Mornin’ from Mazatlán. Today we have maybe 15% cirrus coverage. Satellite imagery shows more and denser out to sea heading our way over the upcoming days. Which comports with the forecast holding steady for cirrostratus. No way to know how thick, thin, or what the coverage fraction will be.
& I guess kissing your sister is better than no kiss at all.
NWS is still stating Partly Sunny (with Mostly Sunny both Sun & Tues) but Wunderground has now bumped it from Partly Cloudy to Cloudy; interestingly, the % chance is actually down 1% since yesterday but the text has gotten worse.
Home from my race; gonna shower & throw stuff in the car & head out. Looks like part of tomorrow will be spent looking for a Plan B location for Mon. At least there will be some cool pics tomorrow & seeing the kid in college so it won’t be a total bust for the weekend no matter what happens.
Prepare to be bitterly disappointed. I know I am. The warm front has indeed sped up, naturally. It’s going to start clouding over Sunday night, and then complete gloom for days and days. This is not the kind of forecast that’s likely to change much. 
We’re heading out tomorrow morning, driving to our reservation of a house on Lake Erie in Angola-on-the-Lake NY. A little disappointed that the latest weather report has it as mostly cloudy, but we’re not budging, and at most wet might see what the weather is in driving distance Monday morning, but even that is a crapshoot so we’re likely to stay and hope for the best.
To make matters seemingly worse, I have to have the blinds closed right now because the sunlight is so intense that I couldn’t see the monitor. The sun is doing this just to mock me, because it knows that by Monday it will be well and truly hidden by a cloud cover so thick it will rival the one on Venus. Or so says the current forecast. 
The Weather Channel computer has lowered the “Cloud Cover” forecast for my destination from 72% to 64% to 54% over the last 12 hours. That’s better than nothing.
Considering the number of people who need glasses for distance vision, I’m utterly astonished that this info isn’t in all the FAQ’s on all the sites giving advice about the eclipse.
However, “in front of the glasses” seems to be also what I’ve come up with – if only from all the advice telling people that the sunblocker needs to go in front of the camera or telescope lens.
My friend and I are going to be on another friend’s farm that we’ve never been to before. The farm has multiple breeds of birds, some other animals, and presumably fields. We are both people who are interested in such things. We are also pretty well capable of just talking each other’s head off for a couple of hours or more (I don’t know about the person whose farm it is, I don’t know her very well. Will I expect know her somewhat better by the time the eclipse is over.)
And sometimes other people.
– weather forecast for intended location is the same as for here: partly sunny. Here’s hoping it’s the right part; or that if it wouldn’t have been otherwise, that the eclipse effect on clouds will work before totality. As it’s ‘mostly sunny’ for Sunday and Tuesday we at least probably won’t be worrying about major systems moving faster or slower than predicted (though considering how wet my fields are right now, the speed of the next one arriving may well affect whether I can get the peas planted ahead of it.)
They may well be worried about being overwhelmed by such large numbers that damage gets done.
– I don’t know why discourse was refusing to post this. And I don’t know whether closing and discarding it, having first copied it, and then pasting it back in and trying again will work. Everything seemed to be working except for the reply button.
When other people are involved, “lay” is generally used in its past participle form, preceded by the verb “get”.
ETA: “Get” if the expression is a form of expectation, “got” if it’s a form of boasting about a prior event.
I doubt it makes the slightest difference whether you put them on in front of or behind normal glasses. With telescopes and binoculars, the light emerging from the eypieces has been intensified many, many times, but with glasses, not so much.
We left Mazatlan this morning, now in Durango about half way to Torreon where our viewing site is. Pretty clear in Durango right now.
A group of us drove to Grand Island Nebraska in 2017 and got a perfect view of over two minutes. Tomorrow morning my sister, BIL, and I are heading northeast to view this one I hope we get a good view, the area of the motel has a little over three minutes. Not the max but still good. We will really be watching local weather.
At this point I’m inclined to go ahead with the eclipse meet-up if only for reasons of socializing, and commiserating under totally overcast skies. But we’ll see what happens. There does appear to be a conspiracy in nature to prevent me from ever seeing a total eclipse even when it’s right on my doorstep.
