Independant Bookstore Day 2024

 Ann Marie and I have been making a day out of Independent Book Store Day for the past 5 or 6 years. The Covid years dampened the trend a bit but we managed anyways. What better excuse to visit bookstores than this? It is a day that we can visit several different bookstores in a row, explore their stock and catch up with the owners, add some volumes to our own libraries and also, thank the people who supply us with the books we read.

    IBD is celebrated on the last day of April. It was originated in 2015 by Samantha Schoech, a California editor and writer. It has since become a yearly event.

    A light rain had fallen overnight but the day held the promise of being nice, our fingers were crossed. But, we’d be inside for most of the day so it didn’t matter. I had an umbrella, “just-in-case”, I wasn’t worried!

    We started out in Oakmont, at the library. They were having a sale today. A rather poor day to pick one might say, their sale would take away from IBD sales. But since we support both the library and our friends that own bookstores, we figured we visit the library to start the day.

    We met Frank and Kelle there and after browsing through the shelves and the books on sale, we moved down the street to the Mystery Lovers Bookshop.

    We encountered a brief rainstorm as we left the library. Ann Marie stayed under cover with the books we purchased while I ran (?) to the car. Of course, I had left the umbrella in the car…

    The four of us arrived at the bookstore just after they opened. We meandered around the shop for a while. An author was due to arrive for a book signing at 11, so we decided to go down the road a ways to get a cup of coffee.

    Mechanic Coffee Company in Verona is where you can get some GOOD coffee. I love the smell of their shop. The heady aroma of coffee tells you the quality of the coffee they serve! We went out and sat in the pavilion across the street, drank our coffee and caught up with each other. Then the four of us returned to The Mystery Lovers Bookshop to meet “the author”.

(Pic taken by Frank D)

    David Rullo has written a book entitled Gen X Pittsburgh,The Beehive and the 90’s Scene. Filled with stories from past employees and owners of the Beehive Coffee Shop along with photos, the book will no doubt bring back many memories of going to the Beehive in my past. Some of my best memories were sitting in the window of the coffeehouse with my daughter. Coffee in my cup and hot chocolate in hers, maybe along with a bowl of cereal, we watched the people on the Southside walk past “our” window. Memories like this are what help make life so satisfying. It was a sad day when they closed!

    We purchased our books and then Frank and Kelle headed home. Ann Marie and I had at least one more store to go to before we called it a day, City Books on the Northside.

    There was a nice batch of people going through the store when we arrived. It is always good seeing fellow booklovers as they ponder what books need to come home with them.

    While we were there, Arlan, the owner showed us a copy of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift in a nice slip cover. There were 2 books in it, one covering his travels to Lilliput, where he appears huge to the small people of this land. The book telling this story is very small, only about 3x4 inches and the story is written in very tiny script. The second book, much larger in size (I’m guessing about 18x12”) is written in very large print. This part of the story is where Gulliver visits Brobdingnag, a land where the people tower above him.

    Arlan has directed me to many books which I have enjoyed. When I stop to visit, we talk about books, life and anything else which happens into our conversation. Not only does she supply me with my drug of choice, (duh, books) but she is also a good friend. What a good relationship!

    One of the books I purchased while there was a slip covered copy of Travels with a Donkey, by Robert Louis Stevenson. This copy was published in 1958 and has some colored drawings and maps in it along with signature of the artist. (The author unfortunately didn’t sign it…he died in 1894)

    The book is the non-fiction tale of the author’s 120-mile journey through the Cevennes Mountains in south-central France in 1878. I’ve read this story a couple times and own a copy already, but this nice volume caught my eye! It ended up coming home with me, along with another book from Arian’s shelves.

    It was a fun visit, as always. I spent a while browsing the shelves, looking for new books in her collection and listening to and watching the other book lovers in the store. I find there is always something exciting about going into a store filled with books. There will be some books that I’ve read before, some that have no interest to me at all, and some, I’m happy to say, I’ll need to take home with me.

    I found Ann Marie outside, sitting on the steps, reading the books she purchased. I can’t help but imagine her in a similar pose back when she was a child!

    Saying our good-byes, we turned our thoughts from books to food. Well past lunchtime, we let the car lead us to our destination. We finally stopped in Lawrenceville at the Dive Bar. I had brunch and AMB had a wrap. The food was delicious; there would be no need for dinner tonight. Not bad for a dive bar!

    We decided to call it a day after this. Back at home I looked through my bounty. A couple will be taken as presents on a trip in our near future and the others will be placed in the TR pile. (To read) One of the nice thing about reading is that the books/magazines don’t have to be scholarly or deep, they can be about your hobbies or your guilty pleasures, as long as you’re enjoying yourself, it’s all good!.

