Ponderings and Musings

The whole family went to the movies together last night. We haven’t done this since before the pandemic. A part of Chris’ birthday celebration, we went and saw the latest “Mad Max” movie.

I never watched the “Mad Max” movies from then or now, but I have a general idea of what they’re about. I’ve seen plenty of clips over the years. They’re not really my cup of tea; I found the story of “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” mildly interesting. The cinematography was spectacular. Some of the camera angles and shots in general were quite engaging. I really liked that aspect of the movie.

The closest theatre is part of the Galaxy Theatres chain. I believe it’s the only one in Arizona. It’s a very nice theatre, situated in an old Basha’s Supermarket location. The seats are very comfortable and the theatres seems to be quite spacious. There’s also cameras concentrated on the audience to monitor phone use and the like; there are several warning messages before the show alerting the audience to not use your cell phone as you will be removed from the premises.

I really like that.

A couple of years ago we removed the two palm trees that were part of the landscaping outside of my office window. The palms were not good for the dogs, and while we didn’t think the dogs would eat the palm trees (which would have been very bad), we removed the trees just to be safe. A neighbor gladly took the trees and planted them in their landscaping. They are doing well.

While this was a good move, it left room for a lot of sunlight to come through my home office window. I couldn’t open the blinds until well after lunch time, and when the blinds were open I felt very vulnerable. Anyone coming to the front door (delivery folks, etc) would often flap their hands in my direction instead of ringing the doorbell. I always found this odd.

I mentioned to Earl that I felt this way about my office and very much missed the landscaping. As a birthday present, he and I went and picked out a dog-friendly addition to the landscaping. It was installed this past Memorial Day.

The view from my office window has never been better and being able to have my blinds open for most of the day has done wonders for my mental health.

And here’s a couple of photos from installation day.

Yesterday I shared a few photos from our drive back from Oklahoma, across West Texas, to the desert Southwest. Here’s a couple of photos taken last week while I was out on my storm chasing trip. These photos remind me of how much this part of the country intrigues me. I feel respect for these parts.

One of the biggest reasons I go storm chasing for a week each year is because the activity takes me to a part of the United States I really enjoy. There is something very endearing about the Great Plains for me, and I relish every opportunity I get to travel out in those parts. I suppose it’s part of my fairly rural upbringing. While many don’t understand the appeal of “Flyover Country” (a term I really find to be unfair), I feel very comfortable in those parts. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Here’s a couple of shots from Oklahoma and Western Texas as my husband and I made our way back home to the Southwest this past weekend.

I have dozens of hours of storm chasing video footage to edit over the next couple of weeks. This moment captures the excitement, energy, and happiness I feel while out chasing storms. Successful chases involve planning, an understanding of weather and science, and a whole lot of luck. I was asked tonight by a guy from Elk City, Okla. if I was an “adrenaline junkie”. Perhaps a bit, but the awe, majesty, and sheer power of Mother Nature is what I find most inspiring. When my time comes and I’m at the Pearly Gates, I want to say “I experienced all I could experience, I used all the gifts you blessed upon me, and I did it with a whole lot of passion”.

Earl arrived in OKC Wednesday night. The plan was I would meet him on Friday, with hopes that the storms took me in that direction.

Mother Nature cooperated with our plan perfectly.

I was so happy to see him when I arrived this morning. We spent the day in Bricktown, having a couple of nice meals, chatting with some locals and other visitors, and just taking it easy together. Bricktown is wonderful; OKC has done a wonderful job in revitalizing what I assume to be a former industrial area. There are a few signs that COVID took its toll on the economy, but the energy seems to continue to move forward. I really like it here.

What a wonderful day. Tomorrow we start the trek back to Tucson.

It is day zero of this year’s Storm Chasing Trip. I have targeted Central Kansas for Sunday’s activities (and a little bit of Saturday night’s).

I left after a good day at work; I’m in Los Lunas, New Mexico, just south of Albuquerque. The drive has been pleasant thus far. I thought I heard gun shots at this hotel but it was happening with a regular basis so I figured it was fireworks or something. No one else was getting hysterical so I didn’t either.

Roads in New Mexico are mostly very rough and in need of repair. However, the Highway 26 between Deming and Hutch, a shortcut between Interstates 10 and 25, isn’t too bad.

