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wood

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by wood

  1. Gotta have the car or, with rare exception, you ain't winning it. And boy did Lewis ever have the car. IIRC 2023 was his only year in an F1 car that wasn't a race winner. Lewis is/was awesome, but if Michael doesn't decide to retire when he does - when Lewis desperately wanted out of Mclaren, was without a ride for the next year, and was looking for any good landing place - Lewis is very likely still a 1xWDC (which is great, don't get me wrong). He'd have been on the outside looking in with everyone else, while Nico very likely becomes a multiple WDC and maybe Michael pads his total on the way out if he could beat Nico, which is far from a given considering their respective form as teammates. A Merc driver was gonna win those WDCs either way, and who knows, maybe 2021, too. I also still really think Lewis was ready to retire as a champion in 2021, and only stayed because that didn't happen. No proof of course. Just my gut. I doubt he'll ever be that sharp again. But who knows. I'd be happy for him to be that guy again. It'd be great for the show.
  2. Weird. Mine's good.
  3. Literally the worst bunt imaginable in that situation lol.
  4. Man, having a guy like Volantis, with his flexibility, is going to be a huge luxury in the post season.
  5. What's that stupid dance?
  6. Yeah I've had a problem for a while with these 'elbow guards' that stick out way beyond the elbow. Guys are taking balls to the elbow, or as in this case leaning into them, when more often than not they'd bail if they didn't have the guard. It's bullshit. Glad they called that one. They get away with that bullshit way too often.
  7. JFC. Fuck you, blue.
  8. Wish I knew some specifics of what he's referring to there. I guess it'll come out though, in time.
  9. No I don't think PdC is a shithole at all. Sorry if it came off that way. It just grew really fast and got busier, more trendy, etc. Didn't mean to make it sound 'bad'. Sorry! Seems like that eventually happens to all the good spots. It's just not our thing any more. AFAIK it's still nice, with lots of great options, but we don't know it well anymore, at least not beyond the very central area. I'm sure some of the other guys have more recent experience there. Re: ruins, the Tulum ruins are great, esp if you can take some time at each structure to learn about it. The guided tours there are awesome. If you're looking for a day trip, Chichen Itza is amazing, too. Cenotes: There are so many, and new ones have opened every time we go back, so these are just a few of lots of options. We love to relax and jump off the cliffs (only 10-15' feet high) at Cenote Azul and Cenote Garden of Eden/Jardin del Eden. You'll see the signs for those off the main highway on the right as you go south toward Akumal. Dos Ojos is a bit more involved. It's a cenote with one larger opening and a a smaller one 50-100 yards away. You can actually float or dive underground from the big one to the smaller one, thorugh the rock formations. People come from all over the world to dive it, but you can also get a guided floating/snorkeling tour. Everything is marked and heavily traveled. They know the way. Everyone has a light, life preservers, etc. You can also just get in the water at the big opening and just hang out there. We just discovered Cenote Taak Bi Ha last time we were there. Amazing. One little tiny entry, then down some stairs, and you're in a completely underground, circular cenote. This is just a portion of it. Maybe 1/3 of it. It's very near Dos Ojos. IIRC it's on the same little road that you turn onto to get to Dos Ojos:
  10. Welp, this is pretty got damn cool. Weren't we just talking about Jimmy Clark the other day?
  11. No problema! No real significant reason why we do it in that order. We just kinda always did, and then stuck with that. We are pretty active when we're on the mainland tho, going to a cenote pretty much every day, the Tulum ruins, hanging out at La Buena Vida and Lol Ha restaurants in Akumal, etc. Once we get to the island we're still pretty active but it just a little bit more relaxed vibe I guess so we just wind down a bit more there. Getting from Isla to the airport isn't hard. Just allow 1:00 to 1:15 hours to get there - 30 min for the ferry, and then 20-40 for the ride from Gran Puerto to the airport. USA Transfers ftw. Easy to book, very professional, and nice guys.
  12. The funny thing for me about the heat and moreso the humidity in Isla is that the only time it seems to bother me at all is when I'm still in travel clothes and jumping through the hoops at either end of the ferry trip, dying to get checked in and get onto the beach. And then when I'm in travel clothes again, starting the trip home. Everything pisses me off that day, 'cause I ain't wanna leave.
  13. We're pretty active on our vacations, seeing the sights, taking in the history and culture etc. Not so much partying. Lots and lots of beach and water time, whale sharks, boats around the island to snorkel and fish, beach volleyball, going to local soccer, baseball, and hoops games, etc at night. The 'indoor' soccer facility on Isla is pretty fun for viewing some competitve soccer. And of course lots of cenote fun on the mainland. Xel Ha on the mainland is also a great park to visit, built around a large lagoon. Yep. America Car Rental has been great several times in a row for me. All the insurance & add-ons are included, etc. Rented from Hertz there one time. Never again.
