This also works with RVs. We’ve had a non-working RV in our driveway, taking up two cars’ worth of parking, for going on two years now. Or is it three? Most weekends, my husband and his brother are out working on that damned thing, while I fume. It would have been cheaper to buy a working RV, and for Bill to take a part-time job on the weekends to pay for it.
Big time second on this. I stop by a lake near my home a few days a week after work. On weekends I do trips on local rivers/streams with friends or through meetup.com (this helps facilitate shuttles).
It is addicting though. I started out using a rental boat and a cheap paddle. I now own several 'yaks and a $450 paddle.
Motorcycling. You can buy a used bike and used riding gear (helmet, jacket, boots, etc.) for a modest investment. If you want to find out whether it might be fun or interesting without dumping a lot of money into it, go to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and look for a beginner’s course near you. The course fee is on the order of $20-$40, and they’ll have low-powered bikes you can use for the course, free of charge. Depending on where you live, the course completion certificate may allow you to get your motorcycle endorsement without taking the DMV’s road test.
If you find you like it, you might consider buying a touring or sport-touring bike and taking overnight trips to far away places. Scenic, twisty roads abound in many parts of the country; I take regular trips to western NC as well as to Colorado and Utah, riding with some friends and meeting up with others when there.
Apart from enjoying the pursuit of riding well, you may choose to learn DIY maintenance; this is another level of fulfillment (and a BIG money saver) for me, up to and including changing my own tires. You may also enjoy adding accessories like GPS, bike-to-bike comm systems, aftermarket suspension, or extra driving lights. Getting involved with an online discussion group may help you connect with local riders who can help you learn the ins and outs of your particular bike. My friends at www.bmwst.com regularly hold “Tech Daze” events around the country where we teach each other routine maintenance on BMW motorcycles; good social gathering, and lots of knowledge transfer.
You might enjoy touring, sport-riding, or some combination of the two. You might choose a dual-sport bike, one with semi-knobby tires suitable for traveling rough fire roads as well as pavement. You might enjoy going to a racing school for a weekend (or more), or just an occasional unstructured track day, where you can practice performance riding without worrying about cops or traffic.
At the more sedentary end of the spectrum, I enjoy woodworking. Wood is a fairly forgiving material, easy to shape, and the equipment to work on it is affordable (as compared to metal-working shop equipment). Similar to DIY maintenance, making something (rather than simply buying it) provides me with a much deeper sense of ownership. six months ago, I finished a coffee table that I had been working on for a year. It was a lot of work, but the end result was very satisfying.
We just did it on vacation for the first time and now I think we’re going to take some lessons. Kayaking is awesome (but I think Himself would rather take sailing lessons.)
You understand completely! We got out of the car the other day and a guy came right up with a ‘wow, cool car’ and she didn’t even break stride, just kept on walking and said, “don’t encourage him!”
But she and a girlfriend will occasionally steal it for a Thelma & Louise day too.
Heh.
My condolences to your wife with your V-6 mistress.
I would check to see if he upped your life insurance policy. He and his brother may be trying to get you to stroke out and die because of their Man-project that will never end and probably never work and thus be able to scrap this project and buy a brand new RV with the money.
Heh. Actually, he has enough money in an interest-bearing account to take care of my minimal final expenses, I don’t have a life insurance policy at all. My body is to be Donated To Science, and somebody else will dispose of my remains.
However, he might be trying to get me to stroke out just to get rid of me. He knows that if he divorces me, I will make him pay, and pay, and pay.
That you know of. (Cue ominous music.)
Apparently my hobby is taking up hobbies I have no time for. I’ve got a couple of dozen hobbies that I could do if I had the time, but I really don’t. So, I’ll just make a list. If you want convincing on any of them, shoot me a PM and I’ll go with a full explanation.
RC Aircraft (designing, experimenting, building, flying, combat, speed comps)
Motorcycling
Motocross (though I haven’t raced on a track for probably 10 years. I doubt I’ll take it up again)
Mountain Biking
Road Biking
Kayaking
Canoeing
Camping
Rock climbing
Snowmobiling
Snowboarding
Snowskiing
Waterskiing
Wakeboarding
Jetskiing (on an actual stand up Jet Ski - don’t get me started on people who “Jetski” on a waverunner)
Jeep Offroading
Yes, I own the necessary equipment to pursue any of those at any time. And I’m also a member of at least 8 specialty forum websites for these various hobbies.
