(Old) The Apocalyptic MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Morning everyone, for the MMP marking the final end to all the hype. Good riddance.

I was just writing this in my journal. I’m sick of hearing about it and look forward to it being over. See also: Super Bowl, Elections, Christmas sales, etc.

But… we are in the sacred path of totality, so will head out to the deck with beverages and fancy-pants glasses to take a gander.

Tuurrrn around BRIGHT EYYYYES!

On to the day/week:
Good news: pullin-son is finally over the LTD and returning to work. Has training here (DFW) next week and we will get to have dinner with him. Been a loooong time since we’ve laid eyes on the kid, so looking forward to this.
Other good news: pullin-daughter has completed some diving and archeology-ing on various sunk vessels, and has been asked to spend the summer in locating/displaying artifacts for a museum in Europe. Due to this, we’re gaining an extra dog for a while. Lucy (our new dog) will be thrilled, I’m not sure everyone else will be – but we’ll manage.
Me? More sessions with the dog trainer, continue prepping the boat for sale, another session with the eyedocs and their infernal contraptions attached to the offending eyeball (sigh).

Good week to everyone!

22

Mowage has been accomplished, tho it was more leaves and sticks and weeds than grass. I planted some more 'maters to replace the ones that didn’t transplant well - we shall see. I think I need to read for a while.

Poke roast for supper. Sides TBD.

23

Man, I am sick to death of the eclipse coverage. You’d think it was the end of the world instead of just another normal cyclic occurrence. I was in Oregon for the last one and we got the full monty. This time will just be a bit of dimness.

Anyhoo: up, fed (but not fed up), and exercised. The wife is having significant back/hip pain which started yesterday. I finally convinced her to take Aleve to knock down the inflammation, but last night she wouldn’t take another one because she wasn’t feeling any pain. I tried to tell her that she needed to continue with it because it’s a cumulative effect, but she refused. So this morning, she was in pain again. Back on the Aleve.

The cat’s new low-rider litter box is semi-successful. She’s pooping in it, but still peeing on the mat. I’ll take what I can get. At least the food thing seems to be straightened out.

24

There’s a required meeting tomorrow at the orifice. (Tuesdays are my regular in-office days.)

The last few days, I’ve been thinking about the notable number of challenges that our generally happy little [company] family has been experiencing in recent months. Everyone has been touched by something unusual and/or negative making me wonder “What is happening to us??!!” (Trust me. I’m not going off the deep end.) Many of you have expressed similar thoughts to me.

When we moved into the Burien building in 2021, [Cow-Orker] volunteered to conduct a blessing of the building…

Since that summer day in 2021, we’ve added some new people and lost some friends, experienced some new and different business challenges, and have seen just a lot of weird stuff happen to us. So, after thoughtful consideration, it’s time for Blessing 2 – The Sequel. I’ve asked [Cow-Orker] to fire up the sage to again bless us and our humble home. Will it fix all that seems to be occurring? Who knows, but it worked before, so we’re doing it again.

If you’re not into this sort of thing, just humor those us who are, make an effort to participate and feel welcome to offer an alternative solution…

I think El Jefe is doing this to humour Cow-Orker. She’s into that. And it’s harmless. (At least, I hope the blessing doesn’t banish me!) He’s right about Bad Stuff happening. One of my uncles died in January and I went to his funeral a couple of weeks ago. Our company accountant died suddenly and unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. Last month a cow-orker’s mother (not unexpectedly) died. I’m not sure about other ‘weird stuff’, but I tend not to get into other people’s business (much). (The Spousal Unit asks me about people, and I tell her I don’t know because I never asked. I’ve heard this is a Guy Thing.) And I’m only there once a week, and when I am there I tend to stay in my basement, so I don’t get a lot of scuttlebutt.

ETA: In other news, I bought French Roast coffee beans at Costco last week, since we’re essentially out of Community Coffee. They have 25% to 30% off sales frequently, but not recently. Fifteen percent? Sure, a couple of those; but I’m cheap. Today I got the HAPPYBDAY discount code (to celebrate their 105th birthday) for 25% off. I’ve ordered eight pounds each of their French Roast and Dark Roast. It will take several days to a week before the nice FedEx (or UPS) guy brings the box. (Free shipping, BTW.) So I’ll have to grind the Costco beans while we wait. I’ll need to start that today.

25

I’ve seen many partial eclipses over the years, but this will be my last chance to see one. While I am excited, I also think the hype is a bit much.

Currently we are a a table outside the Forth Worth Museum of Science and History. We got here right at opening so we could score a good spot. Traffic was not horrible, but the out of state plates outnumbered the local plates.

It’s barely started and is fairly clear. We are all hopeful

26

We’ll only get less than 20% up here. Mrs. L.A. bought us viewing glasses, but it’s raining. Moon goes in front of the Sun, clouds go in front of the Moon.

27

It means I need to send your mom a loaf of my special apple almond bread.

28

I’m watching NASA’s online coverage. There’s a noticeable nibble out of the sun here, very clear sky.

29

I’ve been through an eclipse before (many decades ago). It got dark. I had to turn on my headlights when I drove somewhere. Then it got bright again. That was it. I wasn’t impressed.

