Randy’s Blog

I did not sleep well at all the night before the eclipse. It took me a long time to fall asleep. And then, unbeknownst to us, our hotel room's alarm clock was set to go off at 6am. That was... an unpleasant surprise. I never really got back to sleep after that.

After breakfast at the hotel, I loaded up on caffeine, and we started the 2 hour drive west to Vincennes. Along the way, we saw people preparing for the eclipse. There were several parking lots full of RVs, and some people out setting up telescopes. The weather went from partly cloudy, to totally cloudy, to "we can't see the sky because of all the fog", and back to partly cloudy. Wendy was texting with her family along the way, and we arrived at the golf course around 11am, just a few minutes after they got there.

We found a spot underneath a shade tree and started to get settled in. Wendy and I brought 2 folding chairs, which we hadn't used in a long time, and it was at this point we discovered mice had thoroughly chewed up one of them. Yuck. I threw that chair into a dumpster. Thankfully, Bill and Beth were ultra-prepared (as usual!) and had an extra chair we could use, so everyone had a place to sit.

There were already a lot of cars parked at the golf course when we arrived, and they just kept coming. The staff did an impressive job packing a bunch of cars (and a couple of school buses as it turned out!) into a fairly small space. Thankfully, people could sit anywhere they wanted on the golf course, so everyone spread out and it didn't feel crowded despite a lot of people being there.

We had about 4 hours to kill before totality, so to pass the time, we:

• sat around and chatted
• ate the picnic lunches we all brought
• waited in long lines at the bathrooms
• took a walk around part of the golf course
  
• rolled down hills:

The golf course offered a catered lunch, but we did not take part. I grabbed a moon pie at one point, though, and I discovered that wow, moon pies are not very good. I must have known this back in 2017 because our hotel gave us free moon pies, but I apparently forgot what they taste like, because it was not good at all.

Amazingly, the entire time we were at the golf course, the sky was almost totally clear. There were a few very thin, very faint clouds, but there was no doubt we would be able to see the eclipse. How nice!

Finally, at 1:47 PM, the moon made "contact" with the sun, starting the partial phase of the eclipse.

As it progressed, the effects became noticeable. Our shadows got sharper:

And you could see evidence of the moon covering up the sun:

In the few minutes before totality, the sky grew eerily dark, and we were able to see Venus, Jupiter, and the star Capella. Then we saw the "diamond ring" effect, and then totality began! It was very cool and awesome and hard to describe. It was absolutely wild that the sun turned black. The corona was easily visible, and very impressive. I think it might have been more impressive than in 2017. We also saw a Bailey's bead (a tiny bright speck of sun caused by hills and valleys on the moon).

Totality lasted for about 4 minutes and 6 seconds, but it went by fast! It did not feel like four minutes. Just like in 2017, I set up a digital camera to record reactions during the eclipse. The video is embedded below, which starts about a minute before totality. (At the beginning you can hear a motorbike in the distance, but thankfully whoever it was took a break when totality began.)

One thing I did differently for this eclipse is I brought along a compass and checked it periodically before, during, and after totality to see if the compass needle changed at all (at one point in the video you see me run to the camera where I grabbed a flashlight so I could check the compass). This idea came from Gregory Little who has done a lot of research on Native American mounds. He organized a small citizen science project to get people to check for any magnetic changes at Native American mounds during the total eclipse. Obviously I was at a golf course, not a mounds site, but I decided try the experiment anyway. (Although there actually is a mound in downtown Vincennes, the Sugar Loaf mound.)

I did not observe any changes in the compass. Later I learned that some people used a video camera to record their compass during the event, and Little said five people detected a small half-degree blip in the compass needle right at the start of totality. Interesting! Now I wish I'd aimed my camera at the compass, and somehow attached a flashlight for when it got dark. (Maybe that will be a project for the 2045 eclipse!) I'm not sure how valuable my observations were, but I did send them to Little, and to say thanks for participating, he sent me a free t-shirt:

(He joked that he even autographed it to "make it worth less"!)

