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Damor

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Damor

  1. He killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How have you been?
  2. If you happen to take the more southern route and go through Post (my destination is more central CO), Holly's Drive-In has great burgers. And it may have changed owners lately, but we stumbled on English Field House in Amarillo last time we went through. Total gem for breakfast stuck in an odd place right next to the airport. Lots of military aviation patches/photos for you plane buffs, cool view of the airfield, and good food. I didn't realize that the Amarillo airport is a big fueling stop for private aviation, so if you're nice to the staff you can get some good stories about their frequent celebrity visitors. If you're really nice, they may let you admire Morgan Freeman's personal utensil set that he leaves there. One of the cooler road trip discoveries I've made, after having driving through Amarillo countless times growing up.
  3. Dammit, whose avatar was that?
  4. Add Flaming Hot Cheetos for a $4 upcharge. Or Takis if it's an authentico kind of place.
  5. I grew up putting salt on grapefruit, thought it was weird to see people put sugar on it. That's also what we left out for Santa instead of cookies when I was a kid. Dunno if that was a South Texas thing or a weird family thing. And yeah, my grandfather's idea of lunch when fishing was invariably Vienna sausages on saltines. Sometimes accompanied by half an onion, eaten like an apple. Fortunately, he usually redeemed himself at supper with T-bones and what he called "Ed McGill Fried Taters" after his old fishing buddy: sliced potatoes and onions fried in a skillet with tons of salt and pepper. Damn, I need to make me some of that.
  6. Very nice, clear explanation. The mRNA vaccines are beautiful in their simplicity. This is well outside my area, but my primary concern for any long-term effects would be something related to inducing an unexpected, as-yet unknown autoinflammatory immune response (immune system, you scary). But having anecdotally seen a few cases of MIS-C, I would much rather take that chance with just the S protein than the entire virus. So my 16yo is fully vaxxed and my 13yo got his first shot last Monday.
  7. My 16yo got his second dose through school today. He didn't notice anything with the first round, we'll see how the second goes. Waiting for them to open it up so we can get our 13yo vaxxed and put this shit in the rearview.
  8. Statistically and historically speaking, the most likely location for uncontrolled rocket re-entry by far is @South Austin's mom.
  9. Damor

    Whatcha reading?

