flightless hag

A chronicle of the adventures of birdwoman: a lonely, talentless freak who wanders the internet in search of entertainment.

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Location: Philly

I'm a 40-something married white female, survivor of weight watchers, avid reader of pulp. Dogs (not cats), extreme right (handed, not politics), ENTJ, alto, wanna-be knitter.

August 25, 2017

See You On The Dark Side of the Moon!

Eclipse 2017. The Great American Eclipse. Where... were... you????


Well, about a year ago, I read in one of my nerd magazines that there was going to be a total eclipse coming to a continent real near me in the coming year. I pointed it out to my dear dirty bird. We looked at each other... minds once again in synch...

LET'S PLAN A NERDCATION!!

Now, dear reader, if you don't know, both of us are kind of a little nerdish. Um, maybe more than a little. We were PSYCHED. We'd both seen the mostly almost full eclipse back in 92 (93?) but never a full one. We mapped the closest places and he booked a really cool cabin on a fantastically cool lake.

One day of eclipse chasing, one day of water skiing.

But it came close to the nerdcation, I was more than a little embarrassed. We were going to drive 10 hours down to the middle of freaking Tennessee just to see an eclipse. Yeah, we purchased glasses (a year ago from a reputable nerd outlet). But really. We could have seen 80% from home. And we were going to turn around 48 hours later and drive home? Really?

I mean, the lake was nice, but isn't Harvey Pond just as nice?

So, I didn't really tell many people. I was ashamed of the level of my nerdocity.

Let me tell you, there are a heckalotta nerds out there!

First, the roads down to TN were JAMMED. Completely, utterly jammed. Then, when we were just trying to get back to our cabin from the town where we watched it? That 1.5 hour trip took 4.5 hours. Yikes.

Now, we were eating our lunch the day of the eclipse (at Buddy's BarBQ) and one of the staff told us that we'd best get out there and start looking because it was happening.

So, we went out. We stood in the parking lot of the Hobby Lobby and watched for 45 minutes as it got windier and darker and OH MY GOSH it was so cool! We weren't alone, but there weren't a whole lot of ppl in our particular strip mall - maybe 50 or so.

We missed the eclipse party. It was, I kid you not, across the street in the parking lot of the Walmart. There were people camping there. One was playing weird music and had signs welcoming the aliens - not so far out of scope, as apparently it is very rare for a planet to have a satellite that appears to be the same exact size as its sun... solar eclipses would be a very rare thing in the galaxy and would be a definite tourist stop for star-traveling aliens. A few were passing a funny cigarette, as Moth pointed out. It was a time of coming together in the Athens Walmart.

And then we had to turn around and come home. It was a good nerdcation, but I am glad to be home!

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