An Incredible Day! (But Exhausting...)
Marilyn and I were UP VERY EARLY today, in order to head in to the office for our Eclipse Experience event in the park (right around the Rose Building, where we work).
The traffic? Amazingly light! We think all the media 'warnings' in advance scared people off! It seemed like a lot of businesses were closed today (or opened late). Or people took the day off and stayed home. Anyway, I can't remember when we got to work so fast!
There were already people outside the building milling around and waiting to buy glasses!
And we were having a special private event for our board and staff and their family members inside the office (in our downstairs conference room). Steven brought in biscuits and gravy, and two kinds of sausage, plus some mini-cinnamon rolls. And he made small pancakes, too. Plus he had 'adult beverages' for everyone: mimosas, tequila sunrises and bloody marys.
I was helping work the line outside the building which got quite long (running all the way to the fountain). And I was able to connect with Jessica, the woman I'd talked to over the weekend who had contacted us about getting quite a few glasses. I hooked her up with 100, even though we were limiting purchases for everyone today to 10 or less. (She had been in touch early on, so she was a special case...)
Carol and Brian did sleep at the office last night. And Brian did a great job today as Professor E. Clipse! Carol worked her butt off all day -- and their daughter Aisha helped, too (she was doing her clown thing!).
Angel was there to help out (not as the Clown Prince this time).
And WOW -- did Wanda ever do a GREAT job again! She was amazing selling at the front desk!
But we were all trying to do out parts, believe me. And it was exciting.
Rich and Merlin were there. Rich certainly did a great job with the media this weekend for this event! Marilyn hired him as an hourly just for this purpose.
Marilyn and I went all over taking photos of everything. We'd kind of decided we'd just do that and NOT look at the eclipse when it happened, but we were totally able to do both things, as it turned out!
The actual event was eerie! It didn't seem to get as dark as we'd expected, but it DID get darker! Street lamps which come on automatically when it's growing dark were all on (!!!) and our big ROSE came on, too! Plus it grew COLDER for a short period, then warmer again. Weird. You could definitely feel something 'strange' during, before and after it. Hard to explain!
Donn and Denise came out and Denise reported that her animals at home had all 'gone crazy' during it! (We have no way of knowing how Colin and Henry behaved, of course, as we weren't here...)
Kris had been planning to come but sent us an email that he couldn't make it. We'd invited our friend Mark to come, but he was at his beach house. Rob and Jeff were hoping to come, but didn't show...
But we had many people who DID show up for the private event.
And we had a GREAT crowd around the building and in the park for the public event!!!
Yes, we totally sold out of glasses (no surprise).
It's very DIFFICULT not to want to look at the sun during all this! You have to constantly remind yourself. Weird. And I took a couple of photos with my iPhone (before it was happening, thankfully!) without thinking before Marilyn warned me NOT TO -- that it could ruin my camera in the phone!
We took loads of photos, of course. And that phone in my iPhone 7 is amazing!!! I got some really good shots! We went on the roof of the building for many shots and they turned out great.
In fact, that's where Marilyn, Rich, Merlin and I actually were for the event. Pretty cool, really! Marilyn and I both cried. It was very emotional! And Rich and Merlin were dancing on the roof.
I think our entire staff did a great job today. And one member of Angel's Clown Corps did an amazing job selling glasses in the park, by the way (I don't recall the name of the clown right now).
It was wonderful to have the community come together in a peaceful fashion to share this event! People everywhere were smiling and so friendly. There were no negative incidents at all.
Then it was over, and people took off right after that. Many just headed back to work downtown (which is where they had been before the event).
I forgot to mention that we had All Classical Portland 89.9 FM on site playing their 'eclipse' mix, which included a number specially written for today by a man who was listening in from Dublin, Ireland. And we had both KOIN 6 and KATU Channel 2 there on site. (Plus we had a lot of weekend coverage from KGW Channel 8.) Interestingly enough, the only channel that didn't give us coverage was KPTV 12 -- our official TV channel. Hahaha.
