Real Quick on Totality and Just Doing Shit
Being some quick reflections on solar eclipses, life experiences and traffic.
This week my wife and I hosted a dinner party for fifteen, went to a bar mitzvah, drove to Vermont, did a day of incredible spring skiing (a sport at which while I continue to improve, I still suck), saw a total solar eclipse, and drove home through some of the most epic traffic I have ever seen in my life.
It was exhausting, and it was excellent.
I knew next to nothing about solar eclipses before deciding to go on this adventure. All I knew was it was rare to see one in “totality”, that we had a place to stay within the zone of same, and that it’s best to say yes to adventures.
The experience was far more surreal than I was expecting. You’ve heard about it enough by now, I’m sure. It got cold and then it got dark, and suddenly we were in a sort of half light, the likes of which I have never seen before. Then, we were in the car, and heading home.
The eclipse was an amazing experience, but so was the car ride. What is normally a six or so hour drive ballooned into more like 11. Making it to the Vermont border, which normally takes about two hours took six, and it only got marginally better from there. That too was part of the adventure. The kids took it in stride, my wife suffered through a couple hours of the Rest is History, and we slowly made our way south with tens of thousands of other eclipse observers.
A little extra effort, a little less sleep, and we’d seen something so rare most people never experience it.
As the hours passed by in the car, the kids fell asleep, then so did my wife, leaving me alone to chug diet coke, eat sour patch kids, and reflect on how lucky I am to get to live a life like this. As we inched closer to our place, my wife woke up. Around 2 am when we were approaching our building, we were talking about the logistics of getting the kids and the bikes and the bags out of the car, my daughter woke up. We braced ourselves for grumpy half asleep tears and whining but instead she sits up, eyes wide and smiling and says “worth it”.
Yes it was.