One of my co-workers took the day off to go be in the path of totality. I hope she enjoys herself. Me, I’m staying home and working. I wish that I could get excited about it like some folks, but for me, it’s just a shadow.

30

Well played, both of you.

Isn’t it still chilly (esp. at night) where you are? I thought tomatoes don’t really thrive till temps stay above “brrr, it’s cold!” at night. (That’s a highly scientific temperature meter.)

50% is better than none, I guess.

Stuff like that, I file under “Can’t hurt, might help.” Heck, if it boosts at least one person’s morale, at no expense to anyone else, that’s a net positive.

Do you have the time and energy to go inside later?
That place has some really nifty exhibits.

Just how special is it?

I’ve peeked inside the box from my parents. Aw hellz to the naw Pilot about throwing it out!

Many nifty things. So many kerchiefs!

I’m a bit sad, now, because I’m sure my mom would’ve enjoyed seeing me try things on (there’s a dress from her Thailand trip in there!) but this visit was just not a good idea for so many reasons.

Maybe I should call, to say “thank you.”

I haven’t decided yet.

31

Still cloud-covered here but I guess I’ll stick around until 2pm or so and see how things change down here. We had a fair amount of rain this morning so it’s 50-50 on the soccer fields being open to practice, we’ll see how it goes. Otherwise this has been more of a day of sloth after an active weekend, so will get things back to normal starting 2sDay.

Some of the Virtual Railfan cameras are in the zone of totality so I’ll get my eclipse that way, I think.

JtC, fingers crossed that it stays clear for you.

fachverwitt, I just ran your name through Google translate and it comes back as “professionally confused”. Which is a wonderful name in any language so getting you an MMP name is going to be tough…we’ll think on it. I;m sure the house stuff will go off as planned.

Wheelie. I very seldom eat at the real expensive places, partly because I am a ‘fussy eater’ and all those various dishes tend to confuse and alarm me–just give me my sirloin steak and fries, please. Still, sounds like you and the Missus had fun, and that’s the best thing.

Shoe. looks lie you get about 92% totality, so should be noticeable. And good idea about looking at the shadows.

Oopsie, the end of Ramadan is very special to practicing Muslims, when I lived in Abu Dhabi Eid Al Fitr was a 3-4 day holiday with almost everything shut down. And trust your judgement of people on cancelling the table.

yanker, enjoy the eclipse and glad the kids are doing OK.

Cookie, true the coverage is overblown, but since it won’t happen again here in the US for 20 years, guess people want to see it. And doing a steady dosage is never easy, I’m like your wife, if I feel better I stop taking things.

Flyboy, just the law of averages catching up, but if some folks will feel better with a blessed building, no skin off my nose.

OK, need to start checking on things. Take care all.

32

Getting a bit darker up here in no. Illinois……. The sun is right outside my front door so I am on full alert, eclipse glasses in hand

33

In this case, “Fach” refers to voice type. In the classical/operatic world, voices are categorized specifically according to not just basic range-related type (bass, baritone, soprano, tenor, etc.) but also other characteristics like timbre and vocal weight. I spent a good deal of my post grad school life vacillating between baritone and tenor. Mostly settled into tenor now (and mostly teaching instead of performing anyway), but still a little switching off here and there. These days I like to think of it as flexibility rather than confusion, but it’s been my Internet handle since probably 2006.

34

I think you (or Google translate) just did.

ETA: didn’t realize there was a :musical_note: component to your username!

Now I’m picturing a Muslim version of “Clerks” with one lone guy behind the counter, muttering, “I’m not even supposed to BE here today!!”

I think there’s quite a bit of escapism to the eclipse stuff.
Politics & the economy are so over-the-top insane-o-pants right now, folks need to get excited about something relatively benign.

I “found” a huge planter pot in my basement (I’d used it to hold all my camping gear during Da Big Move) which had two others stacked inside.

I knew about the big 'un; forgot there were two more.

Dragged 'em all outside and arranged them on the driveway in front of my kitchen window.

Next order of business: discover funding for approx. my body weight in potting soil, and set up a halfway decent “garden” by my side door.

I have an assload of seeds for various flowers … I think I’d like to spruce up (HA!) my kitchen window view. If the squirrels don’t dig everything up.

35

It’s getting dark up here in Central NY, but full cloud cover, so no cool views. Really it just feels like December what with the dark at 3.

36

I wasn’t raptured, so I’m having a beer at the world’s coldest tiki bar.

37

The sun was nice enough to peek out from the clouds just about 2pm so I did get to use my eclipse glasses for about 5 minutes, and saw about 88-90% coverage, along with a couple of total eclipse shots from Virtual Railfan (from Texas to Ohio), so I am officially eclipsed out.

38

Our max has passed - it looked like a thin crescent moon! I used one of FCD’s welding helmets to look. The light got weird and I heard a rooster crowing in the neighborhood. I was trying to explain to MIL what was going on, but it was a losing cause.

So now I’m prepping supper. Gonna rotiss a little poke roast, fry some spuds-n-onions, and I think I have some broccoli, so a nice healthy meal.

39

our view was early for me this morning so I missed it …

40

I was raptured, but they tossed me back.