Rich thought it was perfect having All Classical there playing music for the event. Which is probably what prompted him to dance with Merlin!
Anyway, our little private party was wrapping up when we went back inside the building.
Marilyn and I left fairly quickly, as Mondays are NOT normally work days for us in August. We stopped at Starbucks and got coffee, then drove home. I haven't been feeling that well and we were both exhausted! Last week was extremely busy, plus we both worked hard this weekend. Add in getting up early and the tension today and that probably explains it.
We both felt it was like Grand Floral Parade morning -- which is always very intense for us!
We spent the rest of the day quietly. And some of it sleeping (especially me). We didn't turn on American Ninja Warrior at the normal time because we were asleep, but managed to see much of it, even so.
And to talk with sister Sue about the eclipse and ANW.
Oh! Our neighbor Barbara phoned to thank us for the glasses. She hadn't been home when I'd dropped by, so I left them in her mailbox (I'd promised I'd get her some). Anyway, she wanted to be sure and thank us.
Lots of people were thanking one or the other of us for making sure they had glasses. It was wonderful to be to make sure so many people did.
I was happy to read that Shari got glasses at the last minute! I was feeling REALLY BAD that we had no way to get her glasses. And it never occurred to me to contact cousin Linda until far too late... But all in all we did okay with that.
I've been sneezing and coughing, so Marilyn wants me to stay in bed tomorrow. I also never ate much until really late today. I wasn't all that hungry all day long. I just haven't felt quite right.
I have JURY DUTY on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. So we'll see how that goes.
And I got to my doctor on Friday (if I don't get on a jury that runs over, that is).
Marilyn has things every night this week, apparently...
And we have a bunch of chores to get done this coming weekend. So it goes!
Sister Sue had wanted to go to dinner, but I just didn't feel up to it. Oh well. Hopefully soon. We've been trying to get together with her, June and Jim for dinner for ages. But things always seem to happen.
Bedtime!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sweet eclipse dreams, friends! I hope those who couldn't see it as we did were able to watch the excellent coverage that was on TV or online!
The traffic? Amazingly light! We think all the media 'warnings' in advance scared people off! It seemed like a lot of businesses were closed today (or opened late). Or people took the day off and stayed home. Anyway, I can't remember when we got to work so fast!
There were already people outside the building milling around and waiting to buy glasses!
And we were having a special private event for our board and staff and their family members inside the office (in our downstairs conference room). Steven brought in biscuits and gravy, and two kinds of sausage, plus some mini-cinnamon rolls. And he made small pancakes, too. Plus he had 'adult beverages' for everyone: mimosas, tequila sunrises and bloody marys.
I was helping work the line outside the building which got quite long (running all the way to the fountain). And I was able to connect with Jessica, the woman I'd talked to over the weekend who had contacted us about getting quite a few glasses. I hooked her up with 100, even though we were limiting purchases for everyone today to 10 or less. (She had been in touch early on, so she was a special case...)
Carol and Brian did sleep at the office last night. And Brian did a great job today as Professor E. Clipse! Carol worked her butt off all day -- and their daughter Aisha helped, too (she was doing her clown thing!).
Angel was there to help out (not as the Clown Prince this time).
And WOW -- did Wanda ever do a GREAT job again! She was amazing selling at the front desk!
But we were all trying to do out parts, believe me. And it was exciting.
Rich and Merlin were there. Rich certainly did a great job with the media this weekend for this event! Marilyn hired him as an hourly just for this purpose.
Marilyn and I went all over taking photos of everything. We'd kind of decided we'd just do that and NOT look at the eclipse when it happened, but we were totally able to do both things, as it turned out!
The actual event was eerie! It didn't seem to get as dark as we'd expected, but it DID get darker! Street lamps which come on automatically when it's growing dark were all on (!!!) and our big ROSE came on, too! Plus it grew COLDER for a short period, then warmer again. Weird. You could definitely feel something 'strange' during, before and after it. Hard to explain!
