ECLIPSE

Totality. My family needed to be 350 miles away from Chicago to see totality. We bucked the traffic trend from northern Illinois and drove northeast to St Clair, Missouri after spending a couple of days in Branson. The difference between seeing a 99% eclipse and totality is huge. While the slimmest sliver of the sun is showing, you need your protective goggles. When totality begins, you enjoy the show with your naked eye. I didn't remember to experience everything. I was unaware of the sounds of cicadas ratcheting up. The temperature did drop in the last moments before the sun disappeared altogether. The bright sunshine of the day made it feel like the light of the last few moments of a day before the sun hides under the horizon. It took a lot of effort to get this experience and it was well worth it. The weather forecast was depressing with 24 hours to go, but miraculously, on the dot on the map that my family selected to experience this, the sun was shining brightly when it counted. This photo is not mine. It was the closest photo that I could find online so that I could remember what I did see with my naked eyes. My next eclipse posting will be April 8, 2024. I will likely recount my adventures from somewhere in Ohio. One thing I might do differently next time? Find a hotel room to stay over wherever I am after the event. That 350 mile trip home from St Clair, Missouri to Chicago took about 11 hours.
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This blog that I did everyday for nearly two years was a good idea. It was a very bad idea to cease blogging. The blog kept me in check. My weight this morning is 261 lbs. Oh yeah, I started at 309 llbs a long time ago. So technically I could say that I lost 47 lbs. The problem is, my low weight was under 220 lbs. So really, I have recently gained 40 lbs. Within a day, a week or sometime soon... I am going to rededicate myself to a eating healthy and exercising. Why this blog was so important to keeping my focused? I don't know... I just was. I will be back.