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Excited for upcoming celestial event

I’ve been going to all the solar eclipse meetings, you know, the one coming Aug. 21 that might very well double the number of people in Hot Springs County for several days.

Some people might call me crazy, but I am really excited about the opportunity to not only see my community packed with happy people waiting for a celestial event, but the memories I’m sure to have during that week.

When I was young, my grandfather made sure that I was witness to everything possible happening in the sky.

From comets to meteor showers and eclipses, grandpa and I saw them all.

He would quietly wake me up in the middle of the night and we’d climb into his pink Oldsmobile, oftentimes driving to the buffalo pasture or out on the old Cody Highway to wait for whatever majestic event Mother Nature had planned.

Those were very special times for me.

Eventually, I grew up and had children of my own whom I wanted to share that special time with as well.

My kids, now grown themselves, can probably tell you about nights when I woke them up in the middle of the night to view extreme lightning storms from the safety of the bay window. Or the times we would spend lying on the trampoline in the backyard at 2 a.m. because it was the best time to view the Perseids.

It wasn’t too many years ago I even drug my son out by Kirby to photograph a lunar eclipse.

I am so thankful that I’ve been able to see so many wonderful things in the sky and I hope my children, even though at the time they probably thought I was nuts, will one day appreciate me waking them up in the wee hours of the morning to see things they may never see again.

 

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