Shortly after totality ended, Wendy's family headed out, since they had a long drive back to Kentucky. Wendy and I stuck around a bit longer, but then we drove the 2 hours to our hotel. There was a lot more traffic on the way back, but it wasn't too bad. We were both starving and exhausted by the time we got to our room, so we ate our leftover pizza (hurray for hotel rooms with refrigerators!) and sat on the couch reading/watching TV for the rest of the evening.

The next day, Tuesday, we drove home. Traffic was heavy, due in part to construction and accidents, so it took about an hour longer than it would have normally.

And that was our trip! I'm so happy we got to see the eclipse. It was a lot of fun to share the experience with Wendy's family.

Last week Wendy and I traveled to Indiana to see the total solar eclipse!

Seven years ago we went to Nebraska to see our first total solar eclipse. For that trip, I did a ton of research ahead of time: reading books, attending lectures, scouring over maps, and making a lot of lists. I was determined to be prepared for any eventuality. If you recall, that trip ultimately culminated in an epic 4-part series of blog posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (the actual day of the eclipse), and Part 4.

Although I was still excited for this year's eclipse, I did not do nearly as much preparation. In 2017, we picked Nebraska for our viewing location because, historically speaking, it had the best odds of clear skies. Since that worked out well, I decided to follow the same line of reasoning for this year's eclipse. The historical cloud cover maps said south-central Texas was the place to be for clear skies, so around this time last year I booked a hotel for us in San Antonio, which was just inside the path of totality. I figured we could drive a bit closer to the center to get an even longer totality experience.

Right after I made the reservation, though, I started to think about backup plans. Bill had mentioned possibly going to Indiana to see the eclipse, since it wasn't too far from Abby and Matt. The historical data said the odds were not good for clear skies in April in Indiana, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to make a backup hotel reservation since it could be canceled if needed. So I looked around and was able to find a hotel in Columbus, IN, which was just south of Indianapolis and would get roughly 3 minutes of totality. I felt better having a backup plan.

As the eclipse got closer, plans came into better focus. Wendy's family was going to drive north from Kentucky to a town called Vincennes, IN, and watch the eclipse from a golf course. Vincennes was almost right on the center-line of the eclipse path, and would get just over 4 minutes of totality. Plus, it was only a 2 hour drive from our Indiana hotel, so it was feasible for us to drive there the morning of the eclipse, and watch it with Wendy's family. That pretty much sealed the deal and made Indiana become our eclipse destination. I canceled our San Antonio hotel.

The week before the eclipse the forecasts were predicting around 50% cloud cover for Indiana, which wasn't great, but it turned out San Antonio was looking even worse! So I was thankful I was going to the better spot, and I crossed my fingers and reminded myself cloud cover forecasting was very difficult to do.

Sunday morning, the day before the eclipse, Wendy and I drove down to Indiana. It rained during the first leg of the trip, which was not an auspicious start. To our surprise, though, traffic wasn't that bad. However, when we pulled into a rest area in Indiana there were so many cars that we had to wait in line to find a parking spot! It turned out there were plenty of spots at the end of the lot, but no one pulled forward far enough to see them. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful, and by late afternoon we were checked into our hotel. The city of Columbus was going all out for the eclipse, and had tons of events going on. We heard about a renaissance fair, and saw a bunch of people out jogging as part of a 5K run.

That evening we went out to eat at a place called Hot Box Pizza, which was surprisingly good. Afterwards, Wendy remembered she had recorded a Nova episode about solar eclipses on our DVR at home, but had forgotten to watch it before we left. I discovered the entire episode, called "Great American Eclipse" was available on YouTube, which the TV in our hotel room could access. So we watched that, and it was pretty good.

Before going to bed, I checked the forecast again. A popular website among amateur astronomers for cloud cover forecasts is cleardarksky.com. It showed two different models for Vincennes. One said the sky would be completely clear, the other said it would be completely cloudy. Go figure!

A few weeks ago, Wendy and I were in Arizona doing some sight-seeing with my family. One day, after lunch, we stopped at Insomnia Cookies for dessert. I ordered a triple-chocolate-chunk deluxe cookie. The employee went into the back room, came back, and said they were out of those. I thought he said I could have two regular chocolate chunk cookies instead, for the same price. So I said sure. He handed me the bag of cookies, but when I opened it a moment later, there were actually three cookies inside!!! I was totally excited and ate all three. I regret nothing. They were delicious.

