Monday, August 21, 2017

Eclipse fever.

 I looked out my office window in Center City, Philadelphia today, not to see the solar eclipse, but to see the hundreds of office workers and shoppers in downtown Philly looking up at the sky to catch a glimpse of it.

It was fascinating to me to see all those people looking up at the same time to catch a fleeting glimpse of.....something.  Let's remember that Philadelphia was not even one of the places in the path to catch the total eclipse, and yet, there they were. Eyes glued to the sky as if they were looking for the second coming.

All I kept thinking was that Americans really need a life.

You couldn't escape it today. It even led the evening news. One family drove hours to spend time with thousands and thousands of like minded people to sit in an open field in Oregon and take in the eclipse in all of its glorified darkness.  Some folks are even declaring that it was a message from God. (God didn't have to darken the sun to send us a message; he gave us Donald trump. Now that's a message of darkness if I ever saw one. )  

Honestly America, if you are so excited about seeing darkness in the middle of the day, you can move to Barrow, Alaska. They have 67 days of darkness from November to January, there. Think about how much fun that would be, and you won't even have to wear any of those silly things to protect your eyes like you do during an eclipse. 

"Field, you are such a killjoy."

I know, and I suppose this once in a lifetime thing is kind of cool from a scientific point of view. I mean if something is not going to happen in my life again it does give it some type of meaning. Or at least it should. But hell I can say that about a lot of things. I just watched the Phillies win a World Series. Now that was a big deal.  If the Eagles were to win the Super Bowl in my lifetime that would be huuge. And if I knew exactly when they were going to do it I suppose that I would prepare like all those people who were losing their minds all over the country today preparing for eclipse 217.

Anyway, it's over now. No more darkness when it should be daylight, or moon blocking out the sun. Now maybe things can go back to normal and folks (even here in Philly) can stop acting like 2 minutes of looking at the sun get blocked out by the moon is some kind of life changing event.

But wait, I said it's over now. Not quite. There is still some more darkness to come at 9 p.m. EST tonight. That's going to last a lot more than two minutes, though, and things will be dark but with a very orange hue.

 

27 comments:

Lilacpr said...

xD Right, I'm so fed up with the whole thing, nothing happened here either! Just pictures of people looking up at the sky! Americans are such sheeples!

Yīshēng said...

I think someone gave Hitler 2.0 some xanax, he seems pretty calm.

Anonymous said...

Right on Field...thanks for telling it like it is!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah Yisheng...you're right.

I noticed that Hitler's son did seem calm during his speech this evening.

Ivanka must have slipped some Xanax in his coffee.

Bold, James Bold said...

"It was fascinating to me to see all those people looking up at the same time to catch a fleeting glimpse of.....something. Let's remember that Philadelphia was not even one of the places in the path to catch the total eclipse, and yet, there they were. Eyes glued to the sky as if they were looking for the second coming.

All I kept thinking was that Americans really need a life."

English translation:  Black black blackety-black black black blackety-black.

This has been a public service announcement.

dinthebeast said...

Dark from November until January? That was 2015-2016 for me, when there was a pissant little fire in the front part of the old foundry building where we lived and Bayer, who wanted the land underneath it, leaned on the city until they cut off our electricity and wouldn't turn it back on no matter how many inspections we passed. When we moved out in February, there still wasn't any electricity there. I did a lot of reading by shop light.
And as for the eclipse, Paul Wartenberg posted this video on his blog, and it's fucking hilarious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgWUq0fdKk

-Doug in Oakland

Anonymous said...

Shit them fuckin white people so obsess over that eclipes. What about the sick Black Children of Amerikkka. White poeple only care about them selve's. Who care's about a faggot ass sun. We the Original Pople Of The Sun! And cracker's thing its a big deal.

I hate white people. Faggot's. They all have little dick's 2. Ha ha.


-A Collage Educted Black Man in Cherry Hill

I'm Just Saying said...

This was a bigger deal than most people know. Their instinct was to pay attention.

It was the right move.

Flying Junior said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Flying Junior said...

Well Field, it's like this...

I figured this out about ten years in to my true calling. My true calling other than playing music, which is what I was born to do. Crazy or nice Mrs. Junior married me even though the only job I held was a church organist at, I guess, about $700 a month.

So I got a job at the bowling alley, running the snack bar single-handedly and emptying out and filtering the Crisco out of the deep fryer right before I counted my cash register some time around midnight, just to prove I wasn't a bum. I lasted one month.

So I looked for a job in my local paper. I got no further than the A's.

I was the rockin'est activities director that ever lived for the truly mellow and ultra-cool La Jolla old people. It was a match made in heaven. I was there from 1997 to 2013.

So I noticed as I was doing my monthly calendars...

February is Black History Month. No problem. August is Hawaii month. Okay. Every month is some special emphasis. Every fucking day is something or another, if it's just National Ice Cream Cone Day.

Then my local California culture starts to mimic the self-same bullshit that I dreamed up for the old people month after month. Year after year. National Hot Dog Day. What the hell? It's like we're all back in elementary school. The entire culture is run by activities directors!

Witness the San Diego East County Snowmageddon. Was it Christmas/New Year 2013-2014? People need to be part of something that is happening right now. There is far too much connectivity.

So Mrs. Junior finally asks me about eclipse glasses. I find a place that will send my ISO certified vinyl glasses for 35-40 dollars. Just in time. Unfortunately, we don't bother and let it go. Everybody in the entire city is looking for glasses, even though we are not really in the path for a total eclipse. Thank the Goddess there was an eclipse viewing party at our local library. We took our grandchildren.

