"Mom, PLEASE let me skip school and let's drive to see the eclipse on Monday," my 17 year old son begged last week.

I looked at him and knew exactly how he felt...I've wanted to see a total eclipse my entire life...To experience darkness for over two minutes at mid day...to see the moons shadow stretch across the sun...to witness the burst of light of the 'Diamond Effect'....yep! I wanted to see it....LIVE....but I'm an adult...

"Seriously, Bud? You want me to drive over five hours to watch the eclipse when there are NASA videos posted online of what it will look like anywhere in the U.S.?" The adult in me needed to make the decision here. "We will be able to see the eclipse right outside our door. I have a preschool teacher work day on the 22nd at 8:30 am and you have school." 

"The shadow will only cover 92% of the sun here, Mom. We have to be in the path of totality. PLEASE, Mom. I'll drive some of the way. If we go to Kentucky it'll only be about five hours down and five back." 

"Ten hours of driving for an 8% difference?" I had to give him a hard time even though at this point the little kid in me had conquered my adult side and I had decided to go.

"You know you want to see it, Mom...it's a once in a life time thing."

"I saw a partial eclipse back in the 90s And...in seven years another solar eclipse will occur with the path of totality in our back yard." I tried really hard to contain the smile that was spreading across my face.

"You know, Mom...It could be cloudy in 2024...." He started to grin because he knew he had me.

"It could be cloudy in Kentucky on Monday," I was already developing a plan to pack my camera, a cooler, lawn chairs, and make a pin hole projector. 

"Can we go ...PLEASE?"

I waited two days and checked with the school---traveling to watch the eclipse was an excused absence. I was thrilled the little kid in me had the opportunity to override the adult part of me  "Check the path of totality, Bud. We want to go to a place where there isn't going to be a ton of people....not Hopkinsville."

He researched little towns just off the highways and decided on Princeton, KY. It didn't take much persuasion to get my husband and one of my daughters to come. My other daughter is at college already and I know she would have loved to have gone with us. 

Monday morning we left at 5:00am to give us plenty of time to get there for the start at 12:00CDT. The forecast was sunny and hot...no clouds! We made it to a super center parking lot in Princeton by 10:30 CDT--- along with hundreds of others. The store manager walked around and told all of people that they would overlook the loitering law. They even passed out solar glasses to folks who didn't have them. We played cards, did a little shopping, and then got ready for the celestial show.

"It's starting!" A tiny edge of the sun had started to hide behind the moon. Everyone had on their solar glasses and some people---including me---used mirrors to reflect the sunlight on to a white board. We had fun looking at the sun through the glasses. We also reflected the image on a white board with a mirror and watched the sun slowly hide behind the moon.

I continued to snap pictures with the solar glasses over my lens. The sun became smaller and smaller....During the hour and twenty minutes that it too for the moon's shadow to cover the sun, I took some amazing pictures with my digital 35mm camera. This one is right before totality.

And then....it happened....Totality...I took the safety glasses off my camera and took these shots. We could look at the sun without the safety glasses at this time for two minutes and forty seconds....the longest totality anywhere in the United States.

It was AMAZING! I realized it was fairly dark and that the temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees.

We knew totality was coming to the end when we saw the upper right side of the sun begin to bulge. The Diamond Effect was coming....the brilliant flash of sunlight peaking out from behind the shadow....the end of totality. I heard my son shout..."Here it comes!" I pressed the shutter of my camera and caught a glimpse of the dazzling sunlight shooting out from behind the moon's shadow. It flashed for a mere split second and was the most incredible thing I've ever seen in the sky. The 'Ooohs' and 'Ahhhas' of onlookers filled the air. It was truly a once in a life time experience. And.....here are the pictures I took.

Soon the parking lot had emptied and we packed up our chairs and cooler to leave. I drove the first three hours and we had traveled less than 50 miles to the southern tip of Indiana at a snail pace. After an hour dinner break and six more hours of driving.... we made it home. The adult in me grumbled about the traffic....the little kid smiled the entire time and is still smiling. Would I do it again? Absolutely!

