Met up with Steve Whittier at Chicopee. It was nice to ride some different trails for a change. Nutrition and hydration were good. Ate a few hundred calories about every hour. Feet were really hot today even with adding 2nd pair of socks. Right knee began to get sharp pain after about 30 miles. Chain came off the singlespeed about 5 times. Overall an exhausting but satisfying ride.
The solar eclipse just happened and it has me feeling cosmic and appreciative of our wondrous universe. It makes me feel pretty small and realize that most of my concerns are really trivial. I was amazed at how the quality of light changed and how the crickets began to chirp. Not to mention the crescent-shaped lights on the ground beneath the trees. We had a colander out viewing crescents on the patio because we had no solar glasses. Briefly, a cloud covered the sun and we looked up for a few seconds at the eclipse. Then some neighbors let us borrow their glasses. They are neighbors who for some reason we have never even spoken to, but people realize this is a rare event, so it makes us more human, more kind. This is an amazing time to be alive, with my daughter just turning 1 year old and now this truly inspiring event of nature. One can't help but feel gratitude and a sense of contentment. One of my favorite Carl Sagan quotes: “The surface of the Ea...