The carriage house at Belmont
Solar Eclipse, 8 April 2024
We had our weekly Zoom chat April 7th. Gareth said “Today’s clear sky was great for eclipse photo dry runs… Spent hours fussing with cardboard filter-adapters and such.” He’s the only one of us living in the Zone of Totality.
Sandy and I weren’t in the zone of totality, and we’d heard we’d only get about an 86% eclipse. We sat on the porch for the duration. Assuming only 14% of sunlight, we’d expected our afternoon to get much darker than the slight reduction we experienced. Another puzzle for me was it seemed as though the moon didn’t cross the sun in a straight line. It entered the sun from the lower right, seemed to move straight right-to-left, then veered upwards and departed from the top middle. (Somebody living only a few miles from us made a Facebook post showing exactly how we saw the eclipse.) Gareth thought if we’d viewed the eclipse at noon from the equator, then the path might have been straight. Here’s Nick’s photo of Dad, followed by one or two more for the scrapbook.
Another view, via Facebook and a NASA website:
Charlottesville 10-Miler
Found myself on the finish line video, among 1500 others. Sat March 23rd, my 12th Charlottesville 10-Miler & my 60th 10-mile race, but not my slowest. Chip time 1:40:38, 10:04 pace, 7th of 9 in M70-74, 97th of 166 men over 50 (but 34th in age ranking). The race started at 7:15am, with rain heavy at first, diminishing to drizzle by my finish about 9am. 44°F, 7°C, Wind NNE 4mph, Activity Feel 35°F, 2°C.
Super Tuesday 2024
Hartwood Precinct has over 4,000 registered voters, and on this day 850 in-person voters. Photo by Jared Smith at 5:55am shows Edwin Ridout, Gloria Chittum, Secretary, Electoral Board, Margery Schafer, Shannon Shinskie, Bob Jankovits, Susan Young, Darrel Evans, Chuck Schafer, Art Fox, and Jared Smith.
Our precinct’s results, 7:23pm:
Ingleside Drive
About 7:30am, Sat Feb 24th, the Stafford side of the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. Photo by John Ashburn.
Slothful Audience
Reston Zoo, Sun Feb 18th. Notice who dressed for the occasion.
Dahlgren Trail ½-Marathon
Above, David Marks and me stumbling into the finish. Below, Allen Vaughan and Stephen Fisher were both slower than me this day. Together we comprised the entire men’s over 70 category.
This was my 23rd & slowest ½-mara, (my 12th time on this course). I was 33rd of 38 men over 50, and 96th of 108 men. I blame painfully tight calves during the final third of the race. Windy, mostly sunny, 36°F, 18°C, Humidity 82%, Wind NW 7mph, UV 1, AT 33°F, Activity Feel 28°F.
Pratt Park
The one-mile track: Boyd, Dzibella, and Myers, 7:13am Sat Jan 27th.
Husser Shipyard
Running new year
Waiting for 6am start, FARC Friday no-drop run, Fredericksburg, Virginia. My first run of 2024, 23°F, -5°C, light breeze.