Ponderings and Musings

As of today I have 50 days remaining in my countdown to my 2024 Storm Chasing Adventure. Instead of thinking that I’m going “storm chasing”, I’m thinking of this trip as a “Storm Hiking” trip, because I plan on integrating some hiking to keep the blood moving while I’m inbetween supercells. The supercells will always win if there’s a battle for my attention, but hiking keeps me sane and allows my mind to relax while building up my physical stamina. It’s a win-win.

Even though it’s been well over 300 days since my last storm chasing trip, I’m still processing what went wrong and what went right with my 2023 adventure, as I don’t want to replicate my mistakes and come back to Tucson wishing I had done X, Y, and Z and not feeling satisified with the trip. I was a bit too contemplative on last year’s trip. I listened to too many self-help type podcasts, I was too entrenched with social media, and I was too concerned of not losing my productivity momentum, even though I was on vacation. Plus, last year’s trip took place during an unusually quiet time for storms in May. This year’s forecast looks much more promising.

I’ve been pulling away from social media in general since the beginning of this year. Continuing that trend going into my “storm hiking” trip in 50 days shouldn’t be hard to continue; the only caveat is that I will still follow a feed or two so I know what other storm chasers are doing. Seeing their take on the forecasting models I’m looking at helps me be better at figuring out where to position myself for a storm.

I’m a bit surprised at how fast the year is passing by. After a January that seemed to go on forever, here we are at the end of March. We’re already into springtime in the Northern Hemisphere and work oriented folks are already looking at the end of the first quarter. Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

When moved to Tucson three years ago this past Sunday. It’s been a great three years and I certainly love living in the Sonoran Desert.

When we first moved here it would be well over 45 days before we would see any rain. It was hot. It was dry. And the world around us appeared very brown. So desert like. I loved it.

Fast forward three years later and the world around us is very green. Storm system after storm system seems to be moving through our area on a fairly regular schedule. As a weather dork it has been a fascinating study.

They say we may get another storm passing through the area this coming weekend. I guess we’re also finally seeing an end to our drought.

This past Saturday my husband and I decided to go for a drive. This is not unusual for us; we enjoying meandering around this great country of ours. Instead of heading to the northwest toward Phoenix we decided to head to the southeast toward the city of Sierra Vista. Near Sierra Vista is Fort Huachucha, a good sized Army base. I always enjoy seeing Army folks out and about. Our men and women in uniform never fail to impress me, even when they’re walking through a Walmart or something. Plus, it reminds me a little bit of growing up fairly close to Fort Drum in Upstate New York. Plus, I do enjoy the eye candy.

We settled eating supper in Sierra Vista at a place called “The Pit Stop” (link goes to their Facebook page). A somewhat small space, we had a really good time there and the food was excellent. I told Earl it was reminiscent of what I try to seek out when I’m chasing storms. They did not disappoint.

The servers could be described as what I would call “zesty”. They knew how to interact with the locals and visitors alike with a certain sting with a smile. Down home goodness, right there.

We look forward to going back.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post (with video), I hiked up in Coronado National Forest in the Santa Catalina Mountains yesterday. The Catalinas are best known for Mount Lemmon. I settled on tackling two trails (Solider Trail and Molino Basin Trail), totaling about six miles. The first mile of the Soldier Trail included about a 1000 foot climb, with the first quarter mile or so being loose rock.

Soldier Trail follows an old road and power line path. Molino Basin Trail is part of the larger Arizona Trail.

It was definitely an adventure. And more importantly, it was exhilarating.

Here are some photos.

A hike in the Santa Catalina Mountains on the Soldier Trail and Molino Basin Trail. My usual shenanigans ensue.

I haven’t read the U.S. Department of Justice’s 88 page suit against Apple, Inc. Because if there’s one thing I trust less than any tech company, it’s an elected or appointed government official. Do I think Apple is perfect? Of course not. You don’t become one of the biggest companies in the world through perfection or even through being trustworthy.

But if there’s one thing I do know, it’s probably that the U.S. government has little idea of what they’re talking about and that somewhere in this there is political motivation. These things always turn up during an election cycle.

I’ll skip the whole clusterfsck and just do my thing.

I’ve included this song on my blog before, but it’s an ear worm today and it’s still a very awesome track. I can not believe it’s nearly 40 years old!

This song was popular as I was in the latter half of my senior year of high school. Originally written for Madonna, when she decided it wasn’t for her, the writer decided to record it herself. Like many of Madonna’s records at the time, this was produced by Stephen Bray.

From 1986, here’s Regina with “Baby Love”.

If you think my hiking videos, complete with magical special effects, are ridiculous, you should see my test clips! I might have been in my underwear for a recent test clip.

I’ve always said I share the honest version of me here on this blog.

Here’s another reason I wanted a Raspberry Pi setup in my office. I’m streaming Raychel from TornadoTitans.com monitoring marginal storm risks in Central Oklahoma today.

Last week I mentioned that it felt like social media, including Mastodon, was sapping my energy a bit. While I find Mastodon to be a friendlier experience than many of the others like X/Twitter, BlueSky, Threads, etc., I felt like there was a little too much that was slipping by my curated filters. I thought I’d step away from the platform for a little while and see how I felt without the interactions.

It’s been 72 or so hours and I’m finding it’s not Mastodon that’s sapping my energy, it’s the world in general. The answer to the Mastodon experience isn’t to step away, it’s to implement a few more filters to calm the chaos that occasionally creeps into the dialogues.

Apple has apparently noticed that I haven’t been on their Apple News+ app in quite a while and has randomly started sending me emails with headlines I have little interest in. This started about a week ago. I put a filter on that as well. And as a quick aside, I still don’t know what Apple is trying to do with News+, because the entire experience is nothing like the “fit and finish” of anything Apple strives for with most of their products. Apple News+ is laden with ads and feels like there’s duct tape and crayons holding the whole thing together.

Curation, not exclusion, is the key.