READ THIS BLOG IN AWE

Some tell me that they read my blog  daily to vicariously enhance their lives.  From an issue of Time magazine I am now reading by Angela Haupt:

YOU DON’T NEED TO BOOK A FLIGHT to see the north­ern lights or watch a total solar eclipse to exper­i­ence awe. All you have to do is look up at a sun­set, down at the veins of a leaf, or deep into your morn­ing cof­fee.

Exper­i­en­cing just a few minutes of awe a day is linked to less stress, anxi­ety, and depres­sion; lower inflam­ma­tion; less loneli­ness; and more gen­er­os­ity and con­nec­tion, research­ers have found. “I don’t think there’s any­thing you can do that’s bet­ter for you than a few minutes of awe,” says Dacher Kelt­ner, a psy­cho­lo­gist at the Uni­versity of Cali­for­nia, Berke­ley, and author of Awe: The New Sci­ence of Every­day Won­der and How It Can Trans­form Your Life.

Awe is the feel­ing you get “when you encounter things that are vast and bey­ond your frame of ref­er­ence,” Kelt­ner says, shift­ing atten­tion away from the self and toward something lar­ger. Reli­able sources include nature, music, visual design, birth, and spir­itu­al­ity, he says. 

One other way is by reading my blog, for I'm off to see the the 2026 version of the total solar eclipse, far away from where you are.  A 100% eclipse can only be experienced by being in this 185-wide path, the shadow actually moving at a speed of several thousand miles/hour from Greenland and down through Spain.  

Only 15 million people, or 0.2% of the global population, live in this band.  Perhaps a billion will be able to directly see at least a partial eclipse.  Be sure to use certified eye shading to do this!!!  Of course, major networks and agencies like ⁠NASA and ⁠ESA will provide global television coverage and web streams. [1, 2]  You don't need to bother with eclipse glasses while watching TV.

Well, anyway, the total eclipse is not today, but on 12August 2026.  More specifically, so you can plan on it

Greenland (Scoresby Sund): Totality begins around 4:35 pm WGST (duration ~2m 17s).

Iceland (Reykjavík): Totality begins at 5:48 pm GMT (duration ~60s).

• In Reykjavik, look 24" above the west-northwest horizon to watch the beginning of the partial phasing at 4:47 PM, with totality starting at 5:48:12 PM, and ending at 5:49:18 PM.  The eclipse will end at 6:47 PM.  So not 2 minutes, but 1 min 6 seconds.
• Hawaii, this would have begun at 6:47 AM, but don't bother because this path totally misses the Pacific Ocean.
• However:
• Fairbanks, Alaska, 37%, 8:27 AM AKDT
• Bangor, Maine, 23%, 1:53 PM EDT
• Boston, 16%, 1:55 PM EDT
• New York City, 10%, 1:54 PM
• Philadelphia, 7%, 1:53 PM
• Halifax, Nova Scotia, 31%, 3:00 PM ADT
• Montreal, Quebec, 18%, 1:45 PM EDT
• Toronto, Ontario, 8%, 1:40 PM EDT

Spain (León): Totality begins at 8:28 pm CEST, occurring low at sunset. [1, 2]

A special treat is that a few hours later, during the early hours past midnight, so this would be the beginning August 13, you will be able to see the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower.  Fortunately, this will be a new moon night, so the sky will be darker.

• This shower was caused by debris from Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.  
• At peak, you should be able to see 50 to 100 visible meteors/hour.
• Read this article for people in the UK on timing for both the total eclipse and Perseid shower. 
• Times for other locations.

So to continue day 2 of our cruise on the Azamara Journey.  Woke up late for lunch.

Went on to get some cappuccino and cookies.

Cappuccino with coconut macaroon and chocolate coockie.

As much as a slept the night before, took a very long nap.  Then, on to dinner at their specialty restaurant (which means we paid an extra $65/person) CPrime.  Appetizers.

Serving potato soup.  With Caesar Salad.

Serving steak.

Dinner.

Cheese.

Scotch in the Living Room.

Dancing.

Name of band is Shore Thing.  From the Philippines.

I requested Anak, that revolutionary song by Freddie Aquilar.

More dancing.

It was a grand evening.

I close with another song from the Orient.  The following came via e-mail yesterday, and I have added at the end my story to Sukiyaki.

• In 1961, a songwriter walked home from a massive protest in Tokyo — a protest against American military bases that had just failed.
• He held his head up as he walked, so the tears wouldn't fall.  That walk became a song: "Ue o Muite Arukou" — "I'll walk looking up."
• 
  Two years later, that same song, renamed Sukiyaki, hit #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100.  It stayed there for three weeks.  No Japanese artist has ever done it since. Not one, in over 60 years.
• The singer was Kyu Sakamoto — and most Americans who loved the song never knew what it was actually about.  A song born from frustration with America became one of America's most beloved hits.  Sukiyaki is of course a beef and vegetables Japanese dish, and has nothing to do with the story of the song.
• Sakamoto's story ended in tragedy: on 12August 1985, at just 43, he died aboard Japan Air Lines Flight 123 — still the deadliest single-plane crash in aviation history.

• 
  Here is my story:
• Had friend in Japan.  We got together not long after that crash.
• Said he was late for his flight, and got turned away.
• Was so angry that he wrote a note to Japan Airlines complaining about his snub.
• This was that fatal JAL 123 he was supposed to catch.
• Showed me the crumpled note about his complaint, which he never passed on.
• Sukiyaki never died. It's been covered for decades.  Here is an old, but more modern version of Sukiyaki by Hikaru Nishida.

And, another one.   Incidentally, tomorrow, 12August2026, Total Eclipse Day, will be exactly 41 years after that JAL crash.

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