A Total A Clips In Acoma

"Children are to be seen, not heard" was the adage when I was growing up. That suited me fine. It allowed me to be around the grown ups, listening in on their talk, without them paying attention to me.


And oh, some of the mixed up ideas I got. I wish I knew now who the subject was when they were talking about someone being in a coma.

In my mind the term was acoma. (Even though it was eons before I would learn about Acoma Pottery.) I remember I was writing a letter to someone and I wanted to tell them so-and-so was in acoma and asking Mom how to spell it, which is probably when I learned it was in a coma.

That person must have been comatose around the same time as an eclipse because I relate learning the two terms around the same age. Of course I heard that there was going to be a clips of the sun which I equated with something like a glance. It took awhile for me to understand it was eclipse and that we were not to look at it when it happened or we would lose our eyesight. Not even a glance.

What's confusing to me today, as we are hoping the rain (which we've been desperate for) clears out before noon, is that my peeps in Oregon will see the eclipse before we do and I will see it before people in Tennessee and South Carolina. But, but, the sun travels from east to west. Shouldn't the eclipse be seen first on the east coast, then move westward?

Later....the rain ended after a wonderful 85/100's of an inch. I'm seeing pictures from Oregon where the sun is getting close to being halfway covered. It is getting less sunny here where the eclipse started about 45 minutes ago. I haven't looked; not sure if the sun is getting blocked by the moon or if the cloud cover has moved back in. Should I go out and look?

Unfortunately, it is cloud cover. Massive cloud cover.

With just a smattering of in and out glimpses. This was the best photo I got.

It reminded me of trying to get a photo of the full moon eclipse at Niagara Falls two years ago.

Clouds played havoc that night just as they did today.

I'm thinking about the people who traveled many miles, paid much for lodging, etc., to be in one of the totality spots and then had the eclipse ruined by clouds. Bummer. But even seeing those little glimpses I saw through the clouds was exciting. Chances are they felt the same if they caught a glimpse, also.

It looks like that total a clips I was remembering might have been June 30, 1954. I would have been ten years old. Now if I could just remember who was in acoma.......