This reminded me of another momentous occasion, one that occurred in high school, and which I enshrined in a college application essay. I looked through the files on my computer and found a copy of it. The application had asked me to describe a dramatic moment in my life. This is what I wrote:

“Yeah, I’d like two quarter pounders and a medium Coke.”

“Okay, that’ll be three twenty-three, please.”

I paid the money, got my food, and sat down in the same seat of the same booth I always sit in when I go to that pinnacle of fast food franchises:  McDonald’s.

I was in my senior year of high school, and it was a wonderful time because McDonald’s was having a special offer:  two quarter pounders for two dollars.  By far the best fast food burger in town, the quarter pounder was now being offered at nearly half off it’s original price.  O Glorious Day!

However, the day was not going to be so glorious.  It was 3:30pm, and I had just gotten out of school, I had to be at work in half an hour at a local grocery store where I was employed as a stocker, I had to work until 10 that night, I had a Physics test the next day over momentum, a Calculus assignment on derivatives, the deadline for our high school news broadcast was in two days, and I, being the editor, had quite a bit of editing to get done by then, and, finally, to top it all off, it was Halloween.

My mind was racing as I finished my first burger, racing around and around, wondering how I was going to get everything done in time.  I stopped.  Looking, with great anticipation, at the box that held my second burger, I opened it.  But wait!  A mistake had been made:  instead of another quarter pounder with cheese, I had been given a double quarter pounder with cheese!  O Joyous Rapture!  I ate the whole thing and enjoyed every bite of it.

You may be wondering how this event is a dramatic influence in my life.  Well, it isn’t.  Not now, anyway.  But at the exact moment I discovered the mistake, it changed the way I looked at everything I had to do that night.  I got through work with a smile, finished my Calculus assignment, got an A on my Physics test the next day, and had our news broadcast edited and turned in on time.  That little surprise provided me with the enthusiasm I needed, and it’s little surprises like those that make life all the more fun. 

I don't remember which college the application was for, or if they even accepted me after reading my essay!

Anyway, returning to cookies: Last night Wendy made two huge chocolate chip cookies, following a recipe called Two Huge Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were delicious! Highly recommended.

If you have a favorite cookie recipe, please feel free to share in the comments!

A couple of Decembers ago, I wrote about the cat cubes I bought and how adorable it was when Chili and Jalapeno curled up inside them. Unfortunately, they have not done that in a quite a while. Recently, though, we put some cat beds in the bay window, which faces southeast and gets a lot of sunshine. The cats now love sitting there; it's become their favorite spot in the house, especially on sunny days:

There was some excitement a week or so ago, when I noticed a possum in broad daylight in our backyard, eating the seed that had dropped from the bird feeder. The cats were super interested!

Since possums are nocturnal, I wondered if maybe it was sick, but after some research I learned that it's not uncommon for possums to be seen during the day, especially during harsh winters when food is scarce. That was most likely the case here, as an arctic blast had just come to an end. I could see the possum shivering, and I felt bad for it, so I put out some wet and dry cat food for it, which it enthusiastically ate up before eventually wandering off.

While all this was happening, a rabbit stopped by to see what was going on:

All this talk of animals reminds me of a blog post I never got around to writing. For my birthday this past summer, Wendy booked us a visit to a local alpaca farm! We got to feed and pet the alpacas, and take lots of pictures and videos with them. It was very cool.

Here's a video of an alpaca chewing the cud. Wendy was quick to notice the figure-eight pattern its mouth made:

The last alpaca we visited was very, very friendly and enjoyed lots of pets. At one point, though, he stood up on his hind legs, and it was kind of terrifying to realize just how big of an animal he was!

Coming back around to cat beds, at the alpaca farm we bought a small mat made of alpaca fleece that was advertised as a pet bed:

The cats really liked it at first, but then they started biting it and pulling it apart, so it went into the closet. I will occasionally get it out and use it as a mat for me when I'm using my standing desk. It feels very luxurious!

