Eclipse 2024

 Solar Eclipse

I had never seen a total solar eclipse and the eclipse of April 8 was the last chance I would have to see one, so I drove south to Greenwood on Sunday afternoon. I drove a day early because heavy traffic was predicted for Monday. The traffic on Sunday was not bad and the trip down was uneventful.

I stayed at my son's house and he and his family were joined by other relatives from Nevada and Minnesota. I had my eclipse glasses but I would not have needed them. People in the path of totality had multiple opportunities to get pairs. My daughter-in-law prepared an eclipse party featuring foods with a sun or moon theme such as Sun Chips, Eclipse gum, Moon Pies, and Sunkist orange soda.

We eagerly awaited the start of the eclipse. Then we watched as the moon slowly crept across the sun. If we had not known that there was to be an eclipse, I doubt if we would have noticed anything strange until the sun was almost completely covered. Then the sunlight was noticeably less bright. Even then looking at the sun without eclipse glasses would not have shown what was happening. Even a tiny sliver of the sun was blindingly bright. Suddenly we were in total eclipse and one could look at the sun directly. What one saw was a black circle surrounded by bright light. The light was coming from the solar corona, which is normally not visible from earth because of the brightness of the surface of the sun. I took a look through binoculars and saw an orange spot in the circle, which I presume was a solar flare or prominence. I tried to take some pictures but none of them turned out. 

I did get a picture of what the area looked like during the eclipse.

I was surprised to see Venus brightly shining in the sky to the west of the sun. Some people also saw Jupiter but I did not.

The spectacle was over in about four minutes and then a shaft of blindingly bright light appeared and it was time to put on the eclipse glasses again. People around me did not seem to be nearly as interested in watching the sun slowly emerge as they had been watching the solar disk slowly disappear.

I waited until Tuesday morning to drive back to Rensselaer. The traffic was not terrible. There was a delay north of Lebanon due to an accident. I was happy to have seen the total eclipse and also happy to be back home.

Meetings

Because I decided to view the solar eclipse, I missed the Rensselaer Board of Public Works meeting and the Rensselaer City Council meeting. The minutes of the BPW meeting are on the City website. The meeting lasted two minutes and had only one pay invoice to approve. The new water tower has been painted. This week's Rensselaer Republican has a couple articles telling what happened at the Council meeting.

On Tuesday I got back to Rensselaer in time to go to the Tourism Commission meeting. However, they did not have an quorum so could not vote on anything. They did hear a presentation from one of their consultants from Ball State who are working on a strategic plan. The presentation was recorded so those members who did not attend could view it. A lot of the presentation was focused on things that were discussed in December when a session with many members of the public were asked for input.

72 of the 92 Indiana counties have a tourism tax. The revenue from that tax provides the funds that the Tourism Commission spends. The presentation said that the Commission does not have the resources to do big things by itself. It needs to find ways to add value to what others are doing. The goal is to develop vibrant communities that attract visitors and provide amenities for residents.

On Tuesday evening the Airport Authority Commission met and I intended to attend the meeting via Zoom. However, I got involved in something and forgot to tune in to the meeting.

I will try to do better with meetings next week.

Façade grants

A second round of façade grants has been made and one of the two receiving a grant was Earth Magic. There was a photo opportunity on the morning of April 4.

I did not hear the amount of the grant, but it will help improve the look of the front of the second floor. Earth Magic recently announced that it would be partnering with Frey Catering and starting on April 23 Frey Catering will be providing all the food options.

The space that Earth Magic has is an alley stopper. The two walls are the external walls of the adjoining buildings. There is a second floor over part of the the space, but it can only be reached via a pull-down ladder inside Earth Magic. The owner would like to have a stairs and walkway on the back that would allow this space to be used as an apartment.

Brick Streets pictures

Most of the work on the brick streets is taking place near the intersection of Harrison and Van Rensselaer. The contractor dug a big hole near Ayda's. The line on the bottom is a combined storm and sanitary sewer. 

Two concrete manhole structures were put in.

and then covered up.

I noticed a big ugly concrete thing that had been dug out. I am not sure where it had been.

Notes

Ayda's is adding a layer of insulation to its Harrison Street wall.

The first round of Community Crossing grants has been announced by the Indiana Department of Transportation. Jasper County received $1.5 million and Remington $141,677.23.

The River peaked at about 10.7 feet (flood stage is 12) on April 4 and has been declining. We had a lot of rain early on the 11th that will send the River rising, but it is too early to tell by how much.

We have had some warm days this week and the warmth is making April feel like spring. The grass is growing and people have started mowing. A lot of trees and bushes are flowering.

If you have not filed your 2023 income taxes, you only have a few days left.