obliviousally (
obliviousally) wrote2024-04-09 01:55 pm
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stuff and birthday eclipse!!!
i've been waiting for this eclipse since the partial in 2017 SOLELY BECAUSE
it fell on my fuckin birthday
chances? well, actually not all that uncommon - they often fall in spring and fall and this is the 3rd that's fallen on the 8th in the last 40~ years (1986, 2005). BUTTT, obviously, this is the one that fell on my birthday WHERE I COULD SEE TOTALITY so that's obvious hella important
so initially i was aiming to get friends together to drive out and do something, but that kinda fell thru (a mutual friend was forced to work that day, so everyone kind of ended up doing their own thing). instead, it was tony and my mom and i and we drove up to Vermilion River Reservation: Mill Hollow b/c it was the most accessible, kinda-in-the-boonies, closest-to-the-center, easily drivable spot i found. i waffled between two different parks, but this one was smack dab middle, which means it would get as long as possible for totality AND it wasn't a super long drive, either (about an hour and a half)
THE NIGHT BEFORE, someone posted in my work discord about how someone in their extended family (an aunt-in-law) knows someone that drives the weinermobile and they got to check it out up close - TO WHICH I THOUGHT 'WOW THAT'S INTERESTING THEY MUST BE LOCAL' b/c, like, the day before the eclipse? no one is going out of town, which means the weinermobile MUST be going somewhere locally for an eclipse event. so i went hunting around AND DISCOVERED they were gonna be in medina at the PERFECT TIME for us to stop and see them
which is one of tony's life-long bucket list dream things
we had tried to see it at a bj's locally last summer, but they never showed, which was kind of a bummer. but i figured, listen, it's the ECLIPSE IN THE TOTALITY ZONE, they are probably going to show up
so i penciled it into the schedule
sunday night was uneventful otherwise. i ran out and grabbed a few things, and pulled the mattress down from the porch for my mom, b/c she was going to come out and crash here instead of coming in the morning, but that ended up falling through and she still ended up coming monday morning instead lol but it gave me some time in the morning to run an errand with her and then she helped me get all the food stuff together and the car packed while tony woke up
it had rained in the morning, but not long after i got up the sun was starting to come out. i was making deals with the weather gods for weeks now to give us, at least, brief clear skies for totality. AT LEAST. and the forecast for the day was predicting scattered cloudiness, so i had high hopes
we drove out to medina for the weinermobile, it was gonna be at this alien-themed indoor mini golf place close to downtown and wasn't difficult to find. as we came down the road to the corner it's on, we were greeted by TWO WEINERMOBILES
ðŸŒðŸŒ
tony shrieked with delight
we got stickers and weiner whistles and the one had its door open so we were able to peep inside (couldn't GO inside, but still fun to take a look). it was a very fun not-really-even-a-detour for the day
the drive up to vermillion was kinda boring - everything out west of us is basically flat farmland, so not much to see unless we passed through a little town. we did see chickens and a rooster, alpacas, and some texas longhorns a long way from texas!

we got to vermillion close to 2pm, which was perfect timing. unloaded the car and found a nice spot to make ourselves comfortable. there weren't a lot of people there! i did discover, later however, that we pulled in the little park area before what i had labeled on my maps, but it was, like, the same vicinity lol. i wonder if the area further in would've been more occupied, but the spot we ended up at was very nice. the reservation is set down in these shale cliffs, so they rise up around the area, which was very cool

