Capital Eclipse
“Seems like everyone
Is out looking for the sun”
Ozark Mountain Daredevils, “It’ll Shine When It Shines”
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“Sunshine go away today
I don’t feel much like dancing
Some man’s come he’s trying to run my life
He don’t know what he’s asking”
Jonathan Edwards, Sunshine
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It was not a day that you wanted to buy a potted plant. Especially if your name’s Seymour. (“Seymour, feed me.”) I learned in the morning that the peak eclipse time for the District would be 2:42 p.m. I had a meeting that ended at 2:20 and another that would start up at 3:00, so I ordered a Caramel Macchiato with my Starbucks app, and headed over to the nearest Starbucks, about a half mile away, figuring I could catch the eclipse on the way back from picking up my order.
I couldn’t believe all the people who were out to catch the eclipse — it looked like there’d been an emergency evacuation.
They were out there with boxes, telescopes, welder’s helmets, and lots of eclipse glasses. I had as much fun looking at all the goofy people looking up at the sun, as they had looking at the sun. It was a wild coffee-run walk!
As I approached my building, I saw my colleague, who had the eclipse glasses, and another co-worker, right there on the corner of 12th and Independence, and it was just about 2:42. Perfect! Frank lent me his shades, and I got to catch the full, 85% solar eclipse.
DeShanta, who was coming down from Beltsville to give a presentation at the 3:00 meeting I was going to, got a picture of the eclipse through the garage guard’s eclipse glasses. She showed it to me, as I sipped my macchiato, and enjoyed the idea that we all had just enjoyed a once in a lifetime moment, me on a typical afternoon Starbucks run.
Then, we all went back to our daily business.
