I would love to but I live on the east coast, near Philadelphia, and it’s not a prime spot for it. And while I didn’t get to view it, I did get to experience a total solar eclipse, this one, in February of 1976. I was living in Portland, OR at the time, a prime location for the eclipse, but it was overcast that day. Suprise! Cloudy skies in February in Portland! But it was still amazing. I remember that when the eclipse started all the birds, particularly, started getting a little crazy and the eclipse was something you could almost feel. It was kind of eery, kind of natural and preternatural at the same time. It’s hard to explain how I “felt” the eclipse even though I couldn’t see it.
That was a pretty amazing time to live in that area, in terms of natural phenomena and I am grateful to have been there then. There was the total solar eclipse in 1979 and then Mt. St. Helens coming to life and erupting the next year, 1980. I’ve been thinking about that today, of course, because May 18 is the anniversary of Mt. St. Helens’ big eruption. We would get ash “showers, ” ash “storms” in Portland, from the mountain, where ash would fall down like snowflakes and you could see the minor, and some not so minor, eruptions and the “dome building” eruptions in the distance. You could get an excellent view of the mountain just from some of the pedestrian bridges in town. I know it is a little off topic, but if you or anyone cares to look, the Boston Globe has collected and posted some great images on one of their websites to commemorate Mt. St. Helens’ anniversary. Fluther doesn’t lend itself very well to questions like: “Does anyone want to help me celebrate the 32nd anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens?” so hope you don’t mind me posting them here.
Thar she blows!