Cooking. You can tailor your recipes to any individual health problem you may have and make them way better than any restaurant can. Dovetail in with this a fascination for such things as ethnic markets and restaurants, and farmers’ markets, and it’ll be a full-time obsession.
It may sound like I’m advising stuffing your face, but I’m not. I like to cook “Mediterranean diet” style, which means lots of good farmers’ market produce, grilled lean meats, and olive oil. Our house probably has the best dinners in town, yet they’re probably also the healthiest. It’s fun! And visiting ethnic markets and restaurants is like poor man’s international travel. Helps if you have a highly varied community like here in silicon valley.
I’ll be the fourth to suggest fishing. It’s an excuse to do a lot of fun stuff. Through fishing, you can clean your beaches and lakes, go hiking, collect fishing equipment, make fishing lures or tie flies, build fishing rods or just go fishing. While you’re fishing you can either lay back and relaxe, read a book, enjoy the scenery, etc. It can also interest the competitive side of your personality. If sitting down and soaking bait is too boring, you can try fishing with lures. That’ll take some time to master but you can get a simple grasp of it pretty soon and it takes more concentration to present it properly so you wont get bored as fast. Best part of fishing is you can get away from it all. I’m always very relaxed after fishing because you get to take your mind off of the crappy things going on and just concentrate on something so simple and mundane.
Oh and you have access to a fresh and healthy food, although I usually end up releasing most fish I catch.
That would be a V-8, Shirley. so it goes vroooom! Like a boy playing with his toys.
I have a T shirt that I actually wear in public that says: “Still plays with cars” on the front.
Here’s my advice: get a dog.
All kinds of research has suggested that people with pets have lower stress levels and perhaps even better cardiac health. Certainly having dogs caused me to lose 18 pounds in one spring and get to know all my neighbors.
A dog craves exercise – and exercise is the sine qua non of successful dog training. Go on those long walks Oregon sunshine favors and take Phydeaux with you.
You’ll both be happier and healthier.
After exercise, Phydeaux will sleep at your feet, sighing contentedly, while you browse the Dope and brag about your improved health and outlook.
And for God’s sake, rescue, don’t buy. Don’t prop up puppy mills and the harmful mythology that breeders are looking out for every pup’s best interests – a few probably are, but they’re statistically insignificant, and everyone else is just “moving product.” Meanwhile there are millions of perfectly good, well-behaved dogs in shelters and rescues, literally dying while they wait for you.
There are also dog sports you can look into – agility, earthdog trials, rally obedience, disk, and more.
Do yourself moral and physical good, make a friend, save a life.
I play golf.
Its horribly expensive, the clothes can sometimes be ugly, if you live up north you have a limited window in which to enjoy your hobby, and a lot of cussing is involved.
On second thought … nevermind.
Knitting sounds like a nice hobby.
(AHEM)
Mrs. Plant, World’s Greatest Dog Maven, Replies:
I respectfully disagree with the above statement. Contrary to the BS promoted by various AR groups, the majority of dogs being rehomed is due to behavior problems – problems caused by ignorant owners who have no idea of what a dog’s needs are. Rescue, by all means, but be aware that you are likely inheriting someone else’s problems, and if this is a first dog then one must be extremely careful in adopting a second-hand dog. Heck, even with more than 40 years of experience breeding, training, and showing purebred dogs, I’ve failed to correct inlaid behaviors on a few of the second-hand dogs I’ve adopted. And there have been marvelous successes – just ask Mr. Plant about Robby.
Again, contrary to the statement against breeders, there are MANY responsible breeders in the world, who are breeding out genetic problems, and breeding for the betterment of their chosen breed. These breeders will be available to a new owner 24/7, who will provide a viable health contract, and who will write a clause into that contract stating that the dog must be returned to them should the new owner become unwilling or unable to care for the dog.
I could go on about this for hours, but I will end here. Get a dog to help you exercise? By all means. But only after you’ve done your homework and are confident that you can provide ALL that a dog needs. And it’s lots more than a good walk every day – although that is one of the components.
