There will first be a solar eclipse on one node, and then about six months later, on the other. The transiting nodes return in an approximately 18 year cycle. Lunar eclipses, in case you're wondering, are usually events occurring on the Full Moon either before or after the solar eclipse, in which the Earth blocks the light of the Sun and the Moon appears to go out. These also occur close to the lunar nodes, but across the nodes as an opposition. However, in 1998, there are no lunar eclipses, which, like solar eclipses skipping a sign, is also a fairly rare condition, and suggests that the lunar eclipses of 1999 are quite important.
All eclipses are, first and foremost, breaks in continuity.
Investigate and see. When astronomers come across phenomena like that, they know they have a new kind of thing about to be discovered. This phenomenon gives us a huge clue into how astrology works as a meeting place of space-time. Part of the reason the nodes are so powerful is no doubt due to the occurrence of eclipses near them, which bring exactly together the Sun and Moon, two extremely important expressions of experience. Nodes also represent the balancing of a polarity across the horoscope.