I’ve just about got everything packed up for my eclipse trip up to Vermont tomorrow with my son. I’ve got eclipse glasses and eclipse apps downloaded on my phone and iPad. In case there’s poor cell phone service, I’ve got a road atlas and an old Garmin and was even able to update the maps for it this afternoon. We’ll be near the Canadian border so I brought our passports just in case. I’m going to pack water and snacks in case of traffic on the way home.
My big worry at this point (besides clouds, of course), is heavy traffic on the way up. Ideally, I would have reserved a hotel room near the edge of totality, but we are a full two hours south in southern Vermont (closest I could get at the last minute). At least we are right on the interstate and are north of the major metro areas, and it should be major roads all the way up north. Nevertheless I’m going to encourage my son to get an early start on Monday morning.
I’ll wave from Burke Mountain as you drive past. Should be good for about 3 mins 29 seconds of totality under clear skies on Monday.
Arrived today after a surprisingly pleasant 4-hour drive in the drizzle and snow up from southeastern Massachusetts with my daughter. Low clouds in Franconia Notch, I had been looking forward to the scenery and got skunked.
Booked the room about 15 months ago with a two night minimum. Ok, twist my arm, I guess I’ll get in a day of skiing tomorrow before they close for the season. I love it when a plan comes together.
Just took another look at the map.
What is that resort in California doing there? It looks to be well out of the path, even if somebody in the thread is staying there.
Maybe they will be watching it on the web?
Maybe you shouldn’t say those two phrases together?
Landed in Houston today, headed to Austin in the morning. I haven’t looked at the forecast since yesterday, but I assume it’s still pretty bleak. We planned a trip that will be amazing even if the eclipse is hidden by cloud cover, but we’ll still be pretty bummed.
We rented a car from Easirent through Expedia. I’d never heard of the company, but every other car rental company in Houston was out of cars, so I took my chances. Honestly, of the whole trip - two flights, two Airbnbs and a VRBO, all of the driving and planning in towns I’ve never been to - the car rental was my only concern. And, as it turns out, rightfully so. The car was reserved for 10:30 a.m. When we arrived at the counter at 11:00, we found a waiting room full of people in front of us in line, and an agent who told us that “because so many people hadn’t returned their rentals on time,” our wait would be at least 30 minutes and “probably” no more than two hours. They’d call my cell phone when a car was available for me. My daughter quickly reserved a car from Turo (which hadn’t even occurred to me before - should have had her plan this trip). We had to Uber to our Airbnb, then hours later Uber to a parking lot about 45 minutes away to get the Turo car. As of 7:00 p.m., Easirent still hadn’t called.
It all turned out okay, but if not for Turo, I’m not sure what we would have done. We don’t know anyone at all in Texas, everything everywhere is booked for the next few days, and we couldn’t get to the place we had reserved for the next two nights, because it’s three hours away.
We had our Texas Hill Country Does Fest today. Some pics are posted there. @ThelmaLou , @FloatyGimpy , @JohnT , Inna, @Velocity , and my wife and I were there.
Can’t believe the eclipse is only 2 days away.
Well, our plans changed because of covid. The friend i was planning to visit wasn’t comfortable with us staying there. I thought he’d be okay with my husband, who tested negative several days ago. So i changed my plans. Then he wasn’t… But my friend’s partner has a house he plans to turn into an air b&b, so after i changed my flight, they offered us that. But then, when husband and son showed up to get the key, they were invited in, and maybe they’ll be staying with my friend after all.
Anyway, i tested negative yesterday, so tomorrow I’m driving to totality in VT, which is going to be hellish driving, but a lot of my friends are staying there, and a friend who is much less covid-cautious offered me the other bed in his hotel room.
My daughter decided to bail, but we live in the path of the partial eclipse, so I’m leaving her some glasses, and packing the rest.
I’ve been isolating at home for two weeks, so just getting our and seeing people is exciting, even if it’s a really long drive.