But first, music: I’ve joined the percussion section of a wind band which is keeping me quite busy since I am learning to play six instruments I don’t own, so I can only practice in the percussion room. Once again I am resolved to revive my blog, though my resolution level resembles irregular lunar cycles, with an emphasis on waning.

We took a mini-vacation with our two sons to South Lake Tahoe and Nevada, primarily to see the annular solar eclipse, which we managed to do, only because we tend to be a lucky group. We left SLT before 5am for a three-plus hour drive to Winnemucca, NV, located in the middle of the 125-mile strip comprising the full-ring viewing area. The drive was virtually settlement free, classic basin and range: flat or slightly hilly plains punctuated by mountain ranges created by erosion from an ancient high mesa rather than by uplift; that’s what I remember from reading John McPhee, and maybe it’s true. Big Sky country.

As soon as there was any light, we noticed an alarming amount of cloud cover, and there was even some misty rain. The eclipse duration was about an hour, with four minutes of full ring viewing. When we encountered sunny patches–and by patch I mean a large area, perhaps miles wide–we donned our eclipse glasses and stopped to view the sun’s crescent. While we were watching, the clouds would shift, then we would drive elsewhere. These were wide swaths of dense clouds, but the landscape was also wide, allowing us to locate another sunny patch farther on.

We weren’t the only carful doing this; it was the eclipse version of Storm Chasers.

The clouds seemed to worsen as the peak viewing window approached, and we took off on another move with minutes to spare, heading over gravel roads into another field. We stopped, leapt out, and looked up, and were able to see a round disk completely encircled by a silver ring for about 30 seconds.

More Ring of Steel than Ring of Fire. But I’ll take it! I crossed “annular solar eclipse” off my (mental) list!

Optics were unusual. The eclipse glasses worked fine through wispy clouds, but as the cloud cover thickened, the glasses blocked the view even when we could still see a bit of it with our eyes. And yes, not only did I sneak a few unprotected peaks, during the brief full ring time we could only see it directly. I have no idea why this is. When the glasses did work, the sun looked amazing, especially when it was shaped into smiling or frowning crescents. We checked the glasses beforehand by viewing the full sun, which also looked very cool, more three-dimensional somehow, and visibly mottled and spotted.

Back in Lake Tahoe, the kokanee salmon run was underway. These salmon, which spawn in streams that feed the lake, never reaching the ocean, are one of four types of fish introduced after invasive humans (ie, non-natives) fished the original Lahontan Cutthroat Trout to extinction in the 1800s. LCT have recently been re-introduced using fry from native tribes who have preserved the species for almost two centuries, but it is unclear whether enough of the small fish will survive to adulthood.

This was very interesting, but not a bit like a PBS documentary, which must take pictures of leaping fish and string them together. These would leap occasionally, but mostly they were patiently swimming against the current, advancing incrementally. They were dramatic looking, as their final metamorphosis results in dark red bodies below the head and a mouth that looks like a large claw.

We also took a cruise, during which we learned that Lake Tahoe is one of the purest bodies of water in the world: 99.994%. Commercially distilled water is 99.998%. The water mostly comes from snowmelt which is filtered by marshes and meadows. LT is surrounded by hundreds of miles of national forest and is very wild outside of the two main ski resort areas.

We tried but failed to see black bears, though they were all around. Four bears lived across the street from our hotel, and everyone from the front desk staff to other guests sharing breakfast showed us pictures of bears in the parking lot or making a try on the dumpster, but we managed to miss those. We got up early one day to seek bears at the salmon run, but the bears got up earlier.

We already have plane tickets to San Antonio for the full eclipse in April. I have every intention of blogging again before then.