The Great Solar Eclipse of 2017 crossed the continent, from Oregon to South Carolina, and gave millions of people the chance to witness one of the most awe-inspiring events in the natural world.

But you had to be within the "path of totality", a narrow band across the earth's surface several thousand miles long but only about 70 miles wide. Outside that band you would only see a partial eclipse, not a total eclipse.

And there is no such thing as a "partial total eclipse", despite the impression blogs and the news media might give. I honestly think that's why so many people misunderstand the utter beauty of the spectacle; they may have seen a partial eclipse in the past that was total somewhere else, and even though they weren't in the path the news kept gushing about it being a total eclipse, so they assume they must have seen a total eclipse and just didn't find it all that impressive.


Posted by Dan 08/29/2017, revised 09/06/2017

The last two years of pandemic uncertainty have instilled in me a newfound fear of shrinking opportunities, coupled with the acute awareness that time, experiences and human connection are precious. As the summer of 2022 approached, I found myself unable to say no to anything.

...But, as author Jim Collins says:
"If you have more than three priorities, you don't have any."

I wasted no time saying yes to IRONMAN 70.3 Oregon in Salem. It was a new race on the IM calendar, appearing exactly 20 years after I had graduated college in Salem. How could I pass this up?!

It also provided the chance to redeem myself after the disappointing bike split in North Carolina, a performance that did not seem appropriate to the level of fitness I had built.

Meanwhile, coaching opportunities were rolling in faster than I could keep up with, and I had eagerly booked travel to all the third iteration pandemic weddings and social events that had sprouted up on the calendar every other weekend. June hit me like a freight train, with 14 hour work days and 48 hour whirlwind weekend trips out of town. I squeezed in runs when I could but bike training was impossible with all the time away from home (I did, however, get to try out a Peloton. It was fun). Six weeks of trying to be everywhere at once had flown by and when I finally had a moment to focus on Oregon 70.3, it was only two weeks away ...

And then I got COVID.


Posted by Kimberly 07/15/2022

After packing some camping gear on his bicycle and hitching a ride to British Columbia, Nik spent part of this summer riding his bicycle from Canada to California.

Nik still lives in Santa Cruz, where he spends time playing beach volleyball and going to school at Cabrillo College.
Posted by Dan 08/15/2007

For the past 3 months, our Flogging Molly volleyball 4's team has played every Friday night, fighting to get into the end-of-season playoffs. Well, we did it. We've worked hard, and this past Friday evening, we came into the playoff games in 4th place, the lowest position for playoffs. We beat the 3rd place team in a solid, close game, and then an hour later beat the 2nd place team by a Golden Point! It was off to the Saturday Championship game with us!

Saturday evening, 5:15pm, we faced the Yellow Tails, the #1 team all season. Games against them are always my favorite - they're a good team that plays the game well and enjoys the sport, and we always play a close game against them. We came out pumped, and I could feel my competitive side really coming through. The whole season has always been about fun and recreation, and it still was all the way through, but this was the Championship game - this was my arena, and it felt GOOD.

The game was tight, and we fought hard, but the Yellow Tails are a good team, and in the end they got the win they deserved. I could feel my competitive side get a bit frustrated with the loss for a moment - I really don't like losing. But very quickly, I remembered the whole reason behind the league: this was a fun thing to do with a great group of friends, and the 4 of us (roommates Scott and Crystal and our friend Hugo) have really come together over the season to create a fun team to play on.

We never would've thought that our scraggly crew, who came into the season late, losing all of our first games, wildly scampering all over the court for out-of-control balls, would ever make it to being the Runners Up of the league. But we did it, and we had a fantastic time doing so. Now, each one of us has a great glass-framed "trophy" sitting on our desks, reminding us of the great time we had this season.

Our trophy for 2nd place - Hugo, me, Crystal, and Scott. Yay Flogging Molly!

Posted by Whitney 06/15/2008, revised 06/19/2008