Why Vacation Won`t Suck This Year

I'm outta here! Below is a list of the blog posts that will auto-post while I'm gone on vacation:

- How To Read Computer Forecast Model Maps - How To Find Historical Weather Info Online - How To Storm Chase Locally - How Hot Is Too Hot For Pets In Your Car? - How To Photograph Weather - How To Figure Out "Is That Cloud a Tornado?" - Cloudbusting: Can You Really Kill Clouds With Your Mind? - A Virtual Tour of AccuWeather - A Typical Day At My Job (What Do I DO All Day?) - And More...

Reading these will keep my vacation from sucking for YOU, the blog reader. I'll also be posting any weather tidbits or photos of interest in-between while I'm at the beach.

If you want to keep up with my vacation this year, I'll be posting photos & thoughts through out the 10 days. To see them:

1. Check out J's Breaking News at right 2. Request to be my friend on Facebook. 3. Follow me on Twitter (text only) or Tumblr (limited pictures)

A map of where I'll be going is shown below. P.S.: If you want to know why I love the beach so much, read "Coastal Confessions" which I wrote back in 2006.

Why won't vacation suck for me this year? Well, last year's vacation was not one of the best, I was distracted with various issues and Murphy's Law was all over me.

My goals on vacation this year are:

1. LESS STRESS: It always seems that things come up the month before vacation, extra work I can't finish before I leave, sickness or injury in the family, and it always seem like we "barely" make it there. This year vacation is a week later, so there will be more time to deal with these pre-vacation stresses. When we get to The Beach, I usually have a great time but last year the forces conspired against me.

The servers at AccuWeather that I am responsible (Forum & Photo Gallery) were having technical issues the whole time, which had me stressed and checking in at AccuWeather more than I had to. This year I have begged the Tech Guys to not mess with them after this week, so hopefully that won't be a problem. Last year the pets also had issues -- it was the first year we had taken the dog to the new Pet Resort, so we were worried about her, and the cat got stressed out and sick at the other pet resort and had to be rushed to the vet during the middle of the week, so we were stressing about him (and the costs involved too!). This year the dog (who enjoyed the pet resort) is going back to the same place, and the cat is being left at home with sitters.

2. PACKING LIGHT: I tend to bring WAY more stuff to do than I ever get around to doing. Too many magazines, too many books, too much computer stuff. The car is packed to the brim and we can barely fit groceries in at the end. This year I'm keeping it simple, if for no other reason than because we have to have a leaner vacation due to the economy (and therefore need the room for cheap groceries BEFORE we leave town).

I'm probably not even broadcasting the beach J-CAM this year since I've proven for many years that I can do it, and it's more trouble than its worth (requires a separate computer upstairs & swapping of Internet cards). We, as a family, are also not doing anything "extra" this year -- last year I dragged the family through D.C. & Baltimore then out over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, which was great, but used up a lot of time and money. This year we're just keeping it simple - stopping at my Mom's for a night on either end of the trip. Not going out to dinner every night, maybe out to mini-golf once, but nothing crazy. No adventures this year... Mommy & Daddy need to relax.
3. BETTER WEATHER PICS: I was totally off my game last year and got probably the smallest number of weather pics ever. This was partially due to the weather itself -- we only had storms two days, the latter of which I bungled by driving down the long Beach road to get home when I should have stayed at home to watch the lightning out over the ocean.

The rest of the week, persistent storms to the southwest obscured the sunset nearly every night and windy days kept the seas choppy and almost unusable, with heavy spray and humidity quickly obscuring anything from the camera's view.
4. MORE WALKS: Last year I had the idea to take more walks on the beach to help offset my bad vacation eating habits, but I ran into two problems. One was the aforementioned high winds, which plastered me with yucky sea spray every time I attempted it, and the other was that my Achilles Heel (if you will) is the muscle on the back of my lower leg, which tends to hurt after a long jog... at the beach, it starts hurting after a short walk due to the sand. This year I'm "beach training" by walking up some hills the week before we go.

5. MORE MUSIC: Last year I had a mere 1,000 songs on my iPod. This year I have 4,259. It's the ultimate mix tape of everything I like to listen to (well, almost, I've hit the highlights and am going through the sucky stuff alphabetically, I'm up to the "H"'s). The iPod will also help in the car... as will Margaritaville Radio (the Jimmy Buffett station) which I now have thanks to the merger of XM & Sirius.

5. EATING BETTER: Naaaaah, it's vacation. Cold pizza and Pepsi for breakfast. :)

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