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Locked down but not out in Italy

Singing from the balconies! One nice thing about this crisis ... solidarity! “Guess you’re not living like a tourist anymore,” was the funny, truthful and somewhat gut-wrenching message of a friend the day the lockdown in Italy began. Today is day 6. My beloved Italia has been hit hard with the COVID19 epidemic. With the second largest elderly population in the world, the epidemic has meant a disproportionate amount of deaths in the country. So though I haven’t been worried about contracting it myself, this isn’t about me or someone like me who, if contracted it would probably have a sucky couple of weeks and then recover. It is about if someone like me contracted it and then spread it to a person with a complicated health history or an elderly person with a weakened immune system. Eerily orderly: Lines for the grocery store, each person one meter apart In a country with no concept (and no physical room really) for personal space, and in a city with reproachable hygie

Total Eclipse

Once in a red moon, your flaws work in your favor. Last night was one of those times. My tendency to randomly wake up throughout the night, (an annoyance at best, a sleeping handicap at worst), woke me up just in time to see the total eclipse of the moon. I was particularly pleased by this because I had read that the moon would not just disappear, it would actually turn red, an effect of the sun's light being strained through the earth's atmosphere.


Source: NPR- The moon appears red during a lunar eclipse in the Qatari capital of Doha, 28 August 2007. It's going to happen again tonight, and be visible across North America.

So I clumsily rolled out of bed and walked out into the hallway to find a window where this sight would be visible. (I wasn't so dedicated as to go out in the freezing cold at 2:30 am). However, my effort was rewarded! The eclipse was fabulous! I did indeed turn a shade of reddish orange, not quite as dramatic as the picture in this NPR article (above)... at least not in the minutes when I was watching. Regardless, it was worth the temporary loss of sleep. Thank you insomnia!

My pictures (not nearly as impressive):





Anyone else see the eclipse last night, perhaps even from outside?? 

Comments

  1. I saw it and it looked just like the first photo but I didn't know what was going on. I just thought it looked weird! I would have taken photos if I'd known it was an eclipse.

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  2. Yeah, it didn't get as much media attention as I thought it would. I would have loved to see it bright orange!

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