we hung out and ate and watched the moon work its way across the face of the sun for the hour. it was SO cool to watch the light change, to feel the temps cool as the sun was blacked out. the lighting was almost like the onset or after of a thunderstorm - where the dark sky is on one side and then the late day sun is on the other, giving that real dramatic atmosphere. absolutely one of my fave visuals tbh
i kept trying to get accurate pictures of the lighting, but my phone camera was not equipped lol
3:10 PM | 3:12 PM
3:15 PM | 3:16 PM
it was, hands down, the coolest thing i've experienced. when you take your eclipse glasses off after that last tiny sliver disappears and you go from the blackness of the glasses to the blotted out sun with that silver ring around it - so fuckin' cool and absolutely awe-inspiring. people shouted and clapped, everyone was stoked to be experiencing something most of us here won't be able to experience again w/o money and ability to travel - once in a lifetime for a lot of people. the last total eclipse in ohio was in 1806, the next one is something like 2099
i absolutely see why people chase eclipses like people chase storms. if i had the money, i would find a way to see one every year
it felt like a long 3 minutes, but also so fleeting
i did think it would get darker! but sometimes you've gotta experience something to understand why that doesn't make sense haha - i had thought it would get FULL dark - like night w/o any ambient light, but realizing, yeah, the moon is only blocking our view of the sun and the sun is still RIGHT THERE beaming out rays around the mood, it made sense why it didn't, but the darkness was STILL cool - more like dusk than night with the all around sunset
the temp drop was cool, as well as the random breezes we'd get!
there were also a TON of (what we were pretty sure were) vultures flying above the hollow right before totality. tony and my mom counted something like 14-16
after totality, a lot of people left the park. we planned to stick around for a bit just to avoid any traffic and, well, we drove an hour and a half up there, may as well enjoy ourselves. we ate some more, watched the other half of partiality, packed up the car and then took a little walk around the trails and the river

stuck our feet in the river, collected some shells and shale, watched butterflies, etc., etc
the drive back was about the same as the drive up, but we decided to stop back in medina to check out the little bookshop there (most other things in their downtown area were closed by 6-ish)
real cute little shop. we bought some art prints and stickers (i don't really buy books anymore unless one sticks with me lol b/c i can always read for free at work). we also wandered a bit and popped into a little kitchenware/gourmet shop and picked up an enchilada soup mix and honey sticks lol. definitely other stuff i would've liked to try, but did not have the money for lol
got back home around 7pm or so. my mom headed out and we unpacked the car. i was very thankful i worked at noon on monday lol b/c i could actually get some sleep/rest b/c i was BEAT
but, yeah. a good birthday. a good monday. a good eclipse
it fell on my fuckin birthday
chances? well, actually not all that uncommon - they often fall in spring and fall and this is the 3rd that's fallen on the 8th in the last 40~ years (1986, 2005). BUTTT, obviously, this is the one that fell on my birthday WHERE I COULD SEE TOTALITY so that's obvious hella important
so initially i was aiming to get friends together to drive out and do something, but that kinda fell thru (a mutual friend was forced to work that day, so everyone kind of ended up doing their own thing). instead, it was tony and my mom and i and we drove up to Vermilion River Reservation: Mill Hollow b/c it was the most accessible, kinda-in-the-boonies, closest-to-the-center, easily drivable spot i found. i waffled between two different parks, but this one was smack dab middle, which means it would get as long as possible for totality AND it wasn't a super long drive, either (about an hour and a half)
THE NIGHT BEFORE, someone posted in my work discord about how someone in their extended family (an aunt-in-law) knows someone that drives the weinermobile and they got to check it out up close - TO WHICH I THOUGHT 'WOW THAT'S INTERESTING THEY MUST BE LOCAL' b/c, like, the day before the eclipse? no one is going out of town, which means the weinermobile MUST be going somewhere locally for an eclipse event. so i went hunting around AND DISCOVERED they were gonna be in medina at the PERFECT TIME for us to stop and see them
which is one of tony's life-long bucket list dream things
we had tried to see it at a bj's locally last summer, but they never showed, which was kind of a bummer. but i figured, listen, it's the ECLIPSE IN THE TOTALITY ZONE, they are probably going to show up
so i penciled it into the schedule
sunday night was uneventful otherwise. i ran out and grabbed a few things, and pulled the mattress down from the porch for my mom, b/c she was going to come out and crash here instead of coming in the morning, but that ended up falling through and she still ended up coming monday morning instead lol but it gave me some time in the morning to run an errand with her and then she helped me get all the food stuff together and the car packed while tony woke up
it had rained in the morning, but not long after i got up the sun was starting to come out. i was making deals with the weather gods for weeks now to give us, at least, brief clear skies for totality. AT LEAST. and the forecast for the day was predicting scattered cloudiness, so i had high hopes
we drove out to medina for the weinermobile, it was gonna be at this alien-themed indoor mini golf place close to downtown and wasn't difficult to find. as we came down the road to the corner it's on, we were greeted by TWO WEINERMOBILES
tony shrieked with delight