For a long time (I've forgotten how long, exactly) we've subscribed to the Northwest Herald, which is the local newspaper in our neck of the woods. It's been a fine newspaper. You could tell they were cutting back on costs over the years, like when they switched to a smaller paper size, and when they stopped producing a Sunday newspaper, opting for a Saturday paper instead. We subscribed to the Saturday-only paper.

Last summer, when we took a trip to Kentucky, I put a hold on our newspaper delivery as usual. After our vacation, our newspaper didn't start delivery again. I didn't take any action at first, thinking it was a fluke and delivery would start again soon. But it didn't start again. So I called customer service and was told they would "send an email to upper management" about the problem, and credit my account for the missed delivery. That seemed fine and dandy.

Except the paper still didn't get delivered. So I called again, and they said the same thing about upper management.

But the paper still didn't get delivered. So I called again, and was told the same thing about upper management. Surely, this time would fix it, I thought.

I was wrong. The paper still didn't get delivered.

I don't know how many times we went back and forth like that, but none of it helped. At one point I got an email from them asking me to fill out a survey. I did. And l gave them negative ratings and left them a nasty note explaining my problem. I didn't hear anything back immediately.

At this point I devised a new strategy. I decided to stop calling and complaining, so they would stop crediting my account for missed deliveries, so they would charge my credit card again. Then I would file a dispute with my credit card company, hoping they would get involved and finally get the attention of the paper's "upper management". It took about a month for all of that to play out (can I play the long game or what?). And I never got a newspaper during that time. When I filed a dispute with my credit card company, they instantly refunded the charge from the newspaper, but that was it. I was disappointed; I was hoping for more fireworks.

A few days later, though, I was contacted by the newspaper. They were finally following up on my negative survey response. (Did my dispute with the credit card company actually help? The timing makes me think it did, but I don't know for sure.)  They put me in contact with one of their customer advocates. This was a friendly man who apologized for the issue, and explained they recently switched to a 3rd-party contractor for deliveries in my area, and they were having a lot of problems with that contractor, he said. A lot of problems. 

Since I hadn't called to complain in a while (due to my credit card strategy), he wanted me to start calling him directly when I didn't get a delivery, so he could have evidence that would "hold the contractor's feet to the fire", so to speak.

At this point, I should mention that what started as failed deliveries over the summer had now dragged on into the fall.

So I started a new cat-and-mouse game, following his suggestion. Every Saturday morning when I didn't have a paper, I would leave him a voice mail stating that fact, and then I would call customer support to request redelivery. They would routinely say the paper would be redelivered by 1pm. AND IT NEVER WAS! So I would call the man back after 1pm and leave him another voice mail saying I never got a redelivery. Then he would call me back Monday morning, confirm I never got a paper, express dismay and disappointment, and then credit my account.

THIS. WENT. ON. FOR. WEEKS.

Finally, one week I got a newspaper delivered. Unbelievable! Finally, the problem was solved. Except the next week it wasn't delivered. And not the next week, either. Or the next week.

I forget how many weeks it went on like that, but finally in mid-November I reached my limit. I'd gotten precisely one paper delivered in over 4 and a half months. I called customer support to cancel. When they asked why, I explained I hadn't gotten a newspaper in months.

They replied that they could "send an email to upper management".

I don't remember if I laughed or scoffed or threw the phone out the window. It probably wasn't the last one because I still have my phone.

But, anyway, I canceled, and decided to try a subscription to the Chicago Tribune instead. So far they have delivered my newspaper every day it's supposed to be delivered, and it's wonderful. I love it.

This afternoon I got a phone call from the Northwest Herald retention department. They stated right up front they wanted to win me back, and asked why I canceled. I said because they didn't deliver my paper for 4 and a half months no matter how many times I called to complain. The woman was stunned, quietly exclaiming "4 and a half months?! That's a long time." Yes. Yes, it was, I said. And then I added, with a fair amount of frustration: "I'm not coming back." She said she understood and thanked me for being honest.

I hung up the phone and now I've written this blog post and my rant is over.

A few nights ago the trail cam recorded video of a deer in our backyard! This is the first time we've gotten video of one, so I was quite excited.

