PATH OF TOTALITY

I couldn’t decide if I was envious of all the people in America who will get to see a solar eclipse today. It’s already partial as I’m writing this. My friends Kathey and Russell, who live in Dallas, are the only people I know off the top of my head who live along the “path of totality”. I have an online (former LJ) friend who is in the US from Sweden to see it, along with her husband. Both of them are certified eclipse chasers who travel the world to see any kind of eclipse.

I read up on solar eclipses a bit. There are 224 of them in the 21st century, but only 68 of them will be total. Wikipedia says this: “In the 21st century, the greatest number of eclipses in one year is four, in 2011, 2029, 2047, 2065, 2076, and 2094…At this point, the longest measured duration in which the Moon completely covered the Sun, known as totality, was during the solar eclipse of July 22, 2009. This total solar eclipse had a maximum duration of 6 minutes and 38.86 seconds. The longest possible duration of a total solar eclipse is 7 minutes and 32 seconds. The longest annular solar eclipse of the 21st century took place on January 15, 2010, with a duration of 11 minutes and 7.8 seconds. The maximum possible duration is 12 minutes and 29 seconds.”

Maybe this one is just a big deal because the path of totality covers so much of the US and can be seen by a potential 31.6 million people. I checked the tables for when you can see solar eclipses from Sweden, and there are only 3 and none of them are total. I think I’d rather see a comet, or have a warm clear night to watch the Perseides during my birthday.

I feel like “path of totality” should describe the arc of our lives instead. I’m already invested in seeing that!

***

I had an email from the travel company regarding our upcoming trip to the States. It was a reminder to reserve seats because otherwise, we might get stuck with shit ones (middle seats) on the long stretches of the trip. But when I went in to look, the cheapest seats are 800 kr each, and there are two of us, and if I reserve 8 seats for the total of the 4 flights we are taking there and back, it will cost me around 10,000 kronor. TEN THOUSAND FUCKING KRONOR to save seats on flights I have ALREADY PAID FOR. What the actual fuck, airlines?? You suck. I was thinking it might be worth it to get an aisle seat for the long stretches because I have to go to the bathroom so often, but FFS. There’s a chance that Karin and I won’t get to sit together if others book up all the “desirable” window and aisle seats, but I am not paying nearly the same amount for reserving seats that I paid for the tickets to begin with. If I get stuck in a middle or window seat, people are just going to have to suck it up and deal with me tapping on their shoulder to let me out to pee every hour and a half. If they don’t want to be bothered, they can switch with me. I’ll tell them they’re blocking my path to totali-pee otherwise.

***

Last Thursday morning, I worked from home because the drain guy was coming to flush all of our drains. His scheduled time was between 7 and 10 am, so I got up 50 minutes early so I could be showered and dressed by 7. He came at 8:30. We have 4 drains: 2 bathrooms, the kitchen, and the laundry room. He flushed them all and ran a camera down them as well, because our drain from the main bathroom has sagged under the foundation (where it can’t be reached) and it tends to back up and become blocked. Sure enough, he said we would need to book a new time for “fräsning”. I can’t find the correct translation of this in English, but it’s basically blowing out blockages in drain pipes. Anders was going to call and book this but was occupied by the fact that he left again yesterday for another week of work up north.

Karin came home Thursday afternoon (which I took off) and it is really great to have her home after her second ski season and 5 1/2 months away. We only saw her for Christmas Day so it’s been a long time away. She says she’s done with ski season work, and doesn’t want to have an office job this summer. She’s got a part-time job lined up at a beach restaurant owned by a friend in Malmö, and has applied to University in Copenhagen. I’m very glad she’s home, but suspect we’ll see relatively little of her, regardless. 🙂 She has places to go and people to see, pretty much constantly.

This morning, I got up just before the alarm went off, and was in the shower at 7. I shower quite quickly normally. Soap, scrub, shampoo, conditioner, quick pass with a razor, done. Today, as I was finishing up, the drain below the tub suddenly started BELCHING, huge BLOP BLOP BLOP noises. Uh oh. I turned off the water, and opened the shower curtains, and sure enough, the floor (including most of the bathmat) was flooded. UGH.

Karin had to get up fairly early as well for a doctor’s appointment, and I warned her to shower in the moose bathroom. Where it ALSO promptly backed up and flooded. DOUBLE UGH!!! We now have the fräsning booked for Thursday morning, but the woman I talked to at the drain-cleaning place said we shouldn’t flush any toilet paper until then! We are supposed to put it in a bucket beside the toilet instead. URGH. Karin shrugged and said that’s what they did when she was traveling in South America. As long as the TOILETS don’t overflow, I guess I should be grateful.

So, good thing she’s mostly spending evenings/nights at friends and Anders is gone for week. It’s the path of toiletality.

Mood: aggravated
Music: The Pierces—We Are Stars