Back-Breaking Diversion

Since it appears as though our weather will be great for the solar eclipse, I've been focused on getting all my astronomy and photography gear prepped for the big couple of minutes of total solar eclipse.  

I also raked the part of the backyard where we will be setting up for the total eclipse.  Everything seemed to be going well and then we had well over a foot of heavy, wet snow dumped on us...  again.  The same thing happened less than a week earlier!

So, two large amounts of snow followed immediately by temperatures in the 40s and 50s...  extra showers after getting soaked in sweat due to cleaning up the yard, driveway, paths and backyard, then extra loads of laundry to clean the sweat-soaked clothing, then Saturday came along when Sheila cleans the sheets and does all of her own laundry...  this resulted in a backed-up septic system.  Naturally, it is a weekend and we don't want to call to have the septic pumped out on the weekend so we're making-do with a very slow and mostly full septic system until Tuesday.  The eclipse is Monday and I do not want to be out there watching the eclipse while the septic is being pumped out nor do I have the time to dig a hole to the cap of the septic tank.  It can wait until Tuesday.

What triggered all these problems and diversions is a second heavy dumping of snow within a week just days before the eclipse.  The septic problem is on hold while we now get ready for the eclipse again.

Needless to say, this heavy dumping of snow hasn't helped my extensive spinal injuries especially since I am still struggling with joint inflammation due to long-COVID.  I continue to limp around and occasionally use my cane.  Now the pain has worsened again after clearing off the roof and the yard.  Oh yeah...  the yard...

When I shot these two photos here in this blog entry, some snow had melted already.  Even though this snow is melting rather quickly in the warm spring weather, I still figured this snow would not be gone by the time we were setting up the yard for the eclipse.  That means I needed to clear a path and clear a large area of the yard so we have a place to enjoy the eclipse...

All those little patches of snow remaining in the path and in the area cleared for viewing the eclipse have now melted.  I did some additional raking yesterday just to tidy-up the area.  

Lukey and Kenzie (our two oldest grandchildren) will be coming over today to stay with us through the eclipse.  We'll start setting up the backyard tomorrow morning.  There is a lot to do for this two and a half minute total eclipse.  This will be the last eclipse anywhere near us for the rest of my lifetime so I definitely want to ensure I capture great photos and video!  That's my goal anyway.

I'll be setting up five telescopes on four telescope mounts.  One telescope will be dedicated to images and video.  The four remaining telescopes will be available for viewing throughout the entire eclipse.  I'll have one small tripod shooting video of us from behind with the sun in the sky.  I'll have another camera on a tripod for capturing photos of the corona.  And, I'll have yet another camera on another tripod for capturing an image of the whole sky during totality.  

This will all happen quite quickly so I have a five page checklist to run through after I set everything up.  Everything needs to be timed perfectly in order to capture photos and video as especially for safety.  Of course, we'll have a few tables and chairs set up too.

It should be fun especially with Lukey and Kenzie joining us.  

By the way, the good weather today and tomorrow is a complete shock!  This sort of weather at this time of year is an exceptionally rare occurrence for our neck of the woods.  It is sunny and beautiful out there today.  They say tomorrow will be the same...  I hope so!

...then I'll need to deal with the septic problem.  In the meantime, it is lakehouse rules...  minimal water use and if it's yellow, let it mellow...