Epic Incorporated

This part of this story begins in August of 2017 when the previous total eclipse occurred. My friend Bill was beginning his annual trek out of Florida to travel the country and see friends. More importantly, escape the sweltering heat and humidity that Florida brings that time of year. Myself, I was needing a well-deserved escape from work. I had just recently gotten back to the point where I could walk and do Aaron-related activities as I recovered from the motorcycle wreck the previous year. Bill was heading north, I was heading south, and there seemed to be a pretty cool event for us to coordinate and spend some time. I mean, who does not love catching up with good friends... and staring at the sun? While we were charged from the event, having picked up where our friendship last left off, we also made new friends, as we always do seemingly when we leave the house.

It would not be until 2019 until Bill and I would catch back up. This time, he just came up to my place, as he has done before. It was a little easier for me to work around a demanding work schedule to accommodate and entertain a house guest this way. Our Epic 2019 adventure was concluded by a last-minute suggestion to go catch a concert. It was Bill's last day here, and I just felt like we needed a little icing on the cake. It just so happened that the Doobie Brothers were playing a show with Santana the following day. Once I found this out, I poked my head into Bill's room and said, "Hey, I got an idea, but it will delay your exit by a day." Bill asked, "What do you have in mind?" I informed him of the concert and the lineup, and it was agreed; this was an epic way to conclude this year's visit.

There, two epic adventures in two years... done. We did not have any dead-set plans other than we were still on track to figure something out for the 2024 Eclipse. At that time, we did not know the universe was about to throw an epic wrench into any upcoming epic plans that had not been formulated yet. Yes, we were about to embark on a journey of watching history unfold. It hadn't been since the Spanish Flu one hundred years previously that anything as impacting as COVID had been witnessed. While trying to survive the epic mess the world was in, I kept pushing forward, trying to plan the next eclipse adventure. I was trying to herd a couple of my photographer friends together to make this happen, but the idea was not received as well as I hoped. My level of energy was waning due to now an even more stressed workload and still recovering from various ailments that had me sporadically incapacitated over the previous twelve months. I was now at a loss as to what to do.

By February 2024, I had just slowly bounced back from yet another ailment; winter had beaten the ever-loving shit out of me this year. Physically, mentally, and emotionally, I was out of energy, money, and much of a willingness to put much more effort into anything else outside of myself. But then there was this eclipse thing coming up. But then there was this eclipse thing coming up. Bill was calling, asking what we were doing about said event. I was out of ideas, and attempts to put an epic gathering together out west failed. My fears were that if we decided to do this here in Indiana, the state would do what it usually does. The current trend in Indiana is that "IF ANYTHING" interesting happens in the sky at any time, Indiana will obscure it with a blanket of clouds!

The previous year, work, or should I say my unhealthy devotion to work, had screwed me out of catching the ring of fire in Utah and saying goodbye in person to a good friend of mine who was passing. Yes, I had become that person, the person I did not like. The one that lets life get in the way of living life. The one who was just existing for the wrong reasons and giving my precious time to the wrong people for the wrong reasons. I would not repeat the previous year's mistakes, those were unresolvable mistakes which turn into regrets. Don't make those! I told Bill, "Screw it, just come up, and we will figure it out, as we always did."

At this point, I had been slowly working on the interior of my house when time, health, and/or more would permit. The problems I had before me were as follows:
1) The spare bathroom shower valve needed to be worked on. I had procrastinated on this because no one was ever here to use the spare shower.
2) I was replacing the floors and decided it was best to do that when I had the old flooring out and no one had a reason for the bathroom to be used.
3) Winter, I also discovered that doing self-plumbing projects in the winter also seemed to overcomplicate things.

So now I was here, scrambling to finish getting the flooring up from the spare room, fix the spare bathroom, or wait, I threw out the bed from the guest bedroom from purging the house. Drat's, I now had no place for Bill to sleep or take a shower. I was now in scramble mode!

A day before Bill's arrival, all the water was off in the house for over 24 hours. My plumbing project had gone from a rebuild to a full-on replacement. The flooring tear-out in the spare room was complete, and a sizeable new air mattress was set up. I had maybe three hours of sleep and burnt my hand trying to repair the plumbing. So frustrated and exhausted, I enacted the Screw-It clause. I capped off the pipes, turned the water back on, and succumbed to the fact this would have to be resolved later. Bill would have to share my shower. We definitely have camped in much worse places with fewer facilities.

By the time Bill rolled into the driveway, I was exhausted and defeated by my week with work and last-minute housing projects. Nonetheless, we had whiskey and time. Sitting around solving the problems of the world via the sweet lubrication of Irish over Ice. Whatever problems or commitments I had previously, they were on hold. This was my overdue holiday with family, and nothing could sway me from this time. That weekend, we just hung out, ate food, and caught up. It was offered to go camping with some friends, but that did not come about.

As Monday dawned, we were hyped. This would be the second totality we experienced together. Not too many people get to say they have done that. While we did not go camping, we did go out to my friend's place to enjoy the event with them. I was also glad to have my people meet my other people. For some reason, this year, I had zero inclination to take a picture of the eclipse. My creativity tank was bone dry, and this wasn't about photography; this was about sharing the experience with people that meant something to me. Time is fleeting, and this time would be well spent.

We enjoyed endless amounts of BBQ coming off my former smoker that had fed the masses over the years. Drinks were enjoyed, conversations were had, children were playing, and the weather was perfect. One could not have lucked into a better place and time to see a solar eclipse, unless you were Bill and I. Things always pan out like this.

As we reminisced the day, I told Bill he should go see our friend Stuart up in Chicago since he was "in the neighborhood" of the Midwest. Usually, when I have an idea, they are not bad ideas. Bill concurred this idea was indeed a grand idea that WE should go up to Chicago. "Wait? WE???" I had not entertained this portion of my idea, nor did I know how I could fit this in with my work obligations.

The more I considered it, I thought, "Yeah, we can do this if it is only for the weekend." I needed this, to get away from work and the house, which had been my quasi self-imposed prison for the past months. We had to execute this like a black ops team on a covert mission of sorts. Our ingress into downtown Chicago had to be perfectly timed as not to be stuck in traffic, yet had to be late enough that I could tie up some loose ends with work. Shit, the epic adventure continues, or dare I say, it just began.