At preschool's meet the teacher night, one of my student's parents showed me a picture he had taken here in Indiana. It was cloudy during the 92% eclipse so there wasn't much to see in the sky...but take a look at what he captured on the ground. The sunlight filtered through the trees and created crescent shadows. Incredible!

Photo credit: J. McElhannon 

April 8, 2024, will be the next total solar eclipse in the United States. We won't have to drive 4 plus hours to get to a totality viewing place.....or creep in traffic over eight hours to get home....The path of totality will run through my home town. What we will need is another sunny day. If it happens to be cloudy...l'll take pictures of the ground.

No matter what the weather will bring in 2024, I'll have these pictures. Big thanks to my son for bringing out the inner kid in me in 2017.

Happy celestial gazing. 
---Anne

I love reading sweet romance! The Morrison Family Series combines strong family values with a small town feeling...all mixed in with a little suspense that keeps me turning pages. Here's a peek at a short excerpt from The Trouble With Nerds.  


Clay placed a hand at the small of her back and ushered her out of the hospital. He didn’t move it until they reached the front passenger door of his massive SUV. Sara calculated the distance between the passenger seat in relation to the ground.
“I’m wearing a pencil skirt.”
“I can see that.” No indication whether he approved of this state or not.
Maybe she could step into the huge vehicle sideways? There was no way she could avoid flashing the fact she did still possess a few pairs of underwear if she had to step up into his SUV.
She sighed.
Clay opened the door, scooped her around the waist, and swung her into the vehicle. All without breaking a sweat. He buckled her seatbelt with professionalism. Then shut her door in the same detached manner.
Did I miss something?
Her breathing had only just resumed normal operations when he strode around the vehicle. The man didn’t use the running board to climb in. Like a normal person. He stepped into the driver’s seat as though this beastly SUV was car-sized. Muttering under her breath about tall people, Sara settled into the seat.
“Dinner?”
Her heart tripped a beat. “What?”
He repeated the question.
“What about it?”
“Do you want to go somewhere for dinner?”

Whoa! I haven't read to that part yet....I'll have to stop blogging and read more!
Here's a list of D.R. Grady's books...oh, and I highly recommend The Dragon Chronicles----my personal favorites!
 
The Morrison Family Series:
The Nerd and the Marine
The Corpsman and the Nerd
The Nerd and the SEAL
The Nerd’s Pocket Pets
Shadows and Spice
Macy’s Parade
Bad Nerd Rising
Bad Nerd Falling
Nerds on Fire
Nerds Unite
The Trouble with Nerds
The Nerd who Spied Me
 
Free Short Stories:
Math Nerds and Mechanics
Tall Golf
 
The Me Series:
Treasure Me
Save Me
Trust Me
Heal Me
Love Me
 
The Dragon Chronicles Series:
The Dragon Chronicles Book 1: Learning
The Dragon Chronicles Book 2: Shifting
The Dragon Chronicles Book 3: Healing

Souls Endure: Book Three of The Souls Trilogy 
‘Without faith, love may not exist. Without love, evil takes control.’

Protected against the ring’s curse by their bond in marriage, Sam and Gretta begin a new life together. Gifted with a free honeymoon from strangers, they encounter visits from spirits of dead loved ones as they travel to the origins of the curse on Gretta’s ring. The beautiful Greek Islands become not only their honeymoon get-a-way, but their fated destiny where they will be forced to either break the curse or succumb to its evil.
 
With help from ancestral spirits Roxana and Katarina, Sam and Gretta time travel to the nineteenth century in search of answers to the mysteries behind the ring’s final curse. Faced with challenges of faith, trust, and forgiveness, Sam and Gretta prepare to make the ultimate sacrifice.

“What started out as a star-studded vacation has turned into a sensational avalanche...”

