Ocelottery

[rain_gryphon]

So, Dario Franchitti has won the IRL title, and in an exciting fashion. He led the first and last laps of that race :) I find him appealing, in that Jim Clark is his hero, and he's aware of the history of the sport. A lot of drivers aren't. I recall an interview with Schumacher where he was being compared to Alberto Ascari, and it was painfully obvious that he didn't know who that was.

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I watched part of the Michigan game Saturday. I may start watching them just from fascination with the ongoing trainwreck. There's much schadenfreude amongst the locals, of course.

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My mother's Qat is missing her whiskers on one side. She's suspected of having been up on the sideboard beside the stove (where she's not allowed), although apart from the missing whiskers, there's no evidence.

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There's been another huge crash on the freeway outside my apartment. Columbus is known for its exciting merges and offramps.

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I came near to getting a large rock in the face this morning on the way to work. I was a hundred yards or so behind a big dump truck who had lots of dried dirt encrusted all over the undercarriage. It kept falling off, and I'd be assailed with showers of grit and pebbles. I finally moved over two lanes to get out of the worst of it, and went to pass him. Just as I was coming up on him, a big slab of dirt broke free, and out of it bounced a rock bigger than my fist. Of course, it came skittering directly across two lanes toward me, and began bouncing at the same time. I swerved and missed it by inches. I saw it go shooting past my side window, exactly at head height. That would have been an impressive doom.

Comments

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

I like Dario Franchitti too, and I'm pleased for him. I don't think I ever saw him drive in RL when he was in Formula Vauxhall Lotus in 1992-3, but I remember hoping he'd be the next top-line British driver in F1 after Mansell went to Indycars. Whether he'd have made it had he got the chance, I really don't know.

I watched part of the Michigan game Saturday.

I read a couple of articles about the Oregon and Appalachian State games after seeing a couple of people on my Friends list mention them. I suppose I can say is that now I know how most American readers feel when they read my cricket posts, in that you do seem to need to grow up in both sports to have a clue what things really mean. =:P

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Franchitti seems a very nice fellow, although with a terribly jarring name for a Scotsman.

the Oregon and Appalachian State games

Well, Appalachian State was embarassing, but those things happen every so often. A top-rated team plays a unknown school, and don't take it too seriously, and the little school comes in absolutely fired up, and pulls off an upset. Most teams shrug those off and go on with their season. Oregon just completely drove the steamroller over Michigan, though. It was amazing. Michigan looked like a bunch of bums, and on paper they're one of the five best teams in the country. The next game's going to bear watching.

FWIW, Michigan's the traditional foe of Ohio State, so it garners much attention here. We also fought a small civil war with the state of Michigan in 1835, over a boundary dispute, although that's largely forgotten.

[haystack.livejournal.com]

That was a very cool ending for the IRL race. Stuff like that's exactly the reason I spend so much time watching and reading about the sport in its various forms.

Following up on your story about the near-hit with the stone: My father was driving his truck down a county road back in the mid-80s. I'd decided not to go with him on this particular trip because I was busy doing something else. He encountered an empty log truck along the way, one with tandem wheels. This particular truck had apparently been carrying a fist-sized rock for a few miles; as it approached Dad's truck, the log truck bounced and made the set of rear wheels that had been off the roadway hit the road. The wheels spun 'round, and the rock between their tires fired off like a shot. Came right through the passenger-side window, at about the height my head would've been occupying had I been in the seat. It bounced off the rear of the bench seat and rattled about in the passenger side of the truck.

Yes, I was pretty chilled when Dad showed me the hole the rock had punched in the windshield. Even at 12 years old, I could visualize what that would've done to my tender little skull.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I felt sorry for Dixon, but yeah, that was a remarkable ending. Racing is the only sport that interests me to the point of knowing its history and culture. Other sports I'll watch and enjoy, but once the game's over, it's done. Open-wheeled racing, and the Five Hundred especially, I can read and dream over for hours.

[stu-ath.livejournal.com]

IRL: Go Scots!

Go out in style!

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Such a strange name for a Scotsman.

[rev-marcus.livejournal.com]

Aren't you right beside the merge from 71S onto 270, which then forms the offramps to 23N? At rush hour there, I'm not sure exciting is a strong enough word, more like nerve-wracking.

As for Michigan, I'm becoming ashamed to say that I'm from there. I may need to burn my sweatshirt if this season keeps up.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

It's Darwin's Driveway, yes. Now with the new and improved high-speed elevated interchange. Why settle for a fender-bender, when you can fly over the edge at 65mph?

The local Meijer's has Appalachian State shirts :)

[gedrean.livejournal.com]

Do not take such drastic measures, Rev. After all, you can just blame it on Carr. ;)

[gedrean.livejournal.com]

"impressive doom" "exciting merges and offramps".

I love your use of language, Ostrich

[xolo.livejournal.com]

One of my professors once told me that she could pick my writing out of the stack just by the cadence and the word choices.