I’m sitting on the gazebo with my husband. He is watching what sounds like baseball on his iPhone while I sit at the table, overlooking the back yard, and writing this blog entry. I’m starting to get in the habit of writing blog entries at lunch time. This is something I used to do back in the day before folks tended to shy away from narratives containing more than 280 characters. It’s a good feeling to be able to sit down and write, even if the content is a bit thin.

We’ve been watching “Tracker” on Paramount Plus. A new series as of this year, “Tracker” is about a guy who roams the country looking for missing people. He lives on the monetary rewards of his efforts. Since the beginning of the series I’ve remarked to my husband that the storylines seem a bit “thin” but we still find the show enjoyable. Plus, Justin Hartley isn’t bad to look at.

He has a super-sleuth hacker type as part of his “team” and this hacker can do amazing things in incredibly little time. I always find these things in television shows amusing. Some of the feats seem just a few moments away from waving to KellyAnne Conway through her microwave.

I just needed a reason to put a photo of the handsome Justin Hartley on my blog. I wish I could find a photo of him shirtless while shaving or something, but he doesn’t seem like the type that shaves very often.

The winds are picking up here at home; it could be indicative of some dry thunderstorms passing through the area again tonight. The forecast has finally been adjusted to admit to this possibility. As mentioned in the previous entry, last night’s convective activity took us by surprise. It was a delightful surprise.

With my storm chasing trip looming on the horizon, it has been consuming much of my thoughts and has brought the pacing of the work week down to a very slow level. I’m being productive at work and I feel like I’m getting things aligned so the team continues to do their thing while I’m away, but I’m ready for the storm chasing trip to commence tomorrow afternoon. As we get closer to the weekend, the forecast is shaping up nicely and showing promise. I just watched a recap from Ryan Hall Y’all and it looks like the target area will have some zesty weather right through the end of the month.

I’m hoping it’ll be a hoot and a half.

OriginalMacGuy Jim Eager wrote an excellent blog entry about Introverts (hi!) and their need to carefully manage their energy. You can read the blog post here.

An introvert is a person who tends to lose energy from social interaction and external stimulation and regains energy through solitude and quiet environments. In contrast, an extrovert is a person who tends to gain energy from social interactions and external stimulation. 

According to Marty Olson Laney in The Introvert Advantage, “The primary difference between introverts and extroverts is how they recharge their batteries.” Extroverts energize by being around people. Introverts, on the other hand, need to be by themselves in a quiet location to recharge.

I am an introvert at heart. After a day of work or being in public all day long or something similar, I know I’m going to need some downtime before I do it again. Jim’s blog post rings exceptionally true for me on the subject.

I’m sitting at the table in (on?) our gazebo enjoying the desert breezes typical at this time of year in the afternoon. It’s actually more than a breeze, it’s windy, and I love the sound of the wind passing through our landscaping. Blissful.

It’s nice to be able to sit out here after a mentally exhausting day at work. Mental exhaustion does not mean it was a bad day; quite the contrary, I got a lot done at work today. I just had to think a lot and I am tired from too much thinking. I usually start feeling this way at this point in the work week.

I’m using my Linux laptop for this little endeavor, as I want to make sure it’s running well. I’m probably going to bring it along on the storm chasing trip at the end of next week. It has a good sized hard drive and at the very minimum, I’ll have another place to store video files if I run out of room on my primary hard drives. Hopefully there will be a good number of storms to grab on video and enjoy in general.

I’ve received several compliments on my last hiking video; most folks like the new format and the production in general. It’s the direction I want to go with my videos. I’m considering this past hiking video as “episode 1” of a second season of my shenanigans. I’m planning on hiking on Saturday, albeit rather early in the morning. This will probably be my last hike in Arizona for a few months as the summer heat settles into the Sonoran Desert. I haven’t picked a trail yet but I’m leaning toward the more familiar trails in the area, just going higher up the terrain than I have in the past.

As mentioned, I leave on my storm chasing/hiking trip next Friday after work. I’m really looking forward to that adventure and have been counting down the days for a long while. The weather looks mostly promising, so that’s good. At the very least it looks much more promising than what I encountered last year when a high pressure dome settled over the area and I encountered just a few severe weather events. I won’t know the direction of travel until next Wednesday when the Storm Prediction Center starts shading the appropriate areas of the country in varying hues of green.