Path of totality

I assume everybody has heard of the impending solar eclipse but locally it's a huge deal. My house sits to where we will have the longest duration of totality and in 2024, the next eclipse crosses a town about 10 minutes from me, deemed the crossroads.

I'm not exactly sure just how excited I should be. I'm looking forward to the feeling it brings, but I also hope to live afterwards. And eat well. For many years. Should we take off work that day or just have a long lunch? Our area is expecting 50,000+ visitors. I'll probably stay home to guard the family and make sure no wannabe hippies invade my field. Unless they have tacos or something else worth sharing, then maybe they can hang out.

I have a friend traveling over four hours from Chicago to see it. Anybody else traveling for it?

I went, had one beer, then came home and burnt an old couch. No cushions of course.

I don't go out much and didn't have much reason to stay there tonight.

At least it will be a bit cooler in the middle of the day.

We are expecting 50-100,000 visitors to our small area. I have a friend from Chicago down, we are going to hit a local bar once I put the kid down. I heard a NASA scientist barfed last night...

PC: How nice. We have a 3 year old and a 1 year old that I think I'm going to be leaving inside. They won't remember it, so I'd rather not risk their eyesight. The 13 year old will be here though.

Woody: Just imagining your plan I'm awestruck. I also feel a similarity between your relationship and my relationship with my wife. My plans are merely a suggestion and normally involve working before, during, or shortly afterwards.

We are just going to sit at our house and enjoy the moment. Our area is expecting such a crowd that people are stocking up on fuel and the cell carriers are bringing in extra equipment to handle more devices.

I'm 40 miles North of the line of totality, it will only be 98% of totality here. I was planning to be at a job on top of a mountain where you can see all the way to Mt Jefferson which is on the other side of the path of totality. My wife wanted to go down to Salem with my daughter and kids to experience total darkness.

I told her that was stupid unless they had a destination in mind, they would just be driving around in a lit-up city. I suggested something I had heard about at the Oregon Garden http://www.oregongarden.org/events/eclipse/ and later that day she said we had tickets and we're going, so I'll see how that goes.

But I still will be curious what it would have been like at the mountaintop place I had planned.

I was upset I forgot about the last meteor shower but I did sleep like a baby that night. This has been our highest grossing year by a large margin, so it's hard to keep my attention after 7:30pm.

Totality duration will be 2 minutes and 40 seconds but the eclipse will last nearly 3 hours. Stars will be visible and the temperature will drop. People get weird.

The director of our Barbershop chorus is into astronomy and he is going to be out there. You could rent rooms for a lot of money if you wanted to. it would be great. I am not going to be around then. Send pictures! Old School