Eclipse Report
Since everybody was arriving late Saturday night in Kansas City, I ended up dropping by Grav's house Sunday night. First thing I noticed was that every house on the street had about 5 cars in front so I parked in front of someone's house on a side-street. Probably broke some unspoken rule.
Grav greeted me at the door and he's tall. So is Goose. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Honestly, I have to say that I was most excited to meet Boss, he's the closest one to "my era" and honestly just an all around legend. To have remained so at the top of the game for so long is impressive.
Never really imagined it could be awkward being possibly the most generate person in a room but everybody seemed cool and friendly. Goose pontificated impressively for a while on Twitch personalities I'd never heard of while Clemens got relaxed with a Blue Moon and then everybody headed to the upstairs bedroom to get the stream started.
Boss started up a PD playthrough, really cool to see him play in person. He's very focused and very, very skilled. It's been a long time since I played Perfect Agent particularly but this was a skill level almost beyond my comprehension. It's hard to describe but it seems far more impressive in person than just watching a stream. Loved the pink double-B on his custom t-shirt too. He started up some Super Mario Kart later in the evening and was fun to watch on that as well.
Grav started up some Runway 00A WR runs. His last record had me really stoked. I'd always felt that Runway 00A with the tank was lacking and it's been super cool to see this level's time come down so much in the last several years. I'd also read about the R-lean but it was really helpful to have him demonstrate it in person. He ought to do a video, I thought his explanation was great. Goose gave it a few goes and now that it's clicking with him, we'll see where it will go. I think Grav was okay with a random guy like me showing up. At least I hope he was!
Clemens ran some PD for a while and was fun to watch as well. He's a bit more outgoing than Boss and the interactions with the game and with those around him were pretty entertaining. He was playing numerous ILs but was churning out "mediocre" completion after completion that would have made 95% of players thrilled.
Goose and I did a bit of scouting out spots for the eclipse, ultimately I think it was decided that nobody in the media had any clue what the weather was going to do and we'd all just have to take our chances. As has been said many times before, Goose was quite easy to get along with in person.
Now about the eclipse. I took my family out Monday morning. The sky was dark and cloudy and the sun wasn't visble anywhere until about 11am. We drove around looking for good outlooks and I finally made the call to go about 20 miles east. Luckily it turned out to be probably one of the best spots around for at least 50 miles. The clouds cleared just before first contact and we had about an hour and a half of beautiful blue skies. I was loving watching the eclipse progress. Felt like a little kid! Unfortunately about three minutes before totality the cloud cover moved it. I could see it coming for 20 minutes and was praying it would hold off but we lost it. We could still see the corona through the clouds (barely) but major disappointment. I had it all set up for trying to catch shadow bands, was looking for Bailey's Beads etc. but couldn't.
Despite that, the kids had a good time, it was fun observing the insects around us, seeing the "sunset" during totality, noticing the temperature drop, and how dark it got. Definitely worth it and definitely looking forward to 2024.
Hoping the guys at Grav's house were able to catch some of it.
(Their lovely mama made the design with fabric paint on all the shirts, including the baby's onesie)
