"Are You Doing Anything for the Big Eclipse?"

What's really funny is that when my ex-husband -- the benign one, not the malignant one -- asked me this on the phone today, I actually knew what he was talking about. A few months ago I found a copy on the desk in my classroom of the arc of the eclipse. It's supposed to be pretty major. I haven't heard about it otherwise, but my response to my ex was, "Oh, the one on August 21? I'm not sure." He said he was thinking of going to Mississippi (I think that's where he said; maybe it was Tennessee), and I mentioned that I had heard viewing would be best in North Carolina. He said he thought the Carolinas would be too crowded. These days we have little in common (other than our three wonderful children), but every once in a whle something comes up that we're both interested in.

The reason he called in the first place was that I had texted him yesterday to see if the amount the car dealer was going to charge me to fix the AC, which didn't happen anyway when I got the new truck. I was still on the fence when I texted him. He is the parts manager at a car dealership near DC, so I thought he could ask one of the mechanics if he didn't know. As it turned out, it was a moot point, but it was nice that he called back. He said he had gotten a new phone, and he wasn't quite sure how to use it. I didn't ask what he meant, or why he thought I'd called rather than texted, but we chatted a few minutes.

But back to the eclipse . . . the printout I have is very detailed. I think there's an anatomy class in that room some time other than when my class meets. It was an assignment, but I couldn't help myself. Normally I would feel bad for something like that, but there were plenty of papers, and the teacher left his crap in the shared classroom all the time. It was often in my way. (I'm in a different room for my current class.) So look it up; apparently everyplace in the Southeast US will be good for viewing. And who knows; maybe we'll get all the kids and their significant others together and go somewhere to watch. I could do that.