  14. Hey brother. I know we already talked in the DMs, but for future reference, I also recommend the Akumal/Puerto Aventuras area to do the cenotes for a few days. What we often do is stay in Akumal first for a few days, then pack up and go to Isla for another few days. Great stuff. (eta: having finished reading the thread I see now that you have something similar in mind. cool) We don't even bother with PdC (our old fave) or Tulum any more. PdC is crazy now, and Tulum is nothing like the Tulum of even just 5 years ago. Akumal and the PA area still have a pretty chill vibe, at least for the time being. Agree it'll be hot, but I find it's typically quite a bit cooler on average than it is here in Austin, even in the summer months. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the mid 70s all summer. Of course the humidity sucks though, so on the heat misery index I'd put it slightly less than Austin, but the "I'm in Isla and not Austin, and can jump in the agua whenever I want" factor puts Isla over for the easy win.
  15. My YTTV guide shows ESPNU, ESPNU, ESPN2, ESPNews, and ESPN2. FWIW. Grand Prix Sunday also on ESPN2.
  16. IMHO when you start talking about the GOAT of any sport or trying to rank people, there are usually several names in the top tier with really little or nothing between them, and it's all just splitting hairs trying to determine who was best. IMHO it's a futile task due to various factors. In F1 (in no particular order), Fangio, Clark, Hamilton, Alonso, Schumacher, Max, Senna, Prost, Stewart, Lauda, and more have all done amazing things in different eras, cars, circumstances, etc.
  17. And to think they had the problem pretty much licked at the beginning of this ruleset, and then threw it all away when a team or two cried because they couldn't get their heads around how to be quick.
  18. The first racing death I ever saw was at the little 1/4 mile dirt oval, Riverside Int'l Speedway, in West Memphis Arkansas. I was like 6 or 7, and afaik it was the first race my Dad ever took me to. He was stationed at Memphis NAS at the time. Sammy Swindell was racing that night. He was 15 or 16. Even then, I remember Sammy was already at least a local star. The legendary Hooker Hood was still racing & was there, too. There was another rising star in the field, a young guy in his 20s named Alvin Gatlin. I didn't really know it at that time, but he died in his super-mod, right in front of me on the front straight, maybe 50 feet away. I can remember sitting there looking at the car, with him not moving, and people speaking in hushed tones, but not really giving away the severity of what had just happened. And then they announced the racing was over for the night and we got up and left, back across the Mississippi into Memphis. Something broke on the front suspension and he took a hard right, right into the wall. Likely died of head or spinal trauma, in a crash that a HANS device would probably have allowed him to walk away from. Didn't put me off of racing though, esp dirt oval racing. You can see some of the best racing in the world any Friday or Saturday night at those tracks, esp when the sprints and/or modifieds are there They tend to think it'll be someone else, like the way they pilots in the Right Stuff just dismissed it as the dead guy's carelessness, etc, and that they'd never fuck up like that. That, and many are generally ok with the idea of going out behind the wheel, doing what they love. like those test pilots. I loved the bit they showed, with Fernando just telling everyone straight up that Max is the only guy that can do what he'd just done with that car. If Fernando says that, then I believe it. Agree with most of this, but I disagree re: Alonso. He's still easily top 5 on the grid imho. If AM, Newey, and Honda can give him a good car next year, he'll show what he can still do, and this season's just starting, too. If they can't, then he's probably gone, but I've seen no reason to write him off yet, esp driving the current AM shitbox. He's still a freak. That battle with Gasly early on was amazing. Re: Yuki, it's his first race weekend in a very difficult car, and he still did far better than Lawson has. Lawson did nothing but go backwards in this race, and got destroyed by Hadjar who was freaking out all weekend. Lawson's turrible. What's this based on though? They're driving pretty much last year's car and are focused on next year. You won't see much development on that car, and the drivers can't do miracles with it. Stroll looked terrible all weekend, but I didn't see anything in any session that indicated the AM was going to be a points-scoring car at Suzuka this time. I think Alonso got everything the car had.
  19. In case anyone still doubted it ... this team is fo' real. They nasty.
  20. Man, that's just not a swing, even by my strict-ish standards. We see guys get away with much more than that numerous times every game. Now, about that ball Flores hit to center. He hit that a fucking ton. Holy shit. On a normal day that's well up on the wall and outta here. Mashed the fuck out of it.
  21. LOL look at this jackass with his jersey all unbuttoned.
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