welcome to my mind ...

If you haven't heard about the fact that there was a total lunar eclipse tonight, which also happened to be a harvest moon, then you obviously have no access to the news, the internet, or really any form of communication with the outside world. It was pretty much advertised everywhere simply because this is the first time since 1982 that those particular events have lined up, and it'll be the year 2033 before this happens again. Of course, there will be plenty of total lunar eclipses and harvest moons between now and then, as there have been between 1982 and now; it's just the combination happening at the same time that's far and few between.

I went outside to the rooftop deck and watched it go from total to about half uncovered. The building behind me, where the moon was rising from, blocked the first part of the moon being covered; which, in my opinion, is far cooler to witness than watching it come out of a total eclipse. Oh well. Perhaps next time there's one, I'll go somewhere that has a clear view of the east. Full disclosure, if I had been at work, I'd have been up on the roof watching the whole thing, in succession, for the full 3ish hours that it would have been visible.

I did take some pictures; they came out about as well as one can expect from a Samsung Galaxy S6. I did use Instagram to try to filter out the light radiating from the neon Wonder Bread sign, but there's only so much that can happen when you don't have a professional camera. I'll actually be stalking someone on Facebook so that I can see what he managed to take with his DSLR. He's a friend of an old friend so there's really no reason for us to be Facebook friends {he's pretty particular even with people he knows, let alone someone like me} but a lot of his pictures are available to public view, which is nice since he takes some really nice ones.

I was actually pleasantly surprised to see that it was clear skies this evening. There were quite a few puffy white clouds throughout the day so I wasn't sure if I would have been able to see the moon. However, as it inched closer to sunset, the sky cleared and the temperature quickly dropped without the overhead blanket to keep the heat in. I'm so glad when the weather gods work in the favor is something like this. As much as I prefer clouds, these are the types of events I'd rather not miss.

This weekend was fairly uneventful. I went to the gym yesterday morning, like I usually try to do on Saturdays, then decided to go donate blood in the afternoon. Because of the accident that happened last week on the Aurora Bridge, the blood center was pretty busy. I didn't make an appointment because for some reason if I anticipate it, my pulse rises too much. However, because of being a walk-in, I ended up waiting 2 hours until all of the appointments were taken care of. Which is fine; I had nothing else to do yesterday. I figured this would give me the chance that if my pulse was off, I could try again on Tuesday at the blood drive my work is having. But I was able to donate so I won't have to worry about trying to get it all done within my hour lunch; if you've never given blood, the set up takes longer than the entire process of actually donating. That part only takes maybe 10 minutes max. Then you have to hang out for about 10 minutes afterward, eating cookies or drinking sugary drinks, to replace the blood sugar your body just lost. Last time I donated at work, I had a little over 10 minutes left in my lunch break before I had to clock back in.

Today I just hung around, did laundry, finished the book I'd been reading, and took a nap. In hindsight, the nap was probably a bad idea. I should be starting to get tired about now and I'm not feeling it... Hopefully in an hour I'll be more tired and can get some reasonable sleep tonight. Not sure if I'll write again before the end of the month.

Until next time. . .