Pleasant Hill was in the path of totality for this year’s total solar eclipse. So I’ve been looking forward to this since the partial solar eclipse we had in 2017. The timing of that was was such that we were having Open House at my school for the start of the school year the next day. 7 years seemed like a long wait. Man, where did the time go?

Last year, I bought 50 eclipse glasses for my students and was able to give some out to the seniors I had in class before they graduated. Then a few months ago, I attended a Zoom meeting for science teachers about the eclipse. And thanks to that, I wound up ordering 50 eclipse cards (instead of glasses that you put on, it’s just a card you hold in front of your face when you want to look). So I was well stocked.

I’ve had them out on my demo table all week and kids and staff were taking some. And someone else (the ESC, I think) wound up donating enough glasses so every kid and their parents could have some. I still gave more away as kids wanted aunts & uncles and grand parents to be covered. However, I still had several left over, which I shared with anyone that I could.

My friends, Judi and Elsa, live up in Michigan and were in the 98% coverage area. I made sure they had glasses, too. And then Elsa had the bright idea to book a room in a hotel in Lima so that they could be in totality. I was thrilled for them, but didn’t want to join them to watch in Lima. I REALLY wanted to see the eclipse from my back yard. However, I drove up to Lima yesterday and met up with them for supper at The Met.

I found there was a park connected to a bike path that wasn’t too far from their hotel, so my plan was to go there, walk around the pond/lake/whatever and walk a bit of the bike path. The weather was lovely (a little chilly, but I had a jacket) and the park was nice. The bike path was fun since it dipped into underpasses to cross the roads. I was there not quite an hour before I returned to my car. About the time I had gotten to the park, the girls had gotten to the hotel. They told me their room number and I headed their way.

Before the trip, we’d looked at a couple of places to try eating and we settled on The Met, which is in downtown Lima. I had braced myself to call ahead and they said they weren’t taking reservations, but there were plenty of seats. So we had supper there. I had a Korean barbecue chicken sandwich and fries. And for dessert, I had crème brûlée. I was happy with my meal and really happy with my dessert. Oh, and they had a cider on tap from Marysville, OH. It was bright green and tasty.

My drives to and from Lima were fine. Mom had been worried about there being too much traffic due to the eclipse, but that was saved till today, apparently. I was only a little late getting Linus his evening pills, so all in all, a good day.

Today was the special day. Today was the day for the Eclipse. We had the day off school because of traffic concerns (probably wise in retrospect). I slept in, goofed off in my loungies, had a nice slow morning. I finally headed out around 11am to get a LabQuest and temperature probe from the school. Back in 2017, I graphed the change in temperature during the partial eclipse as part of a citizen science initiative. I decided to gather data again this year. I set it up on my recycle bin in the shade and started recording the temperature every 30 seconds.

I headed back to the school to check out the Total Eclipse at the Park. There weren’t a lot of folks, but I did get to fist bump the woman who came up with the theme and shirt. (The front had Total Eclipse at the Park and the back had Turn Around along with a silhouette of the monument. Brilliant. I wore it yesterday and today.)

I had a nice chat with her, Mary (Kinney) Vannus, and a few others. The time flew and soon I needed to think about getting back home in time for some lunch & an eclipse. Oh, but first, a walk by the Exchange to see what all was going on there. It was a lot busier than the park and they had some food trucks. But I didn’t want to wait in line so I headed on home.

While the eclipse started, I made my lunch and kept checking on the shrinking sun. Then I sat out on my glider and turned around to look at the sun and the progress of the eclipse. It’s amazing how light it is out even when so much of the sun is covered. But when totality hit, it was dark enough to see Venus. (Supposedly Jupiter was above the sun, but I didn’t see it myself). And the corona surrounding an empty space where the sun once was. Wow – so cool. The birds were a little quieter during the event. But I definitely understood what the astrophysicist in charge of the Zoom meeting meant when he said (his first words in the meeting) “A total solar eclipse is an emotional experience.” Damn straight.

Although I was alone in my backyard, I was in two group texts. Mom, Dad, Amy, and Madeleine (Troy & Yellow Springs) and Elsa & Judi (Lima). So I wasn’t really alone during the experience. That was pretty damned nifty. Also, my next door neighbors and their kids were out. The dad kept telling the littlest to be sure to look through the eclipse glasses. When the corona appeared, I called out to them that it was safe for the kids to look without the glasses. I think the little were pretty impressed. I know us adults were. 🙂

I left the LabQuest to record more temps (actually almost forgot about it) and the temp took a dive during the eclipse. Most of us thought it felt cooler as totality came and went. I’ve updated this post to now include the graph. The temperature changes were different – partial eclipse around 1.5°C versus the total eclipse at 3.2°C. Literal cool beans! 😉

tldr: Total Eclipse, absolutely amazing. It was an emotional experience. 🙂