Ice and Fire

Near miss...

The Northern Lights, Hella, Iceland

Well, my trip to Iceland, where my daughter and I explored the south shore, was amazing and challenging—in ways both anticipated (the cold, the dark, hiking in the snow) and unexpected (layers—holy cow, putting on and taking off all those layers). I now understand what people mean when they say they need a vacation after their vacation, but it was totally worth it.

Four days back, though, and I’m still tired. I suspect that has more to do with he six-month slog to finish my latest project, which I did the day before we left—and which required a lot of thinking and sitting at my desk—than the sub-zero exertions.

Anyway, it’s a relief to have that project in the rear-view mirror—I’ll tell you more about it in the coming weeks—and I wanted to take a minute to catch you up on a few things, and then tell you all about my trip.

First of all, if you subscribed to The Good in Us in the last ten days, I apologize for the lack of posts. I’ll be making up for it with more frequent posts from now until (at least) November.

Second, I’ll be posting a video soon to describe in greater detail the changes you can expect in terms of my posting schedule and some improvements to the newsletter as well as some new features.

Third, The Nerd Avengers are going to be back—for good—starting next week. I’m in the process of setting up a YouTube channel so eventually that’s where the show will live but I’ll also be continue to post transcripts and special Nerd content here.

As always, I truly appreciate you, and this community we’re building.

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I’ve never gotten a wake up call at 11:47 p.m. before, but there we were, exhausted after a day of hiking, scrambling around in the dark for our layers, before rushing outside, camera and tripod in hand, to see the Northern Lights.

The picture above doesn’t do it justice—my cable release froze and it was so cold I didn’t have a chance to get the shutter speed right—but it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. And just look at all of those stars.

We woke up every day in the dark, as the sun didn’t rise until 9:00 and spent the first three days climbing glaciers, exploring ice caves, and chasing waterfalls (with all due respect to TLC). It was quite the antidote to the last six months of non-stop writing, as well as being incredibly bracing.

Katla Glacier

Katla Glacier

Reynisfjara, black lava sand beach

The afternoon before we left, we checked in to a hotel right next to a geothermal lagoon and, for the first time since we arrived, we didn’t have to be anywhere. We made it an early night with plans to sleep in, float in the waters, and very little else until we had to catch our 5:00 p.m. flight.

When the alarm went off at 6:00 the next morning, the first thing I thought was “Jesus, they really take their Northern Lights sightings seriously.” My next thought was, “Wait a minute, I didn’t schedule a Northern Lights wake-up call.”

Then I realized it was a hotel-wide alert, not a wake-up call.

A knock on the door, and when I opened it, a somewhat anxious hotel employee informed us we needed to pack everything and get to the lobby as soon as possible.

The overhead light in our room didn’t work, so who knows what we left behind. When we got to the lobby there was a red glow reflecting off of the hills of snow surrounding the lagoon and at first I thought it was construction lights.

Nope.

We got on the bus and, because there was only one road out, we drove directly towards the eruption. My daughter took this right before we turned onto the road leading to the airport.

Sundhnúkur eruption in the Reykjanes peninsula

We were able to catch an earlier flight and managed this view—by then the lava plumes were as high as 260 feet.

Eruption as seen from the plane

I wouldn’t trade getting to see an active volcanic eruption and I’m definitely going back to Iceland—but next time, it’ll be in the summer and hopefully the many volcanoes will be napping.

But first… work to do.

From now until the election, The Good in Us will be my main priority. No let up until we make sure President Biden and Vice President Harris get another four years in the White House.

Thank you for your support on this journey! I literally could not do this without you.

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