Total Eclipse Of The Heart

The first day of school the US experienced a total solar eclipse. The DFW area had about 75% coverage. There was a lot of hype leading up to it. I couldn't talk about the total solar eclipse without actually singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. So much so that my kids were singing it, too. #80smusicrocks

The truth is, I was totally freaked out about my kids going out to look at the solar eclipse. I was scared they would take off their glasses even though they were threatened within an inch of life if they did. I was reading all kinds of stuff about how the sun wouldn't be too bright to look at with the naked eye, but it would still be too powerful if you did and they next day you would be blind. There were also shady (yes, that's a bad pun) sellers who sold 'solar' glasses that were not really strong enough to protect from blindness.

On top of that, I was remembering back to elementary when my teachers freaked me out about looking directly at the sun during the eclipse. I remember being scared to look up and staring into a box to see a tiny little round dot. I guess it made enough of an impression that I remember that much, but it certainly didn't seem like it made an impression at the time.

Forward 40 years. {Forty years?! Crap, I am getting old.} Here I am, trying to scare my kids into not looking at the sun and becoming blind. But now we have these cool solar glasses at our fingertips that may or may not prevent blindness. Because I was seriously frightened and I didn't have my own glasses, I helped another parent take a few kids out at a time so we could make sure they didn't look directly at the sun. It was weirdly overcast, yet sunny. The glasses were totally black, but when you looked in the general direction of the sun, it looked like a moon crescent.

Here is a picture commemorating the event with Lijee. (When he looked at the sun he had his glasses on better than in this picture, in case you are wondering.)

 Here is the Daiser in her solar glasses.

 I had heard that shadows from the trees would be crescents. Sure enough. Kinda cool.

Now we have lived through a total solar eclipse with 75% coverage. We'll get to do it again in a few years. Maybe I won't be so freaked out about my kids going blind then since they will be older. But probably I still will.

🎤🎶Turn around bright eyes.🎵🎤

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