At 0400 on January first, I awoke to a clear and cold sky in the predawn. Grabbing a portable breakfast, I headed to the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Peru up on the Patent Road. As so often happens in the Champlain Valley in the winter months, the sky clouds over as the daylight increases. Once I reached the St. Patrick’s Oratory parking lot, I had a clear view all the way to the crest of the Green Mountains in Vermont but a combined cloud deck and overcast met the peaks 50 miles off. I was hoping for a fireball and received a pale blush in the gray. Not the view I was hoping for, but pale and lovely and right in the moment. Happy New Year!
The past 12 months have been eventful at EphemerADK. Feeling that it was an overall negative would not be accurate (memory being what it is). A quick glance over the shoulder as we forge ahead tends to highlight fails. Of course, the best way to run headfirst into a tree when moving through the woods is looking over a shoulder. I stop and turn and see victories.
On-line information gave me a beating. An evolving presence requires a lot of displaced woods-time. To then have all of the effort put into an event negated by the ready access to a 30 Day Forecast (FYI never EVER to be trusted in the Adirondacks!) is grit in your oatmeal. The victory? Nimbleness in planning alternative activity for myself and the clients who stick. Forecasts cost us 5 big gigs. The weather turned out lovely, and the Plan J resulted in a lot of smiles for other folks.
Triaging others caused me to miss triaging myself. Result? Hobbling through the best season of the year. Oops. Victory was a friend recovered, and a new page added to my WFA process. It is actually an old page: you cannot aid in an emergency of any kind if you become a casualty. Victory again!!!
Moving forward (glacially) with taking my foot off the dock of working another job to step firmly into the guiding canoe. A metaphor! As with doing the splits and faceplanting in the lake, it is a balancing act. Regulations, licensing, insurance. Trade Shows, mailing lists, business cards. Outings. Busman’s Holidays. An Actual Holiday. The best part of this year was meeting scads of like-minded people (mostly astronomers, to be fair) and spreading our brand abroad! Our toques are in 7 US states and 4 countries on three continents. Several thousand (!) folks have been at our EPs, and solar viewing continues to escalate, heading toward the April 8 total eclipse. Get on our mailing list to find out where we’ll be, be safe, and look up with us!
Next time, we learn how to turn a Descent Gully into an escalator. Go there with us!
