It was hyped for weeks! TV, social media everywhere. But we kinda rode the wave. We didn't get overly psycho about it but we did read about it and speculate about what it would be like here in VT and all the people it would bring, etc.
The Easter Bunny brought us all eclipse t-shirts! Casey and Staci made a few crafts (see pics) and we made a sweet munch that Casey named "Space Junk." We had our glasses ready. Gene put some seating out back in the dog yard (not the poopy part).
We got Casey in his chair in the AM and then down for a break and a rest and then back up again. Somehow Gene managed to drive him around the side and to the back of the house without getting stuck. We had snow last Wednesday to Thursday--and a lot of it, but it melted quickly but of course that equals mud. We got Casey tilted in a good position in his chair. Gene and I are kinda freaked out about Casey watching the whole time so we just had him watch here and there. I found a craft that used a paper plate that would help block out any light that might seep around that eclipse glasses. So we had him use that. I worried that if his glasses got cocked that he might have his eyes damaged because he couldn't tell us that they were not in proper placement so this made me feel better.
It was way warmer that we expected so we had a fleece blanket on Casey and he had fuzzy muk luks on his feet. I took out Colin's blanket that MJ and Brenda sent him in Sept of 2004 that has a space theme so that was cool. (see pic) Of course as the eclipse creeped towards totality, the air got a lot cooler so Casey was glad for his blanket. AND, the second that the sun was maybe 3/4 hidden, the damn mosquitoes came out! Gene said they were still babies and probably couldn't bite but they were gross swarming around.
Molly behaved pretty well. Earlier, Gene was playing with Molly with sticks and somehow Molly pounced on a stick and impaled her mouth with it! He was freaked out. There was lots of blood and he wasn't sure if she was breathing and he thought he was going to have to bring her to the emergency vet! But then she was fine! She's not wanting to eat her kibble, even with the warmed water, so he's going to get her some canned food and hope she can tolerate eating it.
Casey was very cooperative the whole time we were out there. He didn't have his T (communication device) as he needed to wear his eclipse glasses so he couldn't wear his glasses that have his switch on them. It's hard enough to use the device outside anyway. And when he has it, he tends to do his own thing and not pay attention to whatever we are doing, be it a concert, in a store, or an event like the eclipse. Without his device he couldn't talk to us, but it did enable him to pay better attention to the phenomenon.
We listened to Alek's radio/eclipse show on his station. Alek is Nurse Staci's son and he is blind. He was lent a device that, in a way, allowed blind people to experience the eclipse. He was outside on his deck and propped the device towards the sun and it would give a series of sounds as the sun became more and more covered by the moon. It's called the LightSound device. It changes light into sounds. Kinda cool. He also played some of our music requests: Sound Garden's Black Hole Sun and some of The Beatles tunes. Casey was pleased.
Once it got close to totality, it went so quickly! We got brave and let Casey look without his glasses when it hit totality. I think he thought it was cool. It got pretty darn dark and chilly and the shadows looked weird. I didn't really try to take any pictures-left that up to the professionals.
I've added all pics related to our the eclipse, starting with the window decorations Casey and Staci made...
