The weather was a crapshoot, and I didn’t wanna waste my one chance to see Totality.

I wimped out. I’ve missed several through my years, due to work and/or weather, and I damned well wanted to see Totality.

I chose the safe route.  Yeah, I’m a wimp. Fuckit. (I guess the best place forecasted to be was somewhere in Maine, as they had perfectly clear skies…but I didn’t want to fly that far without some serous planning that I didn’t do when I got up that morning…)

I could have gone to Mt Vernon Il, but they said 32% cloud cover.  Partly cloudy. Scattered/broken at 12K….. Bloomington, Indiana  was forecasted 43% same way.  Turns out both areas had pretty clear skies at the time of totality, but I didn’t wanna gamble. If I had gone the 32% would have been in front of the sun….. Murphy loves me, and not for my cooking, if you get my drift.

Ft Wayne, at the edge of the totality (99,8%) was forecasted scattered high clouds, 7% cloud cover. Farther east, it was supposed to be clear for a few miles, then increasing cloud cover. I chose the car so I could move around if Ma Nature chose to mess with me. The 340 is faster, but you can’t (generally) land except at airports. No flexibility (and I could not get a rental car on short notice at KFWA, I tried). I wanted more flexibility. I chose to drive. (Originally, the forecast was for Ft Wayne and east to be clouded up, but like most 3 day forecasts, that changed.)

I headed east. 3 hours of driving, down US 30, but I went past Ft Wayne into the “totality corridor” and started looking for a place to stop. I ended up at a church/school parking lot (the St. Louis Besancon Catholic Church)  and asked at the parish office if It was Ok. The lady said she had no objections, so I set up the car and the camera and began watching. Just whisps of clouds. Gave her a spare pair of those eclipse glasses and she was thrilled.

I was the first, but not the last. there were about 20 cars, some with many kids, others with only one or two people, started pulling into the parking lot. It was never crowded, but there was a lot more than I expected in a rural church parking lot 20 miles east of New Haven Indiana.

Soon enough, something took a small bite out of the sun. The it slid ever more over the disc of the sun, and eventually, Totality occurred. Funny how about 85 % coverage doesn’t seem very dark. I guess our eyes adjust. But then things changed: The color of the sky seemed…different. Almost monochromatic, like a carbon-arc light…It also got cool, as the solar insolation was cut off as the sun was obscured.

Then things happened fast. About the time that streetlights came on, and we heard a rooster start crowing. Then the shadow (very quickly) slipped over the sun and it got kinda dark

Totality IS different than 98%. Quite different. For just over 4 minutes, I had a view of the corona around the edges…the “beads” are kinda cool, too. The crowd, oddly went totally silent after one “OOH!”

All too soon, it was over (where have we heard that before?) but in this case, it suddenly became light again. then at about say, 8-10% of of the sun exposed, it was like any normal day again.  Soon enough, I was packing up and heading home.

Here are some photos, Note: I’m not a photographer, I don’t have a really good camera, I was trying different filters and I really don’t know what I am doing. They were, mostly, taken with a camera on a tripod.

Crappy pictures, But I was there and I took ’em.

You can find better pictures, by professionals with better equipment, all over the web. Yea, most of ’em seem to be what I saw, more or less.

Did I make the right call by not flying south? I dunno. I did get to see a really beautiful phenomenon that I will likely never get a chance to see again. Had I gone south, It might have been different. I believe they had good viewing weather, but my luck fortune doesn’t run that way, generally, so I hedged.

Either way, I’m happy with the choice I made (best call with the data available at the time) and I got to see what I wanted to see.

If you wanted to see it, I hope you did. If not, I hope you have a chance to see it someday. Totality IS different that “almost” totality.

And yes, the difference is HUGE.

Glad I went,  more later tomorrow.

’twas a decent trip.

IF anyone else will allow them in, that is.

Muslim protestors chant ‘death to America, death to Israel’ at rally in Michigan’s Dearborn after city was branded ‘Jihad capital’ of the U.S

But chances are being Syrians  (ok, people even the Syrians don’t want) they won’t have the honor to leave the US that they hate so much because they have such great opportunities and freedoms here that they wouldn’t have elsewhere (like any Muslim country)

We should treat them like the turds they show themselves to be.

