Birthdays and Eclipses
I rarely list my ACTUAL birthday on line for security reasons, and I'm not
going to do so here. But my twins turn 35 very soon (again, not going to be
specific) and I turn 64 a week later. Arranging birthday gifts for the twins
was tricky but hopefully I managed it well enough. They're difficult to buy
for, particularly my son Leo, because as adults they pretty-much have 
everything they want already.

The total eclipse is around my birthday, which is all the excuse I need to
go chase it. I got some pretty good photos from the eclipse in Dallas a
couple of years ago, so I'm hoping for something new. The Dallas eclipse
was straight overhead, and I hadn't lost my super-long lens yet, so I got
some classic eclipse close-ups, with prominences and stuff. 

For this eclipse in northernmost Portugal I won't have as long a lens, but
somewhat unusually the eclipse will be near sunset. I am hoping to get a
shot of the eclipsed sun low, near the horizon, possibly with something 
noteable in the foreground. When I was in Oregon a few years ago I hoped to
shoot the eclipse past a looming lighthouse, but of course it was completely
overcast when the eclipse occurred. We'll see what we manage.
 
This is a weird year to be having my birthday. The move to Portugal is the
first reason, of course. But the second is that I'm approaching the age when
all sorts of my parents died. My adoptive father died at 67, and both my
birthparents died at the age of 65. So as I approach those ages I wonder
how long I have left. My adoptive father died of a glioblastoma of the brain,
which is currently afflicting my best friend Keith. My birthfather died of
cancer-of-the-everything, but I tell myself he worked with lawn chemicals
his entire career as a groundskeeper. My birthmother died of COPD, and
I tell myself she smoked her entire life. 

Of course, none of us ever know how much time we have left, and I certainly
feel like I'm making the most of my life right now, so I guess that's the
best I can do!