We survived!

 

Hurray!  We survived the eclipse!  The last couple of months, and especially the last couple of weeks at the library have been INSANE.  Once upon a time back in very early 2017, my boss told me about StarNet Libraries and how I could submit an application for our library to receive free solar eclipse glasses.  This sounded awesome, especially because I had several programs planned for the eclipse, so I did it and honestly kind of forgot about it.  Then in May I got an email saying that we would be getting 1,000 pairs of glasses.  My first thought was, "How in the world am I going to give away 1,000 pairs of glasses?"  Oh what a silly librarian I was!  Over the next couple of months we found out that our branch was being advertised as a location for glasses, with my email as a contact.  Thus began the great email barrage of 2017.  My inbox was BOOMING!  After that newspapers, radio, and tv stations began to advertise (without truly fact checking whatsoever) that ALL libraries were getting them.  Enter the literally thousands of phone calls (just at my branch alone) during August leading up to the eclipse.  My supply dwindled fast, with half of my supply needing to go to other branches in my system because they couldn't order them anymore.  The rest was given to staff, rationed for programs, and given out to one household each.  We ran out before the eclipse, but the calls kept coming to the point that we were all slowly going insane.  Memes were shared, venting sessions were held, and I even did rain dances because I didn't even want the eclipse to happen.  I was OVER it.

Then August 21, 2017 arrived.  It was a beautiful sunny day with occasional passing clouds.  One of our staff members even put together a special treat in honor of the occasion, dark chocolate candy surrounding a round container of Eclipse gum.  The children's librarian in me loves a good theme!  At 1:15 I thought, "Oh what the heck!" and went outside with my glasses.  The sun vaguely resembled Pac Man at this point, and I thought it was pretty darn cool.  Suddenly I was very happy that my ragey rain dances failed.  Over the next two hours staff and I shared our glasses so our customers could take a look.  It was very cool to have everyone gathering together in the parking lot to view something so special.  I loved the reactions of the kids.  One girl was so excited because the sun looked like the moon.  My own daughter even said, "Oh my, that's fascinating!"  At its peak (about 80%), I took a look, and it was awesome.  It made me very excited for April 8, 2024 when my area will experience totality.  Hopefully the eclipse glasses madness won't be quite so intense next time!

Were you able to see the eclipse?  What did you think?  Will you be in the totality zone in 2024?