(296): Doin’ Yardwork in the Middle of the Solar Eclipse in Southern Tennessee

Betta Tryptophan
Aug 22, 2017 · 3 min read
What do these three record albums have in common? Almost nothing, except…they’re all pressed on thin virgin vinyl, which allows a small amount of light through the record (it has a reddish-brown tint). Great for holding up to the Sun without destroying the eyes, or at least I hope so!

Just as the title says, I was suited up for a hostile environment that is southern middle Tennessee in the late summertime, pushing my electric mower around the house, when I began to notice the light changing, as if the sun had gone behind clouds. Of course, I knew better. I had already brought my camera out (on which I took some lame pictures) and my virgin vinyl viewing accessories (aka, record albums pressed on virgin vinyl that is thin enough to admit a small amount of light through them).

I’ve got to say that I was kind of excited. I was out of the path of totality by a little way (about 60 or so miles), but close enough that only a small sliver of sun would remain at around 1:30 p.m. CDT. I could have driven north to Nashville and seen the fall of night in the middle of the day, but, well, I had to mow the lawn! (And I hate driving in heavy traffic). So, at 1:30 p.m. or thereabouts, I held up the record of Heintje, the singing Dutch boy, to the blazing disc in the sky in my backyard — to see that it had become a crescent. It was an aberration in the cosmos! How exciting!

All of these photos were taken manually with the same settings (ISO 400, F/5.0, 1/80 sec. exposure); the only thing that varies is the time at which they were taken.

Then my husband came outside with the dogs, looked up, and proclaimed it “lame,” probably because it wasn’t completely dark. Lame? Well, each to his own. He did, however, liven things up by playing a wonderful but little-known tune from the early 1980s. Appropriately, it is named Total Eclipse, and it is by a strange fellow from another planet who is, alas, no longer with us.

The inimitable Klaus Nomi (from the planet Nomi, aka Germany). YouTube.

After the very few minutes of moderate excitement, I unfortunately had to get on with the job of mowing, which wore me completely out and drained my brain. So this is all you get. Sorry, folks! Move along, nothing more to see here! 😎 ‘Night y’all!

A snap through virgin vinyl sometime before 1:30 p.m.

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Betta Tryptophan

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Blue-haired middle-aged lady with a tendency to say socially and politically incorrect things and to make inappropriate jokes. Awkward and (sort of) proud of it

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