Eclipsical

First thing this morning, before 8am, I went to get milk for coffee. Please be proud of me. 

Everyone at Cumberland Farms was super friendly. It was a little much for me, since I was awake for all of 25 seconds. But. I got milk for the coffee. And said a lot of "HI! GOOD MORNING!" to people. 

As you may know, today we had the big Eclipse, the big Totality, the Black Hole sun. 

Initially, I didn't think I'd be in a good spot to see anything while here or at home so my expectations were slim.  But the internet said it would be about 90% totality here. Not like Vermont's totality or anything fantastical. But enough for it to be interesting. I'll take it. 

Molly had given me glasses, so I was prepared. I thought for sure I wouldn't be prepared to see it, but suddenly, there I was. With glasses and no excuses. 

I waited until 2:45 to go outside and look. and the sun was an impressive little cookie with a big bite out of it. 

I had a super hard time with the glasses - they wouldn't stay on my face unless I held them there with both hands.

I remembered Jess had given me a Amythyst Kiah bandana for Toffee, so I grabbed it and put it on to hold things in place. Victory. Okay, Alright. Okay, Alright. 

3:30 was when the eclipse would be at its peak and I initially was going to just sit in mom's yard. I had a good view through to the sun, with no trees covered with leaves. It would be just perfect. 

Then, I thought to myself it would be fun to go to the beach. Hell YEAH the BEACH! 

I threw my shoes on, grabbed the car, and went. When we hit the full eclipse, I didn't detect any extra darkness or temperature drop but it was still super cool. 

On the dock, there was a family with 5 kids, grandma and grampa, mom, dad, another adult... and they were trying like hell to take a selfie. So I walked over and offered to take their picture. I'm that guy. 

I got everyone in the picture smiling, with the glasses on. I then told them to point at the sky with astonishment and they laughed and did it.  One of the little ones put their hands on cheeks and screamed. Everyone laughed. It was a great photo. 

Honest to God, I hope they look back on that in 20 years and just love it.

Someone at my office needed help with something, so I rushed back to assist. I could have spent another half hour there waiting for it to go the other direction but, duty called!

When I got back, mom came out and said "oh the eclipse is over!" and I told her no it wasn't, it was still going on. 

I handed her the glasses and told her to go out on the steps and see for herself. She said no. I told her to shut up and do it. "It'll happen again in 20 years and you will be dead and gone so go look!" 

I thought of the family at the dock, with the grandparents and little kids. I wanted her to see this and be part of the experience. 

She made a face as I forced her to go out and repeatedly berated her. She looked up through the glasses and said "Oh. That's kind of cool."

"Yes, yes it is." She lowered her head, closed her eyes so she wouldn't go blind, and took the glasses off and went inside saying "Are you happy now?"

"Yes. Yes I am." Ha... she went and looked at it. Even though I had to force her. I thought of my dad, and how he'd probably love to see this. I would have taken him to the canal, not just the beach here. And then out for a beer. I bet he'd chuckle at it. I bet he would have just loved to see it. Whereas Sourpuss Shirley did not want to look at all and had to be bullied into doing it and then like it. 

I continued to work, had a great meeting to build a test plan for us to take on this week. We finished up around 6. I went to the drug store for mom, she was out of something and I wanted toenail clippers. So zoomed over to Walgreens to grab the things. I then got gas in the car for her since I've used the car a lot over this week. 

Talked to my friend Rob for about 2 hours, catching up after a long drought of contact. It was a laugh riot. We've been playing phone tag since Christmas so this was good. 

I thought about taking a walk, but it was well after 10pm, and no. Button things up. Go to bed. 

All told, a good day. Here are some pictures. One of the women who was with the big family took these for me. With my Amythyst Kiah bandana holding things in place. 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. No dedicated 10 but a lot of hustlin' round. 5300+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 186
5pm: 155
10:45pm: 161

food:

coffee/water 
10am: 3 egg omelet, wilted greens, goat cheese
12:30: Metformin
5:30pm: left over buffalo chicken fingers+salad
7pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: left over chicken parm sub (not the bread, just the chicken)
white wine+ginger ale