We got our money's worth.

 

It was a can't miss event. Motels were sold out two years ago at prices five times there normal rates. Traffic on I-81 near Syracuse was a solid two lanes of cars on both Saturday and Sunday all heading north into the "totality zone". Jean and I live in Lafayette which is just east of I-81. Originally we were in the zone and gave consideration to renting out rooms at rates high enough to take care our real property taxes and the balance due on our 2023 income tax return (don't believe everything I say). A week or so ago someone discovered that either the moon had shrunk or that the sun had gotten bigger and that perhaps a smidgeon of the sun would be peaking around the moon in Lafayette.

We cancelled the rental idea and gave (brief) consideration to driving forty-five miles up 81 to our niece's house where a totality celebration was scheduled. In the end we decided to put two chairs out on the porch, each put on a pair of "eclipse glasses" that Jean bought for $.98 cents each and see what happened.

The day dawned bright and sunny. By noon there were high clouds. At three, the darkest clouds of the day rolled in. I switched between my polaroid's and the eclipse glasses, Jean stuck with the eclipse glasses. There were enough breaks in the clouds that we saw what in Lafayette was a partial eclipse (the sun was about 99% percent covered). To the north west of us we could see total darkness. During the near totality everything got quiet except for a piliated woodpecker that decided to laugh at the spectacle and a partridge that felt it was a good time to drum for a mate. Decided in advance not to drive down I-81 to Lordville after the eclipse. Left about eight this morning and had light traffic.

Spent the late morning and early afternoon getting things back in shape and about 2:00 with the temp at 74 on the car thermometer I took a drive. The water is too high to wade almost everywhere and it has been too cold to have anything but stone flies hatching. At 3:00 I was trying to reach fish that were rising to may flies (not many flies or fish). Was able to get within range of what I thought were four fish. Hooked two and everything stopped. I think it was just the two fish moving around trying to find flies to eat. The fish were two browns, one was fifteen and the other measured an honest twenty inches. It's a start.     



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