In his book Animal Speak, Ted Andrews describes deer as symbolizing a "gentle luring to new adventure":

There are many stories and myths of deer luring hunters or even kings deep into the woods until they are lost and begin to encounter new adventures. One such example is found in the tales of King Arthur... Sir Gawain follows a white hart to many adventurous encounters.

• Once, 7 years ago, when we got a picture of two deer investigating the fake deer in our neighbor's yard.
• Another, 2 years ago, when we encountered two deer while riding our bikes on the Stone Bridge Trail near Rockford. I distinctly remember it because one of them had enormous antlers!

Fun!

A couple of weeks ago it got really hot around here, like 100 degrees hot, which is rare, and an 80-degree dew point, which is even rarer. One of my coworkers remarked: "No need to go to Florida, because Florida came to us." During one of those days I looked out the window and saw 3 little birds standing in the empty bird bath in our backyard.

"Okay, okay," I said. "I get the hint." I went outside and filled the bath with water. The next day, also a hot one, I looked out the window and saw 4 little birds splashing away in the bath. I was pleased for having done a good deed. Later, Wendy and I both saw a chipmunk on the bird bath getting a drink.

Chipmunks and birds weren't the only animals interested in water, though. A few days later, the bird bath was knocked over during the night, and there were some clear paw prints left on the surface:

After some online searching, I decided they were raccoon prints. The trail cam didn't have anything on it, but it faces away from the bird bath. Anyway, a few minutes after taking the above picture, I looked out the window and saw 2 birds standing on the deck railing, looking down at the empty bird bath. "Okay, but give me a minute!" I said.

A few days later, the bird bath was knocked over again during the night. The trail cam did show a raccoon in the yard, likely confirming my suspicion. This time, I re-positioned the trail cam so it shows the bird feeder and the bird bath in the same shot. The bath has not been knocked over since.

Then, in the early hours of Saturday morning, Wendy and I were awoken by a terrible screeching sound from one of our cats. We got up and hurried downstairs. The thought that ran through my very groggy head was that somehow an animal had gotten in the house and was attacking the cats. When I got downstairs, I could see the cats on the floor, warily looking up at the basement window. When I flipped on the light, I saw the faint shape of a small animal just outside the window run away. The cats seemed fine, but both had very puffy tails. If I hadn't turned on the light immediately, my eyes might have adjusted to the darkness and I may have gotten a better look at the animal.

It took a while to fall back asleep after that excitement. The next morning there was nothing on the trail cam. I'm guessing they were scared by another cat wandering through our yard, just outside the window. It might have even been the same cat that showed up on the trail cam in May (see this post).

Anyway, all of this excitement has reminded me of other backyard events that I've written about over the years, most notably:

• The Trapped Bird
• Backyard Turkeys

Our backyard has been the source of a number of interesting events -- and blog posts!

Today marks the end of meteorological summer. Here's a look back at some of the photos I've taken the past few months.

These giant pancakes declared Hopkinsville, KY as the Batter Capital of the World:

The pond near our house, at sunset:

Some sandhill cranes we spotted in the same pond:

While walking around our neighborhood I was spotted by an Alert Cat:

The Fox River as viewed from the Fox Bluff Conservation Area:

A strange sculpture from a sculpture garden in McHenry County:

Another sculpture from the same garden, this one in the middle of a labyrinth:

Looking towards the end of the Infinity Room at House on the Rock:

Looking down into a room at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin:

A poster of some fun pictograms in the restroom of a diner near Madison, WI:

A monstrous, 2.5 pound heirloom tomato we got from our CSA farm share:

And finally, Jalapeno from on high:

This post presupposes that:

• You've been fascinated by UFOs since you were a kid.
• As a teenager, you read all the UFO books in your small town's public library
  
• ... and you became terrified of being abducted by aliens
  
• ... and you paid $20 to get a library card at a large metropolitan library so you could read more UFO books
  
• ... and you talked all about UFOs for your valedictorian speech at your high school graduation.
  
• As an adult, you've written well over a dozen posts about UFOs on your blog.

If you don't meet the above criteria, this post may not apply to you.

