What do storm chasers do when there’s nothing to chase? Watch the “Storm Chasers” series on Discovery Channel.

Of course I don’t speak for all storm chasers. But a good number of you, like Tom, Bill, and me, have been parked in front of your televisions on Sunday nights, watching Reed dominate, Tim deploy turtles, and Sean wipe his face in frustration. Once a week, we all get to vicariously relive this year’s chase season–the storms we got, the storms we failed to get, the days we wished we had chased, the days we’re glad we didn’t.

Here are some photos of me droogs that I took during last night’s “Storm Chasers” session. Just a nice, pleasant evening of buddies, beer, pumpkin pie, and tornadoes. Bill supplied the pie

and I brought the Golden Monkey, a Belgian trippel whose potency I had forgotten but swiftly recalled. It’s one of those beers where, once it gets a hold of you, the best thing you can say is as little as possible. Just shut up and enjoy the show. Last night’s was great. Next week’s, featuring the Aurora, Nebraska, tornado, looks to be awesome.

Once the series winds down, whatever shall we do? View old tornado DVDs and mutter a lot, I suppose. Think thoughts like, “Only 120 days till April.” Stay away from sharp objects. Or, if you’re like Mike Kovalchick who just looooooves winter, hope for a good blizzard so you can go chase thundersnow.

Mike is probably onto something. It beats sitting in a dark corner cutting out paper dolls with a blunt-nosed scissors. Or maybe not. I may give the doll thing a try once the snows roll in.