Anonymous said...

Cool blog post, Farting Janitor.

Didn't read!

mike from iowa said...

My skies were somewhat dark all day as it was cloudy with a chance of rain. It did rain a bit about 5 minutes after the eclipse was done. Then it got darker still and then the floodgates opened and we got a couple inches of much needed rain in NW iowa.

iowa birds didn't seem to notice the sky got darker. They went about their business like any other day. I guess birds don't fantasize about heavenly messages. A once in a lifetime total solar eclipse is preferable to a twice in a lifetime nukular war. Or WW3.

Rumour has it Baldingo and his merry band of one hand clapping buddies got busted for stroking w/o proper permits in a public park. There's a song in there somewhere.

Bold, James Bold said...

I watched the NASA Select livestream for a while, but they had everything so dumbed down it literally put me to sleep.

Then again, they couldn't exceed a certain maximum IQ level of the commentary because they had a dindu on the panel and they had to make sure he understood everything.

Virginia said...

Come on! It was fun being one of "those" people outside staring at the sky. Really enjoyed taking my kiddos out with our pizza box viewer to watch the eclipse. The best part was sneaking onto a condo rooftop and hanging out with random seniors. Refreshing talking about something other than our disgusting president and friends for 45 min. Although would have had no problem talking about him burning his eyes because he forgot to wear glasses. Complete strangers were friendly and offered to share glasses. My oldest drove from D.C. to TN and back same day, that's a little crazy.

Flying Junior said...

It was nice and sunny in San Diego. Which was a little bit lucky, we often have lingering morning marine layer. I enjoyed the sky darkening. I told my grandkids that it would look like wearing grey sunglasses. I had seen another partial eclipse in 1990? But no glasses or projection system.

We had a great time at the library branch which was for the period not exactly a quiet zone, which was fun in itself. Like you say, people were sharing glasses and hanging out. It was great. I saw it as clearly as the Man-in-the-Moon.

Lilacpr said...

I saw out the window some crows on the street, hopping around acting jiggedy, but that's it.

There's a huge Saharan Dust cloud entering the island and I already have asthma. Rain will precipitate it to the ground, but the thing is this dust dries up whatever rain clouds may be in the area, so...bad news for me and others with respiratory ailments. Wish me luck guys!

http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/sal/splitE/movies/splitE5.html

dinthebeast said...

I would have watched if it had not been overcast. I try not to get too cynical to enjoy the beauty of things, because otherwise, why bother?
We weren't in the totality path, but I have an old solar filter from a camera lens that works OK as long as you don't look too long, and there would have been little crescents of light beneath the trees where the leaves act like a pinhole lens, and for a few minutes there would have been something you may not see ever again.
But it didn't ruin my day or anything when it was cloudy.

-Doug in Oakland

mike from iowa said...

We are pretty much assured of never having another son of a bitch in the WH as god damned stoopid as Drumpfuck. That is a phenom I can easily live w/o ever experiencing again.

It isn't that Drumpfuck is an exceptional bogus potus, it is his exceptional stoopidity that will mark him as America's worst ever.

mike from iowa said...

Baldingo's knickers are in a twist because NASA won't allow an avowed slavering fang racist whitey wingnut to colonize space with real astronauts. Stroke it, Baldingo, stroke it. Remember if you stroke it too long or too lovingly you'll go blind with something besides racist hate.

Anonymous said...

The Aztecs and Incas and Cherokee,and Seminoles,and Apaches,and Lakota,and Miami,And Pueblo,and Stolen Africans were hoping that when the darkness lifted that all europeon americans disappeared!!

mike from iowa said...

Drumpfuck short circuited his brain looking at the eclipse w/o glasses. He never once uttered the words radical Muslim terrorists when talking about radical Muslim terrorists. He is going to wingnut hell for sure. Is nothing sacred?

How come Joe Arpaio hasn't been swept up in a Messican illegal immigrant sweep yet. Sure sounds foreign to me.

PilotX said...

The wife and I drove to Carbondale, IL to catch it. Yeah yeah I know but we're science geeks. It was cool putting together a weather forecast for myself and others (nailed it by the way) and making sure we'd be in the right place. Mear yards away from the path and longest totality. I think you would have dug because we ended up at a winery so afterwards........like Ice Cube said gotta say it was a good day.

PilotX said...

Also, did you also read they're letting your president go off teleprompter? Dear god, who is advising this man?

Bold, James Bold said...

"We are pretty much assured of never having another son of a bitch in the WH as god damned stoopid as Drumpfuck."

ORLY?  You think the Shrub was smarter than Trump?  You think Mr. "Ifififif" is smarter than Trump?

You probably do, because you're barely moron-level yourself.

PilotX said...

Well, they let him go off teleprompter and the results were plainly predictable.

Anonymous said...

Obama does that a lot.

Anonymous said...

Correction Field Negro.....The darkest days in America were when cargo of your ancestors, sold to jewish and Arab slave traders by your ancestors came sailing to America. The absolutely dumbest move in American history. Closely followed by the decision to not repatriate Field and house negroes back to Africa at the conclusion of the civil war. I as a white male rue everyday the idiots that brought you here. Of course for the Negro the best thing in the world was being brought here, not the original slaves of course, but you modern day worthless, whining, dullards. Cause if you were to have to make it on your own without white tax money, white Medical and technology advancements etc. etc. You would be boiling each other in a stew pot in the Muddaland. Go back to Africa and see how long you last....HaHaHa Negroes ain't about Shit.