Half-heartbroke

That's sort of how I'm feeling for not having been able to see yesterday's total eclipse of the sun. I've known for months that it would be totality in Ontario and had planned in my mind to go. Only as things worked out, that just wasn't to be. 

Sure, as you can see, the images on tv were pretty amazing, but the experience certainly isn't the same as seeing one live. 

My first one was when I was about five, though I'm not finding much in the way of corroborating evidence. I know I was with my mother and that we went to local lakeside and had to hold up eye protection to be safe. Bizarrely, I think that may have consisted of doubled-up negative sheets from then-common rolls of film. For all I know, that might be when my eyes faded from supposedly dark brown to the more hazel they now are. 

Later, there was one (probably partial) here in BC, a wintry-seeming day, so likely overcast. I mostly remember that it got darker and there wasn't any birdsong--in itself a chilling factor. 

And then, quite a good one in August of 2017. My sister came to visit and the two of us sat on deck chairs out in the front yard, exchanging small talk with the occasional passerby, feeling so cool in our hardly-Hollywood cardboard viewing glasses. An elderly man who lived down the street was taking a stroll with his son, and we lent the two of them our glasses so they could look without harming their eyes. It was strange, as despite what had seemed like a lot of publicity, neither of them had been aware of the scheduled eclipse. As Garth, the older man, handed back my glasses, he thanked me and said he was pretty sure he wouldn't see another. Sure enough, a few months later, he was gone. 

So I called this post 'half-heartbroke' and I can't pretend that I'm not super sad, but yes, not totality in the 'heartbroke' department, as I'm pretty sure that I'm not in the same situation as Garth and that yes, I will be around to view another one, even if it isn't from the comfort of our yard. 

At least that's certainly my hope. The only thing I know for sure is that when it comes again I plan to get myself into the path of the next one. Spain is sounding pretty tempting. I even have my old glasses from the one here in 2017 ready and waiting.