    Funny, because it seems like a lot of my reading lately has gravitated toward religious discussion. I don't know this book or its central argument, but what I understand of Hitchens is that a large part of his outlook is that science and religion are incompatible. Here are a couple books I have really enjoyed lately which speak to that, and address some of Hitchens' arguments specifically: Francis Collins' The Language of God This is well written for an intelligent general audience and has the further benefit of being written by someone who, like CS Lewis in Mere Christianity, began from the atheist perspective. It makes some very interesting arguments from Collins' own experience with genetics, as well as addresses some more universal issues (literally). One thing that I find very refreshing is that he not only makes cogent arguments for the existence of God in opposition to atheism, but also spends a very significant amount of time calling out the anti-intellectualism and ignorance of fundamentalism and young Earth creationists for the damage that they do. Really great read IMO. Stephen Barr's The Believing Scientist I'm pretty sure it was someone on a previous iteration of Surly/Shaggy/Shitty/Whatever who turned me on to Barr's Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, which is a really outstanding book but can get very technical (especially if, like me, you have little understanding of particle physics or quantum theory beyond Schrödinger's Cat). This is a collection of essays which largely distill and shorten those arguments so that they can be digested in smaller bites. As such, it can get a little repetitive and can be a little superficial, but it's still a very interesting read. If you were to read this and like it, I'd strongly suggest following it with Modern Physics and Ancient Faith, where he fleshes out a lot of these concepts much more fully. I just started in on a biographical novel about Pontius Pilate which looks to be good, but these might be more relevant to what you're talking about. BTW, this is one of my favorite threads on the site. Thank y'all for all the contributions.
  10. @Dbeasy We rented a jeep from Colorado 145 in Telluride and did Imogene in July of 2016. They were very well reviewed, and we had a great experience. Their website has a list of trail conditions that gives you a brief summary of each. We did a 4-door jeep since our boys were smaller back then. Do you think your crew would be amenable to that? I think if your two more adventurous guys were driving, Imogene would be fine, but asking your old or pregnant person to drive is probably a recipe for unhappiness. Of course, cramming them into the rear of the jeep may be just as bad or worse. I don't recall a lot of bad drop offs or anything super intense on Imogene, but the early part of the descent has some pretty steep sections where I had to get up out of the seat to see over the hood: (I know that's hard to show with photos) "Which is better, 1?" "Or 2?" The worst part of the day for me was turning around at the parking area at the top of Bridal Veil Falls, because I have a heights thing. Ugh.
  11. The key is in the squishy word "should." I should do a lot of things.
  12. I've already signed my 16yo up. School nurse will be administering them in a couple weeks. Hoping it will be available for my 13yo before school starts.
  13. Lord Huron re-rescheduled their 2020 Red Rocks show from June 2021 to now June 2022. Just bought tickets because why not.
  14. @wood and you other Ixchel frequenters, do any of y'all have a preferred/trusted renter for a 2bdr unit? I'm getting some minor runaround off of VRBO, and seeing prices vary about 10-20% across booking sites including the hotel website, hotels.com, Expedia, etc. Just want to be sure I'm covering all my bases, feel free to PM if more comfortable that way.
  15. Somehow I ended up with time off after Christmas again this year (almost never happens), so I'm deciding between a return trip to IM or trying out Holbox. Lots of stuff is already booked up in both places -- I get that's probably one of their busiest weeks, but geez. Southwest hasn't even opened those flights yet -- I'm banking on them having something reasonable, as prices on other carriers are stupid. I guess this is why we don't travel much during those times, but since I only get so many more trips with our boys before they leave the nest, I'm not turning down any opportunities. Especially when chilaquiles are at stake.
  16. My favorite is Cadenhead's Old Raj with saffron. 110 proof, so be wary. #2 is (oddly enough) No.3. Lots of citrus.
  17. Thanks, troph. I remembered you and your gal loved it, but couldn't recall if y'all took kids. I was trying to track down the place you and @Hollywood stayed, do either of you mind sharing? Looking at either a couple hotel rooms or doing the Airbnb thing. I inevitably over-agonize when trying to pick a place to stay, but it looks like there are a lot of good choices within easy walking distance to the fun stuff.
  18. Yeah, we're gonna need you and @hornbri to go ahead and start a Maldives thread, OK? Thaaanks. /lumbergh
  19. Planning the rest of this year's vacation, and I've got a week in late Oct/early Nov for me and the wife, and a little over a week for us and the boys (will be 14 and 16) after Christmas. After a great family trip to IM last go-round, I'm thinking about Holbox for one of those trips. We (including the boys) are pretty low key, so I don't think they'd be bored on Holbox, but would those of y'all who have been say it's a better couples or family trip? Or...
  20. It's our anniversary. My wife likes Sinn. After 17 years, I don't argue with her. [emoji16]
  21. Decreasing beach erosion. The concrete is also a convenient place to encase the severed heads of missionaries, cartel families, and American tourists. I love coming down here, but the beaches are not the selling point. We're flying Southwest back today. Interested to see what kind of a shitshow it is with testing documentation.
  22. I got my second Pfizer in January, wife got her second Moderna a couple weeks ago. We're in Mexico this week, and I had a little anxiety about the pre-return test, but no issues. Incidentally, a lot of people down here have had (or claim to have had) at least one injection, many of which I would not have expected based on my biases (as a bad person). I think lifting travel restrictions when vaccinated could be a valuable carrot when we try to boost numbers, like company bonuses. It feels good to take steps toward the new normal.
  23. aesheeebee
  24. Salida is awesome and we all need to stop talking about it. We're going back there and to Gunnison (which is also great) this July. The whitewater park downtown is great for kids. They can rent boogie boards/SUPs and goof around all day. You and the wife can go get a river view table at the Boathouse Cantina and eat/drink while nominally keeping an eye on them. The downtown area is very walkable, and last year they had the main drag closed to vehicle traffic so restaurants could have outdoor seating, basically turning it into a big pedestrian zone with shops, bars, and restaurants. I hope they left it that way. We took our boys' bikes last year and they loved riding around town. This year we'll check out the trail system. There's also an arcade there with new and classic games, which they enjoyed. All kinds of outdoor stuff is within a short drive. Amicas is great. Moonlight Pizza is also good, and I like their beer as well. Soulcraft is a great brewery. Benson's tavern has good fish and chips and other pup grub. Patio Pancake Place for breakfast. Boathouse as mentioned is decent food and great view/atmosphere. The only thing I don't like about going up there is that my wife shops for real estate.
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