Farewell, 2008.

Models are back and in full force with effectively shutting down the chase season for the southern plains including the Texas Panhandle. Mid level flow is forecast to shift into it's anemic summer pattern as the upper ridge broadens and strengthens. That doesn't mean we won't get a severe storm here or there, but certainly not the type for a worthy chase. The only thing I'll be watching for are some lightning photo opportunities close to home.

The conclusion of a chase season is always a strange feeling. On one hand, I feel abit pensive and melancholy at having to say farewell to the excitement as you see a billowing updraft knuckling over as it explodes violently into the troposphere. The sensation one experiences when the base of the storm becomes visible as daylight is contorted with the large, looming anvil overhead. The elation of anticipating the next radar update to see your storm taking on a hook shape while you observe the precip shaft mirroring it as it wraps around the mesocyclone. The lightning, screaming inflow, all of the different hues a storms' structure creates, the beauty of that structure, and the general feeling that you are dancing with a living, breathing creature like some god in a famed Greek fable.

On the other hand, I'm ready for a break from spending a small fortune on fuel costs, exhaustion from long trips having to work the next day, and neglecting some things I really need to focus on. A part of me is looking forward to calling it quits and resuming a "normal" life. I've got to get my vehicle into the bodyshop and take care of the hail damage, especially the big craters ontop where the paint is flaking off. I'm pondering getting a new vehicle this year...or spending money to get the current one up to par with alot of maintenance items to go another year. I dunno yet.

I've also got business matters to attend to and pursue with great intensity so that I can free myself from the shackles of being submissive to somebody else's whims and flawed decisions. Anybody that knows me knows that I deeply despise such a forced disposition. LOL!! So, becoming truly self-employed is my TOP priority and goal for this year. I've never been more motivated in my life to do it. I have the perfect opportunity to do so as I've minimized my "overhead" significantly. I don't want to squander it. You'll probably see my blog updates reduced to once a week.

I'm looking forward to my other "hobbies" as well. This includes camping and fishing, poker tournaments, music, movies, concerts, road trip to the mountains, and photography excusrions. The music part I'm particularly interested in as I've got a strong desire to jam with other musicians. With my electronic drum kit, I've been able to do alot of practicing to get my chops back up to par. So, I'll be pursuing that, but only as something fun to do. I'm not interested in a working band...at least right now. :-) I'm hoping to land a studio gig or two. I also want to setup my home studio again and jump back into that. All of the above though will take a backseat to my self-employment ambitions.

I also like to reflect on the past season and what I want to do next year. The biggest thing for me is the live streaming video. This is a very exciting piece of technology! I contend it's the most important one ever in the evolution of stormchasing. The greatest impact of course is providing the NWS with virtual eyes on a storm. The say a picture is worth a 1000 words. Streaming video is worth 10,000.

I will be working on improving the live streaming stuff prior to next chase season. I have some ideas that I'm keeping under wraps for now. It all stems from my experiences this year and discovering some things lacking from a user's perspective...particularly the NWS. Other items include getting an upgraded version of Windows Media Player Encoder or even replacing it if possible. There are other technologies out there for streaming.

I also need a new firewire PCMCIA card as the one I have has developed a crack in the casing allowing it to flex. This not only kills the connection, but has caused my computer to crash once...maybe twice. lastly, I need to fix the little shorting problem on my camera's firewire port. I may even get another camera that has better image stabilization and good nightshot capabilities.

My live chase pages needs some serious work too. I've got alot of things going on with it that when works, is pretty awesome. However, there are some bugs that I need to fix, improve some code, and work on some of the server side stuff. Everything I did was rushed and spur of the moment....not good for a quality IT product as I've discovered in my nearly 12 years of being an IT pro. :-) I plan to have this as a "killer app" before next chase season.

In the short term, I'm editing my video and pictures to present to the NWS in Amarillo and Fort Worth for their Skywarn training programs. I hope to get something included in the new national training publications as well.

Lastly, my entire website at texastailchaser.com is going to get s serious revamp. It is grossly out of date....something I put together 8 years ago. I've put it off for far too long. This will be quite a project unto itself, but it has to get done. I want to wrok on the chase reports/pics stuff first.

So, LOTS to do during the next several months. Expect fewer updates, but definitely some 2008 "best of" pics and perhaps a video clip or two in the near future. I better get to it. :-)