13 pm

    Basset, I haven’t gotten around to writing a synopsis of Weapons of Math Destruction, but author Cathy O’Neill has a TED talk now available.

    https://www.ted.com/talks/cathy_o_neil_the_era_of_blind_faith_in_big_data_must_end/up-next

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  39. Deborah said on August 22, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    I do not understand how Trump supporters like Joe can stand behind people like Mnachin and his “let them eat cake wife” and all the rest. And now Trumps’s going to extend the Afghanistan war into perpetuity. What the heck Joe?

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  40. Deborah said on August 22, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    105 in Phoenix right now, yowza!

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  41. Bitter Scribe said on August 22, 2017 at 9:42 pm

    The eclipse was a big bunch of nothing for me. It was cloudy in Chicago, I was in a business lunch and all I could see out the window was a dark sky getting darker.

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  42. Suzanne said on August 22, 2017 at 10:05 pm

    Insight into Trump supporters.
    I had a hair appointment and as I was waiting, I hear my hairdresser & her client discussing the Charlottesville mess. Those people, you know, were just there to protect that statue, not trying to start trouble. “They” are trying to wipe out our history, blah, blah. I am fairly certain neither one of those women could date the civil war within 50 years, but on they went. Then the hairdresser said that “they” won’t stop there. They will go after our Bibles next. “They” are already destroying statues of the Virgin Mary (whaaaat???) Then I hear that we just need to get more morality in the country or nothing will change (this from the hairdresser who has been married at least twice and spends her weekends at the lake on the sandbar-Lake James for you Hoosiers-partying & posting pictures of it on Facebook.)
    Now it’s my turn for a haircut. During the chit chat, I mention that airports are getting much better at putting in charging stations for phones and other electronic devices. Oh, no! says the hairdresser. You shouldn’t do that because “they” put in those power stations so “they” can get into your phone & get information.
    Then I listen to the radio on the way home and hear some woman in Phoenix waxing eloquent about how humble and wonderful Trump is because he gave up his wealthy life to serve the little people like her.
    We are doomed, people, doomed.

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