    Speaking of enjoying myself, I think I’ll take that new book about the Beehive and go outside with a cup of coffee and get lost for awhile in the past. It’s a great day to read!

And Then The Sky Turned Dark!

 The solar eclipse of 2024, “The Great American Eclipse” was something that I had been looking forward to for years, if not decades. Seeing that it would pass so close to my home, I knew I had to see it.

    As the years passed by, it wasn’t constantly on my mind but yet, it never was far from it, especially in the past couple years. Astronomy magazines were writing stories about it and as the event came closer, the news stations started picking up on it. Local city governments started warning about the possible influx of people and motels and hotels started raising their rates. Eclipse mania was rising.

(Locations of various AAAP members during the eclipse)

    Ann Marie's brother and sister-in-law have a farm in Indiana, only a few miles away from the centerline of the eclipse. The decision was made to observe from there, they were gracious enough to welcome us to their home. Our "reservations" were made well over a year before.

    I tried my best not to worry about the weather because that was the biggest deal-breaker. If the clouds moved in or it was raining, there was nothing we could do but except it. While we were driving west across Ohio, we drove through rain and the skies were cloudy. Occasional patches of sunlight raised my hopes. We drove over on a Friday, four days before the big event.

    There was a definite police presence on the highways. Signs warned about the upcoming event and suggested staying late after the eclipse to avoid traffic jams. Entering Indiana, we saw t-shirt stands with eclipse shirts for sale along with ads for various eclipse events. 

    Saturday was beautiful, clear skies and warm temperatures. I caught the thin moon rising in the morning. A couple geocaching trips were made during the day. That evening I set up my telescope and we had an impromptu star party. Jupiter and its moons hung on the edge of the western horizon with Orion close behind. The Beehive Cluster was easily seen by eye. 

    It was a late night, the dark skies overhead had plenty of things to visit!

    Sunday morning, the day before the eclipse, I attempted to see the thin crescent moon, but was unsuccessful. The brightness of the morning and the thinness of the moon thwarted me. The next day the moon would be new, and nearly touching the sun as they rose, I’d have to wait until the afternoon to see the moon, during the eclipse!

    The weather was less than desirable. We went hunting for morels and saw a double rainbow in the afternoon. The rainbows were a foretelling of what was to come!

    Monday morning was clear with only a small bit of fog, off in the distance, over top of the river. I still didn’t want to get my hopes up. Some friends of the family flew in (using their own planes) to view the eclipse with us. We ended up with eleven of us at the farm, sitting outside the house, patiently waiting as the moon slowly drifted in front of the sun.

    We did an experiment with a colander, allowing the sunlight to shine onto a paper plate held below it. All the bright spots reflected the image of the partially eclipsed sun, even the rectangular spots!

    The temperature dropped enough for us to notice it and the sky took on a darker appearance as the moon worked its way across the suns disc. A couple people said how it looked as if a storm was coming and how they felt a bit disorientated. The colors of the patio furniture got more intense, and the shadow of my pen seemed sharper as I scribbled notes. We could see the moon's shadow before it hit us, it moved towards us at a tremendous speed. 

    And then the sky turned dark! Real dark, night-time dark. Looking up, the first thing I noticed was Jupiter and Venus sitting on either side of the pair. The area surrounding the sun was brilliant white with spikes. Using binoculars, I could see a bright pink dot on the lower portion of the moon. It was a prominence, a flare coming off of the sun. The pink color was caused by the hydrogen that was burning in it. Others around me saw it also, confirming my skeptic observation.

Totality, taken by Sarah Balzer

I felt emotions rushing through me. I seriously felt as if I might cry. I didn’t know whether to jump up and down or to laugh, yell or scream. I think I might have done a bit of all of them.

We had just over 4 minutes of totality and it proved to me that time is not constant. It was over before we realized it; time had sped up during this experience, no doubt about it!

    While the moon slowly continued past the sun we all started talking and comparing our experiences. Phones were used to check pictures and to contact others to see what they thought about the eclipse. In the yard, the bees were returning to their hives.

    It was nice sharing the experience with others! We all became a community together, people from all over coming together to experience this show that our universe was putting on for us! The word camraderie popped into my head.

    Later that evening, after the sun (and moon) had set, I set up the telescope again and we had another nice dark evening of star gazing. We packed our gear the next morning and after another wonderful meal, Ann Marie and I returned back to the Pittsburgh area. Coming back we heard more eclipse tales on the radio. We had no problems with traffic but we did see a lot of policemen, same as when we were coming out.

    We made it home a bit before sunset and I didn’t even check to see what the sky was like, I had a bed waiting for me! The trip was a life event, something I doubt if I’ll ever see again. I waited a long time to see this and believe me, I wasn’t disappointed!