Weekly Update 04/04/26 – 04/10/26 (Artemis eclipse claims, ISS sunsets explained, hearing aid adjustment, credit card strategy)

 This week’s update covers the Artemis flight coverage, what “eclipses from space” actually mean, adjusting to new hearing aids, and a shift in my credit card strategy.

The big item this week has to be the Artemis flight. For me, the strangest part of the coverage was hearing reports claiming this was the “first time humans have seen an eclipse from space.” I knew that was inaccurate. Based on what was described, the Sun moved behind the Earth, disappeared, and then reappeared, effectively a sunset followed by a sunrise. We see that every day. On the International Space Station, it happens about 16 times a day.

There are other eclipse-related observations from space as well. Astronauts can observe lunar eclipses from orbit. They sometimes see partial solar eclipses. There are also images taken from the ISS showing the Moon’s shadow crossing the Earth during a total solar eclipse. None of this is new.

In my research, Astra (ChatGPT) pointed out that one of the early documented eclipse-like observations from space occurred during Apollo 12. The distinction made was that observers farther away can see the alignment between objects, rather than just passing through a shadow. Personally, I think that distinction is more technical than meaningful in everyday terms.

On the personal side, I’m getting used to wearing my hearing aids. I currently have them on for about 14 hours a day, based on the app that tracks usage. So far, I have not noticed a significant improvement in what I hear, except in specific situations like backing up. One unexpected benefit has been constant access to Wi-Fi features through the app. Even though I cannot clearly quantify improvement yet, I’m hoping the benefits become more noticeable over time.

There was one surprise with the hearing aids. Since they cost nearly $5,000, I needed financing. My original plan was to use CareCredit at 0% interest if paid off within one year, but it turns out PeaceHealth does not accept CareCredit. Instead, PeaceHealth offered in-house financing at 0% for 18 months, which is actually the better option.

I have started chasing credit card deals. For years, I have used an Alaska Airlines Visa as my primary credit card and collected air miles. I did some calculations and found that I’m making about $0.012 for every dollar I spend on that card, not including the $95 a year I pay for having it.

That got me thinking.

I first came across an offer from Amazon for a Visa card that pays $0.050 for every dollar spent on Amazon purchases, with no membership fee. That was an easy win for anything I buy there.

Once I started looking, I kept going. With Astra’s help, I found a Visa from Fidelity Investments that pays $0.020 back on everything, with the money deposited directly into my Roth IRA. That shifted how I think about everyday spending.

From there, I found a Walmart card offering $0.050 back on Walmart purchases, again with no membership fee.

So the progression ended up looking like this:

• Amazon purchases → Amazon card
• Walmart purchases → Walmart card
• Everything else → Fidelity card

I even set it up so PeaceHealth charges my Fidelity card each month for the hearing aid payments, which effectively gives me a 2% return on that expense.

— Odell Sneeden Hathaway III

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