August 21, the heart of darkness and thousands of dollars

In the waning days of June my wife and I moved from one county south of Nashville to one county north. We now live in Robertson County, near the town of Greenbrier.

And this makes us perfectly placed for the total eclipse of the sun, which takes place Aug 21.

But this year’s eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse visible from coast to coast since 1918. Tens of millions of Americans are projected to make their way into the narrow path of the moon’s shadow — a seventy-mile wide swath of complete darkness stretching from Oregon to South Carolina — to watch the sun disappear completely for nearly three minutes over one section of the country after another.

Let's zoom in. Here is the national path of the eclipse.

Here is the northern part of Tennessee, from the National Weather Service site, which has an interactive map. Here, of course, the blue line is the center of the 70-mile-wide path of totality.

Let's go in closer.

If you click on the images you'll get a clearer, larger view. The city of Springfield is toward the upper left. Look at about 4.30 from there and you'll see Greenbrier. We bought a new-construction home close to Greenbrier and so will be smack dab in the totality.

Professional photographer Bill Hobbs, a friend of mine, posted on his FB page that he was hoping to go to Casper, Wyoming, to document the eclipse. He said that AirBnB lists homes or rent at his destination for as much as $5,000 per night. And they'll get it, too.

So I wonder how much we could get for our house? My wife and I briefly talked about it, but only very briefly. Back in 1999 when the turn of the Millennium loomed, you may recall that everyone feared that the "Millennium Bug" would crash the country's entire computer infrastructure with potentially disastrous results at the stroke of midnight on New year's Eve because computer systems were never designed to handle years starting with 2.

I worked for a small IT company for two years before I got my first pastoral appointment in 1997. So real was the fear of Y2K coming that the CEO of the IT company called me in the waning days of December to offer me a baby-sitting job in the offices of one of their client companies. I would be paid $5,000 to monitor the company's computer systems from 9 p.m. Dec. 31 until 3 a.m. Jan 1.

Six hours work for $5K, or $833 per hour. I declined. I suppose they could have found my price to abandon my family for that New Year's Eve, but $5K was not it.

So I do not see listing my house on AirBnB for the eclipse, either.