I Wear My Sunglasses At Night

     Tomorrow’s the big day.  That much anticipated celestial spectacular, the Great American Eclipse,  is almost here and there’s great excitement in the air.
     While driving along I-270 this morning  on my way to Cincinnati to visit Callie and Theresa,

​...and their kitty Dory

...I saw along the highway an electronic billboard time clock that was counting down the time until The Eclipse would arrive to grace the heavens above Central Ohio.  At that time, around 8:30 am,  there was, according to the time clock,  1 day, 4 hours, and 38 minutes left until the event.   Which means that The Eclipse will arrive a few minutes after 1 pm, or so. But as it might not have been exactly  8:30 when I saw the the billboard, maybe a few minutes before or after, I could be few minutes off about the time of The Eclipse.  Still, a few minutes is - from what I understand - critical when one is eclipse-watching,  as -  from what I understand - the show lasts only a couple of minutes.
     But it doesn't really matter. Before I saw that billboard time clock this morning  I didn't have any idea what time the the Totality - the moments of the total eclipse of the the sun  (or as close to total as  will depend upon one's location) - was taking place.  Nor was I intending to seek out that information.
     Because I'm not doing The Eclipse.  I won't be outside tomorrow afternoon looking for it.
     I figure I'll just go on about my business while that placid dame, the moon's Celestial Highness steals for a few moments from the sun the light she nightly borrows,* and then later  I'll look at the beautiful pictures that will be posted all over the internet.
     But I won't be watching The Eclipse in real time.
    Because I've always been afraid of eclipses.  I'm afraid of eclipses the same way I'm afraid of water because I don't know how to swim and bees because I'm very allergic to their sting.
     I'm afraid of eclipses because looking at one can make a person go blind.  Or so it was drilled into myself and all the other youngsters who, back in 1963, experienced our first eclipse.
     "Don't look!" we were told by the adults, "not even a quick peek!"
     Rather, all kids back then were given instructions, carried in every newspaper in the country at that time and passed on to us from our worried parents, to build this sort of camera obscura box thing, which involved poking a pin-hole in one side of a large cardboard box then holding the box over your head while you aimed the pin-hole at the sun just before the eclipse then watched as the circle of sunlight produced on the inside of the box was decimated to a thin corona before reappearing in full.
     Of course the dang thing didn't work for me or any of my friends who stood holding boxes over our heads hoping to see a shadow play of The Eclipse.
      But it did keep us all from going blind.
      So I intend to keep from going blind this time, too.
      I know there are approved glasses you can wear. 
​    Callie and Theresa offered me a pair from the stash they've acquired  for the occasion.

     But I said no thanks. 
      I'll probably stay inside, anyway. 
   But if I do happen to go outside during The Eclipse I will not life mine eyes heavenwards to see the stars and planets come out.  

     As Emily, a fellow eclipse-watching non-aficionado pointed out, "Just wait a few hours and they'll all be out again."

     Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

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