Tag: eclipse

Tax Day!

It’s April 15th – have you filed your taxes? Or are you one of those last minute filers waiting until to night to get your return submitted?

I sent my taxes in early last month and my refund is already in my checking account. I’ve done the last minute filing thing because of missing information in the past – and hated the panic filing at the last minute. So now I’m firmly in the camp of having taxes finished as soon as I can.

But given the date today, I started wondering why April 15th is tax day. I suppose it makes sense since W2s are required to be issued by the end of January so you have approximately 3 months to get your taxes filed. But here’s a great link with the history of it: https://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/personal-income-taxes/april-15-tax-day.htm#:~:text=Tax%20Day%20was%20moved%20to,refunds%20%5Bsource%3A%20Sung%5D.

New topic (I’m allowed since I’m the writer!)

Did you all have a great time at the eclipse last week? Assuming it was visible wherever you are? I was in the path of totality and for nearly 4 minutes I stood in awe of the 360 degree sunrise/sunset and the visible prominences. I made a real effort to try not to play with my camera and just be present in the moment but did capture these two shots. Please Google better pictures! I had a great week with my family – it was just what I needed to get my head back into the job search.

A week from now…

A week from today is the big solar eclipse! Where I live in the Chicago suburbs, there isn’t much excitement but my hometown in Ohio is a whole other matter.

I grew up in Wapakoneta, Ohio famous pretty much only for being the hometown of Neil Armstrong. Wapak (as we natives call it) has a population of about 9,800 people and is a lovely little small town that has worked hard to have a quaint downtown area full of fun stores and restaurants. And it’s also home to the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum. There’s a Moon Festival every summer to celebrate the first walk on the moon — and you can get any number of souvenirs saying First on the Moon in the area.

Wapak is pretty much on the line for 100% totality for this eclipse. Needless to say with the fondness for the Moon in town, it’s going to be a big event there. Need a schedule? Check out the website here: https://www.wapaksolareclipse.com/

So with all the excitement, I’m heading home to see the eclipse. I’ve never seen one so I’m pretty excited myself! For the last solar eclipse in North America in 2017, Chicago only saw a partial eclipse. I went to an event at the Chicago Botanical Gardens – but sadly, at eclipse time clouds rolled in and by the time I made it to the car, it was raining. So I’m hoping for clear skies this year and the chance to use any of my 6 pairs of eclipse glasses to see totality!

One of the really interesting things about totality is all the other things that become visible for the 4-5 minutes the moon blocks out the sun – check out these links for info. If you have the chance, I’m told totality is amazing. If you miss this year, you only have to wait until 2044 for a line of totality in North America again!