On Friday, April 17, 2020 at 7:11:52 PM UTC-7, wrote:
most of the time I fly on final the day is dying, so making sure I have it nailed is a requirment 😂😂

Dying means it is still alive. I come home many times while there is still lift. Perhaps I flew the task I had declared pre-flight, perhaps I am old enough to want to disassemble by daylight and drink a beer will my fellow pilots. I remember one special flight of about 10 km short of a 1000K. The last thermal was soft, not turbulent, unlike the others of that day and wide. Rode that thermal to 17,0000 feet and the day just shut off, not another bump. Ended up over an airport at 5000 AGL and pulled spoilers as the day had died about 45 minutes ago. One of the reasons this day was so remarkable, was because the day died so sudden and complete.
I don't just let the computer think for me. If I do that I feel disconnected to the flight. If the day is not dead and you have practice at estimating the amount of lift based on the day the sky and flarm of other pilots why wouldn't you take into account the lift you are likely to encounter on the way home.

This past summer I spent about 25 hours with a new xc pilot in his dou-d. I had him estimate every glide arrival even just to the next cloud. He got pretty good at estimating the lift we encountered between glides. On longer days when he started to be wrong on the callouts (300 feet) he knew the day had changed.
same in sailing, just practice until you know your boat/bird and the air.