My Turn!

Early last week I did take the car in for the last of several maintenance visits. Since last fall we've been working through a list of repairs on the Aspire. Last week we finished the list and now look forward to just oil changes for a while. Taking the car in impacts my free time a lot as it has to be done on my days off. That leaves little time to work on projects other than regular household chores.

At the same time Cheryl has been progressing closer to the move date (Friday, August 24th) for her department to another building. Yet, we did squeeze a dental appointment in for her. I picked her up from work and drove her to the dentist then home so she didn't have to take the bus. Yep, scheduled that for the other day off.

Friday was also my pick day. I picked my work for the Fall/Winter schedule. Starting September 22nd, I'll be having Mondays and Tuesdays off. That works well for the Christmas and New Years holidays. I'll be driving the same routes I drive now, except one and a half hours later, from 4:15pm till 1am each of the five days I work. I was happy with the pick and glad for the time with Cheryl on the weekends and then in the evenings on Mondays and Tuesdays.

While driving the route last Sunday evening, one of my passengers asked if I would be watching the Lunar eclipse that night. I quickly reorganized my priorities and said "Of course!" When I got home I check on the Internet for more information and found that our sparkling clear skies would give an exceptional view of the total Lunar eclipse.

After a quick Midnight snack, I set up the video camera to see how it would do taking pictures of the Moon. I tried a variety of settings and found I could get an image I liked. At 1:50am I began taking pictures as the Earth's shadow began to move across the face of the Moon.

There was a long period of time when the shadow completely covered the Moon. I opened the iris of the camera and was able to get some interesting images including some with a star in the background. As the Sun's light began to reach the surface of the Moon I readjusted the camera for the brightness and continued taking pictures. Cheryl got up about 5:30am and came down to see what I was doing. At about 6am I was finished and headed for bed.

As you can imagine, that activity changed any plans I had for projects on Tuesday. Although I was able to work with Mom's computer remotely and did clean up some of her dead favorites for her.

Today was Cheryl's turn to take her car in for it's oil change. They checked it over and it's now ready for the driving trip to Las Vegas in September. Yes, still more things to get prepared for that.