So on the one hand, the eclipse in my area will be like 96%. Not totality, but close. But the weather is spozed to be clear and sunny for the time of the eclipse

On the other hand, I could fly to Bloomington In or to MT. Vernon, IL (I have reservations for both) both of which are in the “Zone of totality….but where weather will be cloudy, partly cloudy, Scattered or broken clouds.

I am told by people that the difference between “almost totality” and Totality is HUGE. But some totality in a clear sky may be better than obscured totality.

Do I give up on what is, essentially, my last chance in my lifetime to see a Total Solar Eclipse, or do I take the sure thing at 96%???

At this time I am unsure of which way to go. Any comments or opinions are welcome. If you have experienced Totality, and it is worth pursuing, then please let me know that. Is there really a big difference between 96% and 100%?

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” —

Aldous Huxley

Sp what did Shaun Combs (“Diddy”) do to piss off the Liberals in power?

First they went after him in court, then the raid on his homes,

Now there is an allegation and a suit against his kid,

Not saying there is no merit to the suit, but one has to wonder about the timing. Innit funny that there is all this shit happening all at the same time? Are we supposed to believe that this is all just coincidence?

Kinda like DJT had all that shit come down all at once when he started running for President. Or how all those allegations surfaced just after Bill Cosby spoke out against the Black Lifestyle and Culture….

So what did Diddy do? Did he say something? Piss off the wrong Liberal?

Enquiring minds and all that shit.

To liberals…..

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, of the Supreme Court of the United States, apparently is somewhat ill. She is pushing 70, and liberals fear that she will have to retire during the (apparently now fully presumptive) Trump Presidency..,Leaving an opening that Trup could use to appoint a judge that is not liberal enough for the Democrats…much like what happened last time with Justice Amy Cony Barrett.

Forget that at that level, there should be no “Conservative” nor “Liberal”….there should be only Law. (ideally no judge should ever see anything but Law).  So far we have had a fairly decent court. with the Justices generally taking the Law, the Constitution and plain common sense into their decisions…Even Ruth Bader Ginsberg was, while appointed as a “liberal” ,pretty good at not “Legislating from the Bench”, but rather following that pesky Constitution and Rule of Law.

But now, just to be sure that Joe Biden can nominate a Liberal justice, one that will further the Liberal Agenda that he has pushed so far into our lives, they want Justice Sotomayor to retire. 

I wonder if they will insist that the justice not only be a woman and Liberal, but either openly Gay or Trans as well? ‘Cause we all know that that sort of stuff matters more that the Constitution and the Law, right?

So the excuse for suspending new permitting for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) export projects back in January, when it took place, was that there was “uncertainty about the security of the supply for domestic use beyond the 2020’s” ….All well and good. A good excuse for stopping the permitting and exports.

Except now, Joe (or his handlers, anyway) has said that he is willing to reverse the ban AS LONG AS HE GETS FURTHER FUNDING FOR UKRAINE.

Interesting, innit? Either he was lying about his reasons then, or he is lying now….or he is willing to sell out the security of the United States energy supply in the future to get funding for Zelensky in the short term. One wonders what sort of kickbacks are promised to Joe, his brother, and his son for this funding made him change his mind about the LNG ban so quickly…..

So which is it…was he lying then, about the reasons, or is it that he no longer needs the lie and is just using it as a bargaining chip.

(as an aside, I have to wonder what exactly Ukraine is using to pressure our President and many members of our Congress to continue to push for additional money to be sent to Ukraine…money that is, essentially, unaccountable…..despite ever increasing opposition by the citizenry of the US….yet they are still considering and pushing for that funding…..what are the incentives?…I mean, they’ve even gotten to Mike Johnson….Is there that much money available in kickbacks? Or are our politicians selling themselves for cheap? )

I didn’t win the Powerball.

This is gonna put a wrench in my retirement plans.

Hookers, booze, and blow are expensive, you know.

I mean, Covid “helped” last time…..What with all the Mail-In ballots that were manipulated, adjusted and otherwise allowed.

We could expect nothing less this time around….should we?

‘This could be 100 times worse than Covid’: Bird flu warning from scientists who say HALF of infections with H5N1 in people are fatal – as White House says it’s ‘monitoring’ the situation

Battlespace Prep and all that….