Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Everybody saw this coming.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

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Australia!

On The Road – BretH – On The Road – BretH – Australia! Melbourne and Sydney Part 4

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After exploring the areas around the Sydney harbor and the harbor itself we decided to take ferries to some of the surrounding spots for (yet more) hiking and to see some of the beaches. There are so many we couldn’t possibly see them all – we had to skip Bondi Beach and the walks along the point north of the beach to the Hornby Lighthouse. But we knew we wanted to see Manly Beach because the last time my wife came to Australia she stayed there.

On The Road - BretH - On The Road - BretH - Australia! Melbourne and Sydney Part 4 9
SydneyMay 17, 2024

So our third day in Sydney found us on the 30 minute ferry ride to Manly Beach to hike the North Head, where we knew we would find views of Sydney harbor area from a distance. To warm up we walked along the shore near the Manly ferry port and saw the most unusual thing – a swimming pool built next to the water designed to fill with the incoming tide. Apparently these are found all over the place and provide a place to swim and lounge in the water protected from the surf.

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On The Road – BretH – On The Road – BretH – Australia! Melbourne and Sydney Part 3

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After Melbourne, with my wife’s teaching stint completed,  we headed to Sydney for several days of adventure. We planned to mostly explore the harbor, and take ferries to do some go the amazing coastal walks that looked promising and were high recommended. If we had time we would find another park off a train route and hike that.

On The Road - BretH - On The Road - BretH - Australia! Melbourne and Sydney Part 3 6
SydneyMay 17, 2024

The flight from Melbourne to Sydney via Qantas is fast and entirely uneventful. Here we opted for an Uber to our room which was a tiny studio apartment in Potts Point, a peninsula not far from Sydney Harbor. To get from our apartment to the harbor (about one and a quarter miles away) we had to pass through the Sydney Botanical Garden. But first thing (and last thing upon returning) was a mini version of the 1000 steps. Actually only 130 (I counted) they woke us up at the start of the morning walk and tired us out nicely at the end of the day.

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On The Road – BretH – On The Road – BretH – Australia! Melbourne and Sydney Part 2

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Continuing my series from my trip to Australia we’re still in Melbourne and I have several days on my own to do as much exploring as I can.

On The Road - BretH - On The Road - BretH - Australia! Melbourne and Sydney Part 2 9
MelbourneMay 15, 2024

I am an avid tennis player and spent weekends in my youth watching tennis on TV – Jimmy Conners, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open. I woke up at 3AM in 2017 to see Roger Federer defeat Rafael Nadal in an epic match  at the Australian Open that marked the beginning of Federer’s renaissance just before retirement. So it was natural that I visit the site of the Australian Open in Melbourne. I had arranged for a tour of Rod Laver stadium but that was canceled at the last minute but the grounds are open for wandering and photographing. Highlights are the iconic statue of Laver outside his stadium, and a small tree-lined square surrounded by the busts of famous Australian tennis players, from the distant and the recent past.

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On The Road – BretH – On The Road – BretH – Australia! Melbourne and Sydney

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I recently came back from my first and hopefully not my last visit to Australia. My wife has students in pre- and perinatal trauma resolution and was conducting a class in Melbourne and having been there once herself insisted I come along. Although Australia was really not a bucket-list item for me I am so glad I went! I would highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity. The trip was long and jet lag (especially on return to the States) was rough, but it’s a wonderful place to visit.

Since my wife was teaching for four days that meant that apart from the wonderful times exploring with her I had several days all to myself in Melbourne (and one in Sydney) which I used to see as much as I could. The stories accompanying the photos will talk about specific places and things we and I did, but I want to share some overall impressions about Australia (or at least Melbourne and Sydney, from the perspective of a North American):

Things are expensive in Australian dollars but the exchange rate was great. So factoring that in it’s maybe even a little cheaper than traveling in the US.

There’s no doubt you are in a very different place, yet there’s no language barrier. There you are, taking in the very different vegetation and trees, and hearing the crazy shrieks of the cockatoos and the brilliantly colored parrots in the trees and all the while you can understand everything people say and shop and go to restaurants and grocery stores stress-free. About the only language issue I encountered was learning to greet people with a proper pronunciation of g’DAY!

There is a feeling of calm and safety that I think is rare to find in the US. I think a large part of it is that there are simply no guns anywhere. It’s not until I visited Australia that I realized that in the US there’s a pervasive undercurrent of unease and tenseness that, for me at least, only goes away when I am out in nature. Australia felt different; the entire time we were there spending heaps of time  plying the streets of two major cities we heard exactly one siren. And that was a fire engine.

People were unfailingly polite, even (or especially) the drivers. The best example I can give is when I was approaching a marked pedestrian crossing and there was a motorcycle food delivery driver coming fairly fast down the street. As a former motorcycle messenger myself I was completely prepared for the driver to press through quickly front of me but no, he stopped at the crosswalk and without a hint of impatience waited for me to step off the curb and cross and only then continue on his way. We do bear in mind that the population near the coasts of Australia is overwhelmingly white or asian and there are almost no indigenous people to be seen. I’m sure that played a part although they are being as proactive as they can in officially recognizing and honoring the original inhabitants – even a small talk on koalas at the zoo starts off with a sincere-sounding tribute to the people who lived there first and the knowledge that has been passed down from them.

Beyond using public transportation, scooter and electric bicycle rentals are a great way to explore the cities, if you are adventurous and comfortable with riding in traffic. I bought a seven day pass for Lime scooters/bicycles that was good for a total of 2 hours of riding and used that extensively to explore areas of both Melbourne and Sydney (the one pass was good for both cities) that I never would have been able to reach otherwise. Find a scooter with decent battery charge, scan the QR code and put on the helmet, hop on and zip away to a new destination, hop off and walk and explore, find another scooter or bicycle and zip off to the next place. Freedom!

I apologize in advance for the multi-part series of posts but there are simply too many cool experiences and photos I want to share.

On The Road - BretH - On The Road - BretH - Australia! Melbourne and Sydney 8
MelbourneMay 15, 2024

From the airport we took a double-decker “SkyBus” to downtown Melbourne, dropped our luggage in a locker at the bus station and began walking towards the Botanical Garden. Little did we know that these steps would the first of many, many more as we ended up walking miles each day we went exploring. We first passed by the Flinders Street train station, an old building that was a rabbit warren inside of tracks here and there departing to all points around the city.

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