Dimrill Dale and Eclipse Jealosy

One thing that happens when you make a conscious effort to post every day is that half of your blog posts turn into diary entries. “Dear diary: Here’s what I did today. Well, yesterday.”

Yesterday I completed the Moria Epic Story and officially returned to the world under the sky in Dimrill Dale, attaining level 60 in the process. I got to revisit the Watcher in the Water deep in the bowels of Moria. Volume 2, Chapter 5 ended with having to complete three different skirmishes where you defend various places in Moria from Orc invasions. They were ridiculously easy to the point of tedium. In the end, the dwarves got their precious mithril axe Zigilburk back so I guess they are happy now. (That’s a terrible name for a legendary axe by the way.)

Chapter 6 begins with seeking out Galadriel.

I’m not entirely sure where the Moria Expansion ends, but I still have quests available in Dimrill Dale so I guess I’m still in territory that I’ve paid for.

Meanwhile in GW2, while watching Netflix, I worked on map completion in the Brisban Wildlands, something I almost never do because it’s a bit dull. But after my experiences with the Heart of Thorns story, it was a relief to be able to walk around a map without getting killed every ten steps. (My main Necro has 66% World Completion, by the way.)

In other news, I am SO JEALOUS of everybody who will be in the path of totality for the eclipse tomorrow. When I first thought I would drive down to experience it, I thought it was just a two or three hour drive away, and it would be no big deal to get there, find a vacant parking lot somewhere, and watch it. Then I learned it was a good six hours distant, not counting traffic concerns. That’s too far to impulsively drive for a two minute totality experience. Still, I keep hearing the siren call: “It’s just six hours. There will literally-not figuratively, literally-never be a closer opportunity in your lifetime.”

It’s not that I particularly care to see the eclipse. There will be plenty of clinical but completely accurate images on the Internet to look at, not to mention all the images we could look at from past eclipses. And where I live, the maps suggest the sun will be about 90% eclipsed anyway, which is pretty impressive.

It’s just that you can’t physically look at it unless it’s totally eclipsed. That’s the siren call of it: To look upon something so rare with the naked eye. To experience what people in history have looked upon as “dragons, dogs, and demons,” is pretty compelling. It’s a way to viscerally connect with past generations and the history of humankind on Earth.

It reminds me of the Hale-Bopp Comet from 1997. I vividly remember looking up one night and seeing that comet hanging up there in the sky like a … like a I don’t even know what, because I’d never seen anything like it before. It was stunning. In that moment it was easy to understand why people in history viewed comets as magical portents. That picture I linked is exactly what it looked like from my house. But it’s one thing to look at a picture of a comet online-it’s quite another thing to see that comet actually hanging up there in the normally changeless sky like a harbinger of doom.

Well, that was pretty dramatic.

Anyway. I’ve got my home-made eclipse viewer box ready. Have fun and stay safe!