Eclipse

(Photo credit: Elizabeth Olson on Pexels.com — I wish I had gotten a photo that good!)

For a little more than two and a half minutes on Monday afternoon, the sky darkened. The birds hushed. And cheers erupted from distant groups of people around us as the moon completely covered the sun. It was really cool being part of this brief interlude of collective awe. And a total eclipse isn’t something I’ll likely experience again in my lifetime.

While we had 99% totality at our house, we traveled to my parents’ place in the path of totality. We got extremely lucky with the weather. The forecast called for mostly cloudy skies, but the clouds were thin and wispy.

I am not sharing the photos I took because they’re not good photos. My iPhone isn’t up to the task of capturing such an event with any crispness or clarity and didn’t do justice to what I witnessed with the naked eye. Besides, there is something to be said for truly being in the moment. I took a few quick shots but mostly focused on taking it all in and making this memory with my family.

As the moon moved on and the sky brightened again, it was back to business as usual. We ordered pizza for dinner, then said goodbye to my parents and drove back to Columbus. We took the backroads since the freeways were more congested than usual. It was a nice drive.

Earlier that day, our next door neighbor texted me to let me know that a raccoon was trying to break into our barn. I went out to investigate, and it was apparent that it was sick and looking for a place to die. I called the county wildlife officer and he asked me if it appeared as though it were drunk. It did. Distemper, he said. Nothing for it except to humanely euthanize it if possible or let nature take its course. The raccoon gave up on finding a way into the barn and burrowed under a pile of scrap metal behind the barn. I assumed that’s where it would die, but there was no sign of it the next day.

I really hope it didn’t find a way to get into the barn after all. (There are gaps where critters can easily get in.) Otherwise, we’re in for a nasty surprise. I have to go out to the barn today, actually.

As for my broken foot, I’m now more than five weeks post-injury. I was out of the boot by the end of March and the ortho said it looks to be healing well and cleared me for low-impact exercise. I still have some slight tenderness and swelling, but the main issue is nerve damage. That is something I hope will go away with time and some rehabilitative exercise.

Of course, now that I’m recovered enough to work in the yard, it’s mud season. We’ve had several inches of rain in the past two weeks and the yard is a giant mud pit. I plan to at least get out and started on some weeding today. The purple dead nettle, though a beneficial plant, is taking over — as is the thistle. I also need to get the hummingbird feeder out. I put the oriole feeder out two weeks ago and have yet to see a single oriole.

Blitz gave us a huge scare last week by having a seizure. He never had one before, and it was terrifying to witness. I took him to the vet for tests and everything came back fine. So hopefully it’s a one-time thing. We were having a severe storm at the time, which always gives him anxiety. So I don’t know if it was triggered by stress or what.