Donn and Denise came out and Denise reported that her animals at home had all 'gone crazy' during it! (We have no way of knowing how Colin and Henry behaved, of course, as we weren't here...)
Kris had been planning to come but sent us an email that he couldn't make it. We'd invited our friend Mark to come, but he was at his beach house. Rob and Jeff were hoping to come, but didn't show...
But we had many people who DID show up for the private event.
And we had a GREAT crowd around the building and in the park for the public event!!!
Yes, we totally sold out of glasses (no surprise).
It's very DIFFICULT not to want to look at the sun during all this! You have to constantly remind yourself. Weird. And I took a couple of photos with my iPhone (before it was happening, thankfully!) without thinking before Marilyn warned me NOT TO -- that it could ruin my camera in the phone!
We took loads of photos, of course. And that phone in my iPhone 7 is amazing!!! I got some really good shots! We went on the roof of the building for many shots and they turned out great.
In fact, that's where Marilyn, Rich, Merlin and I actually were for the event. Pretty cool, really! Marilyn and I both cried. It was very emotional! And Rich and Merlin were dancing on the roof.
I think our entire staff did a great job today. And one member of Angel's Clown Corps did an amazing job selling glasses in the park, by the way (I don't recall the name of the clown right now).
It was wonderful to have the community come together in a peaceful fashion to share this event! People everywhere were smiling and so friendly. There were no negative incidents at all.
Then it was over, and people took off right after that. Many just headed back to work downtown (which is where they had been before the event).
I forgot to mention that we had All Classical Portland 89.9 FM on site playing their 'eclipse' mix, which included a number specially written for today by a man who was listening in from Dublin, Ireland. And we had both KOIN 6 and KATU Channel 2 there on site. (Plus we had a lot of weekend coverage from KGW Channel 8.) Interestingly enough, the only channel that didn't give us coverage was KPTV 12 -- our official TV channel. Hahaha.
Rich thought it was perfect having All Classical there playing music for the event. Which is probably what prompted him to dance with Merlin!
Anyway, our little private party was wrapping up when we went back inside the building.
Marilyn and I left fairly quickly, as Mondays are NOT normally work days for us in August. We stopped at Starbucks and got coffee, then drove home. I haven't been feeling that well and we were both exhausted! Last week was extremely busy, plus we both worked hard this weekend. Add in getting up early and the tension today and that probably explains it.
We both felt it was like Grand Floral Parade morning -- which is always very intense for us!
We spent the rest of the day quietly. And some of it sleeping (especially me). We didn't turn on American Ninja Warrior at the normal time because we were asleep, but managed to see much of it, even so.
And to talk with sister Sue about the eclipse and ANW.
Oh! Our neighbor Barbara phoned to thank us for the glasses. She hadn't been home when I'd dropped by, so I left them in her mailbox (I'd promised I'd get her some). Anyway, she wanted to be sure and thank us.
Lots of people were thanking one or the other of us for making sure they had glasses. It was wonderful to be to make sure so many people did.
I was happy to read that Shari got glasses at the last minute! I was feeling REALLY BAD that we had no way to get her glasses. And it never occurred to me to contact cousin Linda until far too late... But all in all we did okay with that.
I've been sneezing and coughing, so Marilyn wants me to stay in bed tomorrow. I also never ate much until really late today. I wasn't all that hungry all day long. I just haven't felt quite right.
I have JURY DUTY on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. So we'll see how that goes.
And I got to my doctor on Friday (if I don't get on a jury that runs over, that is).
Marilyn has things every night this week, apparently...
And we have a bunch of chores to get done this coming weekend. So it goes!
Sister Sue had wanted to go to dinner, but I just didn't feel up to it. Oh well. Hopefully soon. We've been trying to get together with her, June and Jim for dinner for ages. But things always seem to happen.
Bedtime!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sweet eclipse dreams, friends! I hope those who couldn't see it as we did were able to watch the excellent coverage that was on TV or online!