we got stickers and weiner whistles and the one had its door open so we were able to peep inside (couldn't GO inside, but still fun to take a look). it was a very fun not-really-even-a-detour for the day
the drive up to vermillion was kinda boring - everything out west of us is basically flat farmland, so not much to see unless we passed through a little town. we did see chickens and a rooster, alpacas, and some texas longhorns a long way from texas!

we got to vermillion close to 2pm, which was perfect timing. unloaded the car and found a nice spot to make ourselves comfortable. there weren't a lot of people there! i did discover, later however, that we pulled in the little park area before what i had labeled on my maps, but it was, like, the same vicinity lol. i wonder if the area further in would've been more occupied, but the spot we ended up at was very nice. the reservation is set down in these shale cliffs, so they rise up around the area, which was very cool

we hung out and ate and watched the moon work its way across the face of the sun for the hour. it was SO cool to watch the light change, to feel the temps cool as the sun was blacked out. the lighting was almost like the onset or after of a thunderstorm - where the dark sky is on one side and then the late day sun is on the other, giving that real dramatic atmosphere. absolutely one of my fave visuals tbh
i kept trying to get accurate pictures of the lighting, but my phone camera was not equipped lol




3:10 PM | 3:12 PM
3:15 PM | 3:16 PM
it was, hands down, the coolest thing i've experienced. when you take your eclipse glasses off after that last tiny sliver disappears and you go from the blackness of the glasses to the blotted out sun with that silver ring around it - so fuckin' cool and absolutely awe-inspiring. people shouted and clapped, everyone was stoked to be experiencing something most of us here won't be able to experience again w/o money and ability to travel - once in a lifetime for a lot of people. the last total eclipse in ohio was in 1806, the next one is something like 2099
i absolutely see why people chase eclipses like people chase storms. if i had the money, i would find a way to see one every year
it felt like a long 3 minutes, but also so fleeting
i did think it would get darker! but sometimes you've gotta experience something to understand why that doesn't make sense haha - i had thought it would get FULL dark - like night w/o any ambient light, but realizing, yeah, the moon is only blocking our view of the sun and the sun is still RIGHT THERE beaming out rays around the mood, it made sense why it didn't, but the darkness was STILL cool - more like dusk than night with the all around sunset
the temp drop was cool, as well as the random breezes we'd get!
there were also a TON of (what we were pretty sure were) vultures flying above the hollow right before totality. tony and my mom counted something like 14-16
after totality, a lot of people left the park. we planned to stick around for a bit just to avoid any traffic and, well, we drove an hour and a half up there, may as well enjoy ourselves. we ate some more, watched the other half of partiality, packed up the car and then took a little walk around the trails and the river




stuck our feet in the river, collected some shells and shale, watched butterflies, etc., etc
the drive back was about the same as the drive up, but we decided to stop back in medina to check out the little bookshop there (most other things in their downtown area were closed by 6-ish)

real cute little shop. we bought some art prints and stickers (i don't really buy books anymore unless one sticks with me lol b/c i can always read for free at work). we also wandered a bit and popped into a little kitchenware/gourmet shop and picked up an enchilada soup mix and honey sticks lol. definitely other stuff i would've liked to try, but did not have the money for lol
got back home around 7pm or so. my mom headed out and we unpacked the car. i was very thankful i worked at noon on monday lol b/c i could actually get some sleep/rest b/c i was BEAT
but, yeah. a good birthday. a good monday. a good eclipse
no subject
Nice spot too, not too many people as to be overwhelming but enough extra people to experience the awe and joy of the event, together.
And, happy birthday!
no subject
also thank!!