Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I was promised a recession.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The revolution will be supervised.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The willow is too close to the house.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

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Iceland

On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Ice Lands

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There’s an old saying that Greenland is icy and Iceland is green. That’s fairly accurate – especially if you spend your time near the coast, where a branch of the Gulf Stream flows around Iceland to moderate the temperatures. But venture inland a bit and you’ll find Iceland earns its name …

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Just off road F336, REPUBLIC OF ICELANDDecember 10, 2021

The highlands of Iceland. Home of the glaciers – remote, windswept, brutally cold. No one lives here. But there are visitors.

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On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Iceland – The Lights of Darkness, Part Three

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A few more views of the northern lights from various sites in Iceland.

An unfortunate trick of evolution is that human color vision degrades significantly in the dark.  Seeing the green and purple glow of the aurora generally requires either very good night color vision – which not everyone has – or a very dark night.  It helps to get out of town and to resist the urge to check your cell phone.

Cameras don’t work the same way and can capture the lights in all their glory even when it’s not totally dark.  Thanks for letting me share their magic with you!

On The Road - Christopher Mathews - Iceland - the lights of darkness, part three 7
Þingvallavatn lake, Republic of IcelandOctober 10, 2021

Pastel lights on the shores of Iceland´s largest natural lake.  This was at the beginning of a particularly powerful geomagnetic storm; unfortunately, the clouds closed in a few minutes later, hiding it from view.  Aurora hunting is not for the easily-frustrated.

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On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Iceland – The Lights of Darkness, Part Two

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Shortly after submitting my first batch of aurora photos, I got an email asking if there might be a few more to share. As luck would have it, there are!

Aurora season in Iceland begins in August and runs through May, but the lights tend to be especially vivid around the equinoxes in September and March. Unfortunately, terrestrial weather sometimes clouds the skies and hides the lights from view, so you’re not guaranteed a glimpse of the magic.

Unless you emigrate here, of course. That’s how I did it.

On The Road - Christopher Mathews - Iceland - the lights of darkness, part two 7
Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Republic of IcelandSeptember 24, 2020

Mount Kirkjufell is perhaps the most photographed mountain in all of Iceland. It appeared as “Arrowhead Mountain” in the HBO series “Game of Thrones” … though not quite like this.

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On The Road – Christopher Mathews – Iceland – The lights of darkness

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Summers in Iceland are wonderful, with mild weather, long daylight hours, and a landscape full of history and wonders.  I love the days here.

But I live for the nights.

 

On The Road - Christopher Mathews - Iceland - the lights of darkness 7
Hraunborg, Republic of IcelandApril 19, 2021

This is my house, about an hour outside the capital.  Apparently, I live in a Christmas card.

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On The Road – MissWimsey – Snaefellsnes Peninsula, Iceland

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Day 7 was spent on a day trip to Snaefellsnes Peninsula, a magical land of trolls and elves. I did spot a dragon and no one can convince me otherwise. The day trip to Snaefellsnes was a wonderful way to cap an amazing trip to Iceland.

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BorganesOctober 8, 2021

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On The Road – MissWimsey – Ice Adventure in southeast Iceland

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I wanted to see glaciers. I wanted to see icebergs. I really wanted to see an ice cave. There was no way to see all of that on a day trip so I juggled my itinerary, added a couple of days and dropped other activities to make the time to get to the glaciers.

It. Was. Worth. It.

On Day 3 I drove straight through to Hofn, a small fishing village about 450 kilometers south of Reikjavik. I made a few stops along the way: Seljalandfoss and the black sand beach. The drive took about 10 hours. I spent the night at Hotel Hofn, which offers wake-up calls in case the northern lights make an appearance. Sadly, that didn’t happen on any night of my stay there. But that does give me another reason to visit Iceland again.

My ice adventures began Day 4 with a drive to Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon about an hour north on the Ring Road.

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Diamond Beach -- JökulsárlónOctober 6, 2021

This photo was taken at about 9 a.m. There was a dreamlike quality to my time on the Diamond Beach. The weak sunlight was a huge part of that. The icebergs break off from the glacier, float in the lagoon and down to the ocean via a river. Pieces of various sizes wash up on this black sand beach. The reason the ice is clear is because the weight of the glacier squeezes out the oxygen in the ice.

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On The Road – MissWimsey – Ring Road in Iceland

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I took to the Ring Road on Day 3. This road circles the island, which is about 1,400 kilometers. I was driving to Hofn in southeast Iceland, which is about 460 km. that was the longest distance I was going to drive on this trip. I did make two stops to break up the drive: Seljalandsfoss and Reynisfjara Beach. I opted to take this trip in the off season, so there wasn’t too many tourists at any of these sites, even though tourism as a whole has been down since the start of the pandemic. That applied to the roads. I saw cars regularly on the drive down to Vik y Myrdal, which is about 110 km from Reikjavik. traffic went down considerably the farther away I got from the capital. It was unnerving (I had visions of a flat tire and googling how to change it) but it didn’t stop me from continuing on my way.

On The Road - MissWimsey - Chasing Waterfalls in Iceland 8
SeljalandsfossOctober 5, 2021

This was my favorite waterfall of the whole trip. There is a track that takes one behind the waterfall. It’s rocky and muddy, but the effort is absolutely worth it.

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