Celestial Happenings

 Or The Eclipse Has Come and Gone but Is Not Forgotten

Image from James Webb Space Telescope

Most people are moving on after Monday's eclipse. They have posted their pictures on social media and told stories of the traffic they endured in the path of totality. I've moved on, sort of.

We viewed the actual eclipse in our backyard with the neighbors. We had an 87% blackout at our location and were lucky it was only partly cloudy. While the "lights" dimmed, the biggest change we noted was the marked drop in temperature. It was enough so that I retreated inside for a jacket. Ward and I were duly impressed and may travel to see the next one in a couple of years in Spain. But that's just a pipe dream for now.

However, the real excitement for the eclipse began a few months ago when I was told that I needed to do a program about the eclipse. I was putting one together before I remembered that we had previously had someone from NASA come to our library to do programs. She said yes, a date was settled on, and I relaxed a little. So much better to have an expert come than for me to educate myself and try to come up with something. We advertised through the normal channels, and I encouraged my friends and family to come. I was worried we would have a small turnout, which I didn't want for our speaker. 

And then it all began. On Thursday, the day of the program, the phone calls started coming in. Did we have eclipse glasses? Yes, but they are for the program. We'll pass out any leftovers after the program on a first-come, first-served basis. We were surprised when people started to line up 1 1/2 hours ahead of time. We opened the doors 15 minutes early, and the 70 chairs in the room were filled quickly. The doors closed, and others were told that they could go into the library for glasses. I stayed in the room to introduce the speaker and do crowd management. I was lucky. I got to hear an interesting program with an engaged audience.

Meanwhile, outside the program room, the line started to grow out of the lobby onto the sidewalk. That's the line Ward was in. Everyone seemed to need another pair of glasses for someone who couldn't make it. When no exceptions were made, people were upset. I was lucky that I didn't get the brunt of that. We had 253 pairs of glasses that were all passed out that night. 

There were phone calls and walk-ins asking for glasses the following days until everything came to a fevered pitch Monday morning before the eclipse. It was reminiscent of the toilet paper frenzy during COVID. The phone calls came in much faster than we could answer them. It was crazy, and I felt sorry for the people who had other library business. I was exhausted from the chaos and glad I got off just in time to go home to view the event.

We're a small local library with friendly customers, so these large numbers of inquiries were out of the ordinary for us, as were the short tempers. However, let me clarify that most people were polite, even when they were surprised that we didn't have any glasses for them. I don't know if they ever found any last-minute ones, as all the libraries, Walmart, and the drug stores were out. Hopefully, they found someone to share with as we did with our neighbors and Theo with his coworkers.

I am really happy that the program was a success, and I think I will remember the excitement at work around the eclipse more than I will the covering of the sun during the middle of the day. Maybe. The eclipse was really amazing.

Until next time...