When private investigator Jordan James decided to join her best friend on the set of her hit television series in the Rocky Mountains, she had no idea she would become a key player in a murder mystery more suited for the big screen than the slopes. With one actor dead and a killer on the loose, can Jordan uncover the culprit before another victim makes headlines on Hollywood Minute?

"BITTER RETRIBUTION," Available Now on Amazon!!!
 
 

Thanks D.R. for sharing your Sweet Setting with us.....and now....an excerpt from NERDS UNITE
“What do you mean what’s wrong?” Katy eyed him in dismay, so certain she had managed to hide her fears.
Of course Leo had picked up on them—at least the tension in her body. He spent enough time in her personal space, more time than Trixi, who would also pick up her vibes if she wasn’t trampling Mark’s personal space so much these days.
“You’re tense, not sleeping, and you’re starting to jump at little noises.” Leo’s eyebrows nearly met over the bridge of his nose.
Uh oh.
He led them into the living room and firmly pointed to the couch. She sat, a little belligerent.
With little fanfare, he dropped beside her. His shoulders were squared, mouth grim.
“Talk, Kates.”
She took a deep breath, not certain she could explain what was going on. “The reason I haven’t said anything is because I’m not certain there is a problem.”
“Your instincts are telling you there is. Regardless of what your intellect is telling you.”
Katy shoved a hand through her hair. “What should I do?”
“Tell me what’s happening.” There was a thread of surgical steel hidden in his tone.
This looming dread had followed her to Hershey, so she had been carrying it a long time. Maybe it was time to unload it.
“At my residency in Maryland,” she started.
He nodded.
“I was working long hours, as you know.” All residents and fellows did, and Leo would have during his own final training period. “Anyway, I was there a lot, so I got to know all the people who were in any way connected to the trauma unit."
It wasn’t pleasant to relive this. “During that time there were a couple of men who made remarks, some subtle, some overt.”
“What kind of remarks?” From his tight jaw, Katy figured he had a good idea.
“Just the typical garbage jerks say to women.”
His jaw looked in danger of cracking.
“Most of the men didn’t give me trouble, a few even became good friends. But there was a small percentage that I avoided whenever possible.”
“Except it wasn’t always possible,” he surmised.
“No. Especially the one who ranked among the ‘distinguished’ specialists in the trauma field. He knew what he was doing and was excellent at his job, but...” she trailed off, uncertain how to proceed.
“But he came on to you?”
“Yeah.” Her heart dropped as a jittery energy flooded her. “His wife had died nine months or so before I arrived and he said he was ready to get out in the dating scene again. For whatever reason, I became his top pick. I reminded him that I got very little time off.”
“He assured you he could make certain you had time off.”
“Yes. Of course the catch was that I had to spend it with him.” Bile rose into her throat.
“I’m guessing you didn’t find him attractive?”
“No. He gave me the willies. There were at least two men there who did. Maybe more. Definitely him and a maintenance man were the two I avoided the most.”
“This surgeon made life difficult for you after he figured out you weren’t interested?”
She nodded, trying to forget his little campaign of terror. “The only saving grace was that there was another surgeon, the head of the department and happily married with grandkids, and he noticed. I think he talked to the other man and set him straight.”
“And it helped?”
Katy shrugged. “The lecher just took his efforts underground. He knew our boss wouldn’t tolerate any unprofessional behavior from him, so he kept it subtle afterward.”
“That’s called harassment.”
“Yes, it is.” She swallowed the bile still trying to creep up her throat.
“What happened?” A muscle in Leo’s jaw ticked.

​Sweet and Suspensful! Kind of like a chocolate bar....gonna eat one now:)
BIG Thanks to D.R. Grady for guest posting today! 

Readers and Chocolate Lovers Unite!!! Leave a comment and tell us what your favorite sweet or story setting is!
Monster (my cat) will randomly draw (paw) a comment.
If you're selected by Monster, you will receive an ebook of your choice....
Souls Entwined or Souls Estranged.

---Anne