Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

People are complicated. Love is not.

Everybody saw this coming.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

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

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

This really is a full service blog.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

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

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

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On The Road – way2blue – Lamu, Kenya in 2021

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way2blue

We finished our multi-day hike at the Tsavo East Gate on July 29th [see previous OTR saga], climbed in the field vehicle and headed back to camp.  Dinner was turkey (!) with all the fixings and cake for dessert (also!!).  An early rise the next morning for our drive to Malindi.  Driving out, the landscape shifted from open land, to small huts, to small farms, to villages, solar panels…  Graceful women in lovely colorful skirts walking along the side of the road to fetch water, with yellow, 5-gallon containers balanced on their heads (~40 lbs when full).  

We had a light breakfast in a small cafe in Malindi while the other hikers got PCR tests for their flight home.  From Malindi we flew east to Manda Island of the Lamu Archipelago in the Indian Ocean off the northern Kenyan coast

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MALINDI AIRPORT, KENYA.

Luggage cart heads out to collect bags for disembarking passengers before we board our plane.

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On The Road – Albatrossity – Tarangire National Park – 3

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We are world travelers this week.  We are in Tanzania with Albatrossity today, and then we will be in Kenya with way2blue for the rest of the week.  We will have the final 4 days of the Kenya trip with way2blue the week of 1/23.

Albatrossity

The rainstorm that was looming over us on the first day in Tarangire National Park moved in about mid-afternoon. Thus we got to see how the critters responded to a thunderstorm, and we also got to sit that storm out in a grove of trees along a small stream. So here are some before, during, and after the storm images.

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Tarangire National ParkMay 14, 2018

This Pin-tailed Whydah (Vidua macroura) is common in sub-Saharan Africa, but since it is also a common cage bird, it has also been accidentally introduced and established in various other locations, including Southern California and Puerto Rico. It is one of only about 100 species of birds that are brood parasites, laying their eggs in the nests of another species. Whydahs usually choose finches as the host parents, including the firefinches seen in an earlier post in this series. For that reason, any introduction of this species is a cause for concern, since it could really harm native finch populations wherever it becomes established. Click here for larger image.

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On The Road – Steve from Mendocino – French Basque Country #5

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Steve from Mendocino

The Basque coast is absolutely charming, but during the summer, especially late summer, it’s mobbed, and driving and parking are a nightmare. Biarritz and St. Jean de Luz are obvious destinations, but Bayonne is the city that really anchors the area. Bayonne is less of a tourist destination and has more of a year-round population – or at least it did during the period when I was visiting in the summers. The area from Bayonne to St. Sebastien in Spain is an uninterrupted urban/suburban environment.

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View of the Bayonne harbor taken from Anne-Marie’s aunt’s apartment.

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On The Road – StringOnAStick – Backcountry skiing, Monashee Mts, B.C.

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StringOnAStick

We recently returned from a trip to a backcountry ski lodge in the Monashee Mountains of interior B.C., Canada.  There are a lot of these lodges now, where you fly in via helicopter and spend your days with licensed ski guides doing what I explain as “hike up and ski down” skiing, not heliskiing, a significantly more expensive sport plus my husband and I like the hiking up part.  There are plenty of heliskiing and snowcat skiing lodges too if you aren’t into the climbing uphill thing and have a lot more cash to spare.  After 4 days to a week or however long a holiday you booked, the helicopter comes back and returns you to where you left your car, while a new group of eager skiers rotates into the lodge for their turn.

We used to do one of these trips every winter, but 8 years ago there started a long hiatus due to illnesses and losses in my husband’s family.  We were invited to join some folks we had met over 18 years ago on one of these trips, so we agreed.  These are popular enough now and with pent up demand from Covid and the favorable (to US citizens at least) exchange rate that you have to book a year in advance now.  We enjoyed our trip but we also realized that now that we are retired, we don’t need to (and shouldn’t for many reasons, one of which is the helicopter aspect) spend this kind of time or money, and when we retired we moved to a town in central Oregon that lets us take advantage of excellent backcountry skiing when conditions are good, so there is little need to “vacate” from the life we’ve built here.  Still, it was nice to do one last ski lodge trip to B.C.

This trip started with a very heavy snowfall on a very thin, drought conditions snowpack so it was tricky skiing given the hidden rocks and tree tops.  The first few days were very snowy or foggy, also tricky conditions due to poor visibility but we did get some sunshine and settled snow by the last few days.

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Just outside the lodgeDecember 15, 2022

I included this one just for informational purposes.  This shows my husband taking his climbing skins off his skis as the last light of day fades away.  Climbing skins are like “directional velcro” sheets that have a reusable glue and attachment hardware that you stick to the bottom of your alpine touring skis; they allow you to easily walk uphill on snow.  When you reach the top of your chosen downhill run, you take off the skins, stash them in your pack, lock your heels down in your multipurpose specialized ski bindings and now you have the same thing as a typical downhill skiing set up, but the skis are specially designed to be much, much lighter because you do have to drag them uphill for every downhill run.  Most alpine touring ski setups include specialized light but strong ski boots that have special fittings that are part of the alpine touring ski binding so you can have as light a ski/boot combo as possible while sacrificing as little performance as possible.  The gear has gotten so good that I’d say very little is being left on the table as far as performance goes now.

Some days you left the lodge and climbed upwards to start the day, and other days you first went downhill and then put climbing skins on to get to the top of the next run but on the other side of the valley.  The goal is always to find fresh powder snow to ski.  Most days involved 3 to 6 miles of travel and usually around 3,000′ of climbing during the day though one big day was closer to 4,000′ on this trip.

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On The Road – Albatrossity – Tarangire National Park – 2

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It’s the first week of the new year, and who better to usher us into 2023 than Albatrossity?

Strangely enough, we are all “B”s the rest of the week – Backcountry, Bagels, Basque Country, and Bleak Beauty.  Our submitters are ema, JanieM, Steve from Mendocino, and StringOnAStick.

I’ll let you guys figure out which person goes with with topic!  Names are listed in alphabetical order, so there are no clues in the ordering of the names.  Winner wins, well… something!   (with the something to be decided later).

More wildlife from my first full day in Tanzania in 2018.

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Tarangire National ParkMay 14, 2018

Last week I included a couple of giraffe pictures, and here’s another, just because these guys were so abundant in that park. This one has no obvious oxpecker pals, perhaps because he just looks sorta goofy. Click here for larger image.

 

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On The Road – JanieM – Maine #12

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JanieM

Until I took up with Steve from Mendocino, I mostly took pictures ad hoc as I went about my daily life, except for fall color, sunsets, lake reflections … well, okay, I did make some special efforts to take pictures. In the past couple of years I’ve stuck with the habit of keeping a camera in my pocket at all times, or grabbing it and going outside when comthing catches my eye. But I’ve also greatly increased the number of excursions devoted specifically to taking pictures. 1, 6, 8, and 9 in this set are from trips like that. The rest were caught in passing.

Note on names: I tend to give names (lakes, towns, roads, etc.) for the sake of anyone who might live around here, or visit, and wonder where the pictures were taken.

Thanks to Steve from Mendocino, as always, for all his help, editing and otherwise.

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Readfield, Maine

Another take on the lake at dawn.

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