the limits of politeness, and many greetings

 I lost control of this one before it even started; there's an understanding that Princeton Free Wheeler ride leaders will limit rides to fifteen riders. I forgot to put in the limit, and before I knew it, I had twenty-two registrants. I had to turn someone away. A fellow leader set up his own ride to trail mine.

 Almost everybody on this one rides faster than the posted ride speed. I make sure that nobody rides alone, so I'm usually in the back by the end of the ride. The faster horses in attendance rode behind as we started... but, by the time we were four miles in, the fastest group broke off the front. At about seven miles, another group went out front (although this one mostly waited at turns).

So I decided the limits of politeness for this group ended at about seven miles.

No harm, of course; I was riding with two others who apparently wanted to ride the pace I did, and I had a good time with them. One of them, David G, is a neighbor at the new house into which we just moved; in view of the temperature range, he asked for a ride to the start, and intended to ride home on his own later. 

My performance has been unpredictable recently, but I was in good shape today (probably as a result of loading up on good food and empty calories at dinner last night, in celebration of mine and The Excellent Wife [TEW]'s 27^th wedding anniversary [and how on earth did it happen that I'm married for twenty-seven years?]).

We rolled over my usual roads, on a great day that was just a bit windy (you can see the route and my performance on my ride page). We stopped at that Sweet Gourmet in Montgomery/Skillman/Franklin or wherever it is.

(I'm refraining from posting some incredibly unflattering pictures here. They're really blackmail-worthy.)

After the stop, we started to get separated again, and one of the riders in the back got a flat. Rickety G and I stayed behind to offer suggestions and judgment, and it took a while for us to get going again, but get going we did... to come up on "Wireguy" Michael S in a van (he'd led another ride locally), taking David G back to the start; David had gotten a flat, and had had problems in the past getting his disk-brake wheel back into place, and didn't want to risk more. David asked me for a ride from the start back home in the car; he would wait at the end of the ride, only a few miles further on.

Also with them, though, was friend Bob N, with whom I've ridden a gazillion times. Bob's involved in some new project or other, and between his busy-ness and my move, I haven't seen him in far too long, so we rode together for a few.

When Bob turned off, the rider with the first flat, Rickety, and I put in some pretty fast pacing on the way back to the start (it was fast pacing for me, anyway, especially with thirty-plus miles just under my belt). I chatted with the rider with the flat about riding the rest of the way home on a repaired tire, and how I never trust them, and always feel relieved when I actually get back to the start without further incident.

Don't you feel like that, too?

in buffalo for the eclipse

 The Excellent Wife (TEW) and I have just moved to a new house... and two days after we moved, we were off to Buffalo for a long-planned trip to see the eclipse. It had been one of my wife's "bucket list" items, and I make a practice not to stand in the way of those.

It was great. I wrote the following to an acquaintance who lives in England:

==

Buffalo, NY was cloud covered most of the day, which worked reasonably well for viewing the eclipse. While we had the approved protective glasses, we only needed them for those few occasions when the clouds broke and what was left of the sun showed through. Instead, the clouds provided protection, and while they did sometimes completely block our view of the sun, more often the clouds we just enough so that we could see the eclipse happen without the need for protection.

Totality was scheduled for about 3:18pm local time, but occlusion of the sun started about an hour earlier. We went out to the street and stood where we would be able to see. Across the street, there was a bar where a number of customers had been preparing (ahem!); one was so prepared that he fell over backwards, but we later saw him up on the roof with the others. There was a festive atmosphere; we had three locals standing on the street with us sharing thoughts and politenesses, and later the excitement and giddiness.

It takes a LOT of occlusion to change the quality of the light locally, but as the sun got more and more covered, darkness came on. It wasn't the darkness of sunset - the colors were different, and it came on much more quickly. As totality approached, the darkness became more complete: streetlights came on, and we noticed cheering and shouts from other bars on this street. Even through the clouds, with totality we saw the irregular corona, and a bright spot towards the "bottom" of the sun that we later learned was a sun flare.

And then the light began to come back, and within about a half-hour, the light was back and we went on our way. My wife had made this a "bucket list" item, and was still excited and grinning at bedtime.

==

My wife got some video of the event:

 

We came back to a house full of unopened boxes, and we still can't find anything. Moving is crazy. But the eclipse was immense.