Every person who chases eclipses finds something special in each one of them. We like to say that by chasing eclipses, we get to experience a "trip of a lifetime" about every other year or so! As with all things in life, it is not the destination ("We saw the eclipse") so much as it is the journey, the adventure, the risks we take in deciding to leave our houses...
Great question! The eclipse glasses contain a very special filter material that is ISO certified to be completely safe for direct solar viewing. So, as long as that material remains undamaged, you could use the glasses to look safely at the Sun anytime you wanted to. It's not fantastically exciting to do that when there's not an eclipse going on, though, unless: (1) There are HUGE sunspots to be seen...