For more information, check out the training pages on my website: Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos.
Thanks for this opportunity to reply.
I respectfully disagree with this entire statement. Contrary to the BS promoted by various for-profit breeders, the majority of dogs being rehomed are simply abandoned by humans who have lost interest, or these days, their jobs, and don’t necessarily have any behavior issues at all. It’s simply not plausible that tens of millions of dogs ending up in shelters have behavioral problems and yet millions of dogs sold by breeders never develop behavioral problems. Many shelter dogs were bred by breeders ijn the first place.
Because the rescues have so many dogs incoming and cannot rehome them all – and here I speak of breed-specific rescues primarily, although there are some county shelters that meet this standard of diligence – they can afford to cherry-pick the best-behaved dogs to adopt out. Unlike a breeder’s puppies, who are not yet grown, an adult dog evaluated by knowledgeable rescue folks is a known quantity.
I already stipulated there are many responsible breeders – although they are completely swamped by irrresponsible breeders, so as to be statistically lost in a sea of noise. Everyone tells you his own breeder is a great one – that can’t possibly be true. Most of the “responsble” breeders whose advice I’ve seen or heard have had all sorts of convincing reasons you should pick up the dog as early as possible – well befiore the 8-10 weeks a puppy needs to spend with his or her mom. That’s because the breeder is moving product.
I live near a pet store that goes on and on about the quality of their dogs. They neglect to mention the two court cases of animal neglect they’ve pled guilty to since I’ve known them. People who’ve bought puppies from them – puppies who have been very sick – angrily defend the store as a “quality source of puppies” – because they’d have to admit error otherwise. People would rather lie to you and to themselves than admit harsh truths
In general, when lives are treated as cash commodities, industrial pressures drive relentlessly toward holding down costs and moving inventory, to the detriment of the animals in question.
Again, there are exceptions. Again, those exceptions are so infrequent as to be meaningless on any large scale. Again, you will not KNOW if you have a “good breeder” or not, since everyone tells you his or her own breeder is good, and of course every breeder tells you he or she is good. Simple logic, and direct observation, tells you this can’t always be true.
One of my daughter’s hobbies is cooking. Oh, she’ll throw together a quick meal on some worknights, but she does research recipes, and she does a lot of Asian inspired meals. She also does a lot of the Mediterranean diet meals. Generally, her diet is much healthier than the average American’s, and she gets a lot of pleasure from being able to control just what she eats. She still eats out sometimes, and enjoys it, but she enjoys cooking more.
As a long-time motorcyclist myself, I disagree with only one point in Joe’s otherwise excellent post.
DO NOT buy a used helmet! Helmets can lose a large percentage of their protective ability from an impact that leaves little or no visible evidence, so buying a helmet whose history is unknown is taking a big risk for a small saving of money. For the same reason, you should immediately discard any helmet that has been worn in an accident, or at least return it to the manufacturer for a check. And replace your helmet every five years or so, even if it’s never taken an impact.
If you’re just getting started and aren’t sure you’re going to get serious about biking, you might reasonably borrow a friend’s helmet to use temporarily. But once you own a bike, you **must **(if you value your head!) buy a new helmet with the latest Snell certification. And make sure it fits properly. This means going to a store and trying it on, not buying one sight unseen from a Web site.
Spend as much as you can afford or a little more. Safety gear is definitely not the place to economize. With luck, you will never need your helmet to do its job. But if you do have an accident, you will not regret having spent a few extra bucks for a quality helmet. As we say, if your head is worth $50, by all means buy a $50 helmet.
I’ve always been a fan of Bell helmets myself, ever since I saw a film of Evel Knievel miss the landing at a big jump inside a stadium somewhere. He came off the bike and went headfirst into the wall a few feet to the right of the large portal he had been planning to ride out of. In the footage, he’s lying there waiting for the ambulance, and he looks at the inch-deep dent his head put in the cinderblock wall and says, “That’s a real testament to the quality of this helmet.” It was a Bell full-face model.
Here’s a link to a famous Knievel crash – not the one I mentioned – that Bell used as an ad. Several sources say that Knievel credited his Bell helmet with saving his life in that crash.
Alright, Clovernook, we’re 80 replies in. You haven’t chimed in once. Has anything stated so far tickled your fancy?