Assuming Santa Cruz County would deliver its usual gloom for Monday’s solar eclipse, I played hooky from work, loaded my boys in the car and headed inland to San Jose.
I knew such an endeavor was a toss-up at best, with the latest weather reports predicting fog and then sunny skies here, and “increasing sun” in San Jose.
If I have learned one thing from living in the Central Coast for 16 years, however, it is that one cannot count on the sun to break through the cloud cover until at least 11 a.m., well after the eclipse would have been over.
I had another reason for taking part of the day off from work.
When my children were born, I was told by many people that time goes fast and to enjoy every moment. Those people were wrong only in one aspect: time does not merely go “fast.”
Since my boys were born, time has rushed by with the rapidity of a meteorite shrieking across the sky. Just yesterday, it seems, I was sitting in a hospital room, feeding my hours-old firstborn his first-ever bottle.
And today I watched as my now 9-year-old showed off his karate moves and tree-climbing ability.
Nobody goes to their deathbed wishing they had spent more time at the office, or cleaning the house.
I try to remember that whenever I am with my sons. I know that they will not always be two little guys begging me to come play with them.
I knew therefore that I would regret not at least trying to go see the eclipse.
The drive over Highway 17 was not promising. The summit was all but socked in by fog, and mist covered my windshield.
But that soon cleared up, and we stopped in Vasona Lake County Park, which incidentally is a wonderful place to bring children. There, we stood under nearly completely clear skies as we watched the moon pass between the sun and Earth.
Of course, being 6 and 9, my boys were largely more interested in playing by the river that runs through the park. But the drive was worth it. Using the solar viewers we purchased earlier this summer, we saw the eclipse in all its three-quarter glory.
I think they enjoyed it as much as young people can. They oohed and ahhed at the appropriate times, anyway.
At the end of it all – when the time comes for my boys to make their own lives – I hope with all my heart that they will look back on their time with me and remember days like this.
And when they do, I hope they will gather their own kids, and set off on their own adventures.