To stop believing in UFOs, follow these steps:

• Buy a copy of the book Mirage Men by Mark Pilkington, but don't read it because you sense it might poke holes in your UFO belief system. Instead, let it sit on your bookshelf for 13 years.
• Meanwhile, discover a book called Cranioklepty by Colin Dickey in a cruise ship's library (see this post). Read it and love it. Start following the author on social media.
  
• Get excited when Colin Dickey releases a new book, The Unidentified, all about UFOs and other paranormal topics. Read the book and discover the author is a huge skeptic of all things related to UFOs and spends much of the book debunking numerous claims. Be disappointed, even depressed about this for a while. And be angry at the author for being so stoopid.
  
• Stumble across a cheap copy of a book called Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect by Mick West and read it. Learn that we all have our own personal demarcation line when it comes to deciding what constitutes believable and unbelievable conspiracies. Learn that sometimes it's a single piece of evidence that makes a person believe a conspiracy, and that providing alternative explanations for that evidence can help a person break free from their belief. Also, be very glad you never fell down the "9/11 was an inside job" rabbit hole, even though you may have peeked into it a few times.
  
• 13 years after buying it, finally read Mark Pilkington's Mirage Men. Be completely astounded at the damning evidence that for years some U.S. military/intelligence agencies have been feeding fake information to the UFO community to promote belief in UFOs, and that at least one of the UFO researchers you've followed over the years has been duped by it. Be sad after reading the book because you, too, have been duped. Realize that your intuition was right, although the book didn't just poke holes in your belief system, it tore down load-bearing walls.
  
• Find a YouTube video of a talk Mark Pilkington gave in 2011, shortly after releasing Mirage Men, and think long and hard about the part at the beginning, where he reads this quote:
• "They are not material creatures, they are spiritual beings. They live in outer space, and when they feel hungry, they swoop down and kill innocent women and children. They eat the corpses, and then fly back to their spatial residences for a siesta in their bedrooms in space. It has been going on and on like this for years."
• The quote is from a Pakistani villager, who is actually describing CIA drone strikes.
• Discover Jack Brewer's blog, The UFO Trail. Get a copy of his book The Greys Have Been Framed as a birthday present. Read it and learn that:
• Hypnosis, which has long been used to recover alien abduction memories, has been firmly established as an ineffective technique for memory retrieval. It is, however, very effective at creating false memories.
• One of the most influential books you read as a teenager was written by a researcher who was not practicing sound research, but rather using questionable methods like hypnosis to seek confirmation of his pet theory.
• In the 1950s, the CIA was out of control, performing many involuntary human experiments, and these "blatant violations of human rights continue to disturb and anger researchers well into this century."
• It's possible that some claims of alien abduction, including some of the very first claims, may have nothing to do with aliens and everything to do with those CIA experiments.
• Discover a new book called "The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony" that contains 57 cross-disciplinary essays from academic researchers. Download a free PDF copy of it and learn that:
• There are credibility issues with some of the more famous UFO cases. That includes the alien abduction of an Arizona logger (which was made into a terrifying movie you watched in high school) that has been exposed as a hoax.
• Even competent, highly trained, intelligent people can misperceive a mundane event and become convinced they've seen a UFO.
• Studies of criminal cases show that when witnesses are highly confident in their testimony ("I know what I saw!"), all it indicates is that they have constructed a coherent story in their mind, not necessarily that their story is true.
• Claims of UFO sightings and encounters with aliens can serve a psychological purpose, such as self-esteem regulation (e.g., feeling special for being chosen). They can also help alleviate feelings of loneliness.
• Similarly, alien abductions can serve psychologically as a metaphor for traumatic events the person can't face. The abduction scenario allows the trauma to surface in a "quasi-hallucinatory form".
• The above points are just from the first half of the book. What else will you learn when you read the second half?
• Realize that for years you've thought people who don't believe in UFOs are ignoring all the evidence that the phenomenon is real, and it turns out you are the one who's been ignoring evidence of hoaxes, deception, and shoddy research.
• Be sad about all that you've learned, and write a blog post about it.

Those are the steps that worked for me. Your experience may be different.

Here are 60 seconds of Jalapeno enjoying this morning's Wimbledon match: