Total Eclipse of the Son

Total Eclipse of the Son

This year they made a really big deal over the eclipse. It was all they were talking about on the news. The library was giving away free eclipse glasses. People were buying glasses online, 12 in a pack and then giving the extras away. There were  constant reports of which places in the country were in the totality. There were reports of thousands of people who weren’t blessed flocking to sites that were in totality. I was lucky enough to be, if not in totality, at least close to totality.  I was in Youngstown (which had its economy eclipsed some 46 years ago). It was 99.9 % in totality, but that extra .1% makes all the difference. My friend Gary, however, lived in Warren, just 20 miles away and Warren was in the totality zone. He invited me over and so at about 1 pm my father and I and eyes set out for Warren. 

There was suspense though. Would the skies clear? All morning it had been cloudy. Around 1 pm I saw some blue in the sky. There was hope. 

Getting on highway 11 north, my normal route was shocking. It was completely backed up. We should have left earlier, or gone another way. I made a quick decision; take the 80 E exit, then go north on Belmont Ave. and catch 82 from that direction. However, I soon found out that the Belmont Ave. exit was not accessible from the 80 E exit that I took. Damn. I had to drive 4 angry miles the wrong way to a Hubbard exit and turn around. Precious minutes wasted. Would I get stuck again in heavy traffic? Would I see any eclipse? 

Luckily I seemed to go around the traffic and arrived at the site about about 2 pm, just in time. I set my dad upl and gave him his eclipse glasses. While we waited for the eclipse to start I talked to Gary about the eclipse. Gary was a smart guy, an engineer. I had studied and forgot physics and astronomy. We speculated about which side of the sun would be affected. All I knew was that when the full moon rose (always about the same as the sun set…you can figure out why if you think about it) that the next night the moon would rise about 40 minutes later and so on. I reasoned then that the moon must be rotating counterclockwise. Then it followed that the moon would start gobbling the sun from the right side to the left side. We would soon find out. 

We had already discussed the fact that the moon almost exactly covered the sun. Gary thought that this was a universal law having to do with orbit speed and mass etc. I just repeated what my college physics teacher had told us,”It’s a happy coincidence.” I spent the time to look it up and found numerous sources that backed up my teacher’s assertion. What are the odds?    

Some more people showed up; Gary’s wife, his brother and his work mate and his girlfriend; altogether 7. The sky was getting clearer and the small amount of clouds that played tag with the sun were wispy ones. Around 2:15 we saw the first sign of the moon. It was eating the lower right side (about 4 pm if it were a clock). We had reasoned well. Now was the time we needed our glasses. It was a strange site but not thrilling really. The sun took on various shapes. Now it looks like tulip; now an iridescent crescent moon, now a fingernail clipping. It was getting closer. 

Then suddenly, like shifting into high gear it was upon us, totality. It was like a giant black hole had dowsed the sun by swallowing it. It was awesome in the true sense of the word. Awe….Unthinkable. Unimaginable. We were peaking behind the curtain of the great OZ. We were poking into the gears of the universe. A mighty diamond studded tiara sparkling in the sky. For those 3 minutes, we didn’t need our glasses. We all stared in wonder. We really were beings on a planet moving around a star. No one would have been surprised had the moon/sun started speaking to us. “My children…..sorry I’ve been silent for so long. I’m just not good about answering my messages. Here is what you need to know now…” The power and majesty of those moments were searing, not my eyes, but my soul. The reality of the moment was palpable. We are beings, alive, living on a rocky planet, circling a sun. We don’t know why, how, who, where, when…but we do know what; We are beings, alive, living on a rocky planet, circling a sun. We were humbled in those moments of significance. 

And then it was over. We could watch the moon sneak up the top left side of the sun but it was anti-climatic. We discussed what we had seen. There had been a bright red light at the bottom  left (7 pm) of the moon/sun. What was that? I had brought a collander, hoping to see crescent shapes. That didn’t work for some reason. The more we talked, the more I realized how little we knew. All these things were studied and documented by scientists.  The red dots were called Bailey’s Beads. There was another effect called shadow bands that scientists don’t really understand. The moon seemed to take a northward turn near the end of the event. What was that about? The more you thought about it, the more you realized how much you didn’t know. We were children. 

Everybody left shortly after the event. Even Gary went inside. I waited and watched the entire event, until there was no sign of the moon at all. It went invisible again. It had been there all along. I realized that the only time you might see a total eclipse is when you have a new moon. If you think about it you can see why. Peek a moon. 

While we were waiting for the moon to exit stage left, the nurse called. She said that the fact that my dad’s  left leg was swollen and very tender could be a telltale sign of DVT (deep vein thrombosis or in English, a blood clot). It could be dangerous. “You need to take him to get an ultrasound and the only place to do that would be at the Emergency Room at St. E’s hospital” It was like a prison sentence. We all knew that going to the emergency was always going to be an extended event; 4-10 hours. I had already been with my dad for 4 hours. I was already fed up with him, but there was no choice; a clot could be fatal. 

He would miss dinner. I had to get him something. He didn’t want to eat anything. It became a power struggle in his mind. I bought him a smoothie from McDonalds. He wouldn’t touch it. “I don’t want to eat anything.”  He was being overbearing. He was being like a little Lord Fauntleroy, expecting everyone to wait on him. I stopped home to drop things off. “I have to pee. Can I pee in your car?” “No. You can’t pee in the car. Get up and pee in the plastic cup on the other side of the car door. Nobody cares.” He tried but in reality he  peed ON my car. Great. Better on the outside than the inside. There were a million questions he asked a million times. “Where are we going?” “To the emergency room.” Where are we going?” “to the emergency room”. “Where are we going?” “to hell in a handbasket”. 

I got him into the emergency room. We did intake. The intake people were charmed by my dad. Everyone looked over. “He’s so cute.” echoed around. The intake women fell in love with him. 

We went back to the waiting room. . The room was filled with people. More questions. People were listening to us. “He’s 101.” I apologized. Everyone was laughing. Everytime he opened his mouth people laughed. Even though people were sick and waiting for hours, they seemed surprisingly nice. There was an older couple (50’s) from Puerto Rico. She was also having leg problems and possible clots. She had been completely disabled for 12 years. “My husband works and takes care of me and cooks for me.” He smiled. He seemed to be crazy about his wife. There was a 40ish guy who looked like he had been run over by a tractor. He was wearing a full Cleveland Indians (guardians) uniform in honor of opening day in Cleveland. He seemed at the lower end of the developmentally disabled spectrum (what we used to call retarded until we realized that that was hurtful). The TV was tuned to the Cowboy Movie station (I had no idea!). Indianguy kept craning his neck around to see it. A middle aged black woman who seemed to be suffering through her malady and completely oblivious to the world spoke up. “Sir. Why don’t you move your chair over here where you can see better?” At first he was reluctant, then he thought it over and the woman and I encouraged him and I wheeled him over. Amongst all her suffering she was still seeing more than any of us and doing something about it. Another obese black woman who was hooked up to an infusion bag was enjoying the Irv show. Everyone seemed in a good mood except one very obese man in a wheel chair who was radiating hatred and evil from a stone cold glare. 

Finally they called us in. It was a busy night and they were short staffed. They put us in a big room with a bunch of other people. The nurse  took vitals and information. She thought Irv was the cutest thing she had ever seen. With this audience of about 10 people, suddenly it became the Irv Comedy Show. Everything he said was met with peals of laughter. The Puerto Rican couple joined us. The Infused woman joined us. Suddenly it was more like a party than an emergency room. “Your father is so cute,” the nurse said. “Would you like to take him for a few days?” “Yes I would.” “How about a week?” It was my standard joke. “Sure,” she smiled.   Finally it was time to get back to work. “The doctor will see you soon.”   

The doctor came in. He joined the show. He was also flabbergasted. “101! Amazing.” I liked the doctors and staff here. Super focused. Super intense. To my surprise he said, “The wound looks great.” I thought it looked like a vomited Briar Hill Pizza. “No. really. It’s great” He gave us the marching orders; “Hang a bag, ultrasound and then x-ray then we will see then. 

We waited another 30 minutes. More questions. “Where are we? What are we doing here? Let’s get out of here. They aren’t doing a damn thing.” He was in a nasty mood. We waited another 30 minutes. Finally a transport person came up to take us to the ultrasound department. A strong 30’s woman took him into the room. “You can stay and watch if you want. Mr. Lev you need to pull your pants down”. He did. The room was filled with poopy smells. It was sickening. The ultrasound woman didn’t bat an eye. Amazing. I watched her look inside his vessels. Also amazing. She was done in 10 minutes .

I will take you over to x-ray. It will save you time.” How nice.  They were looking for bone infection. The people at x-ray remembered him from February. “We love your dad.” Again, every comment produced gales of laughter. Word spread like wildfire. “He’s 101. He’s 101? He doesn’t look a day older than 88.” “he was in D-day” I volunteered. Most of the young ones didn’t know what that meant. 

We made it back to the waiting room about 8:30. “Let’s go home. Let’s get the hell out a here.” “ Dad. We need to wait for the report.” “Let’s get outta here” There was a new lady sitting next to us. She was about 35 and looked like she had had a hard life but she was friendly. She had a tattoo of a grinch on her wrist. She had leotards on with pictures of planets and stars and skeletons. It was quirky. I complimented her grinch and leotards. She appreciated the attention. She was an Irv fan already. On a hunch I asked her, “Where do you live?” “ I live downtown”. Another hunch, “Do you live in the International Towers?” “Yes I do.” I told her about how my mom’s company had managed it. She was very nice, trying to talk to my dad; to cheer him up.  

The other people came out and joined us. “Let’s get outa here.” my dad said scores of times. I had to fend him off. We played dominos. I found the basketball game on my phone. “Let’s get outa here.” An aide with an unusual persona that reminded me of Jerry Lewis kept popping in and out. “I think I have to take my dad home. He is exhausted.” He dissuaded me. “We are almost done. He was juggling 10 balls but had time for us. He was so good at his job. Everybody wanted out. 

The doctor came out and told us everything was negative. No infection in the bone; no clot. The nurse would take out the needles from his arm. 

I looked around at all the people in the waiting room; all the personalities. Then an odd thought catapulted through my brain. We were all like moons, planets, asteroids, stars. orbiting around, eclipsing each other, somehow usually not running into one another, partial eclipsing, total eclipsing, all in our orbits, all planets, moons and stars in our own little orbits, taking up our space. It was mind boggling. But where was the sun? We can’t see it. The sun was constantly being eclipsed. We can’t see it in totality and still it was amazing.