Tuesday, April 8, 2025

This is the seventeenth installment of West Wind, your daily drop of thoughts, ideas, and info for this Season.

Hard to believe it was only a year ago that the total solar eclipse rolled around to this part of the world. We have a pretty good view of the sky at our house, but I learned that we were only in 99.7% totality, while the town just a half hour north of us was in full 100%. I knew that 0.3 percent would make all the difference.

With such a momentous occasion ahead, I took the day off entirely and we drove into town. We were expecting massive crowds, but there weren’t really that many more people than usual. A couple of extra cars in the Wal-Mart parking lot with out of state plates, but not the massive overrun that we expected. We found a nice cozy place in the town cemetery and waited.

The wait was absolutely worth it. There had been a partial eclipse when we lived in Idaho, and that was neat, it got a little cooler and darker, but this was completely different. The temperature dropped significantly, and the sun was totally obscured. I knew at once why ancient peoples thought that eclipses were acts of the gods, because it was such an unnatural event. It truly showed the power and majesty of God’s creation at the same time, to have such a powerful sign that vanishes after only a few minutes.

Oh, and if you were wondering whether I have those expensive eclipse filter lenses for my camera, I don’t. I just put a pair of gas station eclipse glasses up to the lens of my backup camera while it was mounted on a tripod. I didn’t want to risk damaging my primary camera until totality had occurred and we took the glasses off. Enjoy the rest of your day, and until tomorrow.

Have you ever experienced a total or partial eclipse?