Like Warren, I always think of November as the halfway point to my next chase vacation. If you live on the Plains, you may have opportunities before then, but as a chase vacationer November is an important milestone. When I get back from a trip, the next year’s return to the Plains seems like an eternity away. Then November comes and we’re halfway there! Before you know it, it’s New Year’s and now chasing is “later this year,” no longer “next year.” In some ways it takes a long time to get there, in other ways the summer and fall months, and then the holidays, make time go by surprisingly quickly. But then time slows in the first few months of the year - cold weather, short days, busiest time of year for me at work. Then when spring is in the air and it’s a matter of weeks, time really slows to a crawl.
The first thing different for me next year is not a good one - there is some risk that I may not be able to take my chase vacation at all, or that it may have to be short and/or at a less-than-optimal time. This is because of a major project at work set to kick off next year, and the current timeline has some unfortunate critical milestones right in peak season. If I can get away at all, I may have to settle for a short trip, and may have to be firm about when I am going, without flexibility for last minute changes based on weather patterns. Or I may have to squeeze in a trip before or after the late May peak. I am gong to try not to worry about it too much, because a lot can change on the project timeline in the next six months. It’s easy during winter to not worry about it, but I know as the season draws near it is going to drive me crazy. It will be an internal battle between wanting to look forward to the trip and telling myself not to think about it, not to get my hopes up...
One of my aspirations is to find ways to take my knowledge to a new level. Though I have been chasing for many years, it doesn’t add up to much with just one to two weeks per year. I feel like I have hit a plateau in my chasing abilities, and I have had a pretty bad streak over the last few years. Rather than just absorbing whatever I happen to absorb in normal course, I want to take a more disciplined approach to studying and learning. I am reading a book called “Ultralearning” by Scott Young, about how to structure a “learning project,” and was thinking of using some of those techniques to take a more disciplined and academic approach. At the same time, I know that my time is going to be limited, especially with this big work project on the horizon. Like a New Year’s resolution, I say this every year and then break it. Knowing I may not be able to chase at all next year makes it even harder to embark on this. It’s not for lack of motivation, it’s because I don’t want to get myself amped up for a trip that may not happen.
If I can chase in 2020, one thing that may be different is for the first time I may have one or two people with me that have never chased before but want to experience it. One is actually my former boss, who is now retired. That should be interesting, to have him along in a situation where I am the one in charge
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. Anyway I think it will be very gratifying to expose someone to the amazing and wonderful experiences of chasing. At the same time, it’s more pressure and stress to be successful; now a missed tornado affects not only me but someone else. Someone that has never chased before doesn’t realize misses happen all the time, and I don’t want to look like an inept moron
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Maybe it will force me to pick up my game, like in athletics where you enroll in a competition to force yourself to train harder. The other downside of having someone else along is it changes the great dynamic my chase partner and I have; going from just the two of us for many years, a trip that is obviously also a fun vacation together, will be completely different having someone else along. As we all know, temperament, risk tolerance, ability to be bored and patient, are all unknowns with a new chase participant.
Other than that, no major changes planned. I am considering getting a new camcorder as opposed to taking video with my Nikon DSLR, but again don’t want to invest too much time and money into this type of stuff with the trip itself being so uncertain. Also not sure if I want to go back to juggling two different devices.
Kind of curious as to how others handle uncertainties about being able to chase. Talking more about chase vacationers, not those who live on the Plains and may have to face chasing less but don’t have to worry they can’t go at all, they always have that potential one day to look forward to that itself can make a season - like the two such days John had last year. Does it affect your enthusiasm and level of preparation for the season? Do you try to tune it all out to not torture yourself - like a person on a diet trying not to look at food - or do you still do everything you normally would and continue to stay on top of events from afar, even though your desire to be out there is gnawing at you mercilessly???