To a certain extent, but not enough to stop buying them, I guess.
I did notice that fit became more inconsistent. I’ve heard that’s because they cut many pairs at a time in a stack. So I found I had to try on many pairs to find a couple that would fit properly.
Also, it might have been my imagination, but it seemed like some retailers had lower quality jeans than others, even within the same brand and model. Levi’s I got from Macy’s or JCPenney seem to be higher quality than the same model purchased from Bob’s Stores (which is a discount retailer that recently went out of business).
I started riding motorcycles as a kid. Started in the empty lot next to the house, got bigger bikes and expanded to the mountains and trails. Rode as often snow would allow. Got into racing, was in the motorcycle business for many years, collect all kinds of unique/oddball stuff. Active member in the AMA.
Nearly got killed by a teenaged girl on her cell phone, got rear-ended by a drunk. Really took the shine off the streetbikes. Still rode out in the desert, but I’ve pretty much been all over around where I live. Just kinda got dull, especially riding solo. Got into Jeeps, and taking the dogs out to the desert with me. Nearly abandoned all riding now. I rode a while ago, and seeing the idiots playing on the phone (it’s nearly EVERYBODY!) just terrified me. You can’t ride safe when you are afraid for your life. So, now I just got a garage full of unused bikes collecting dust and looking forlorn.
The other central thing in my life has been skiing. I’m slowly losing some shine on that, too. When its good, its Great. But in less than ideal conditions, it’s just not that exciting anymore. When they start charging for parking, I very well may quit.
Do what I did: start teaching at your local hill. You don’t need to be a technically proficient skier to teach - most ski schools will teach you the fundamentals that they’ll want you teaching their beginners - and you can usually work not only part-time but half-days as well. The biggest downside is that in your first year or two, you’re probably going to be doing a lot of teaching never-evers on a bunny slope, but there are so many upsides: A season pass. Possibly a season pass for dependents. Free parking. Discounts on F&B. Discounts on gear. Free gear demos. A new (or at least refreshed) parka every year. Free lessons (subject to availability). Discounted tickets at other ski areas (not all offer them, though). A locker room where you can stash your gear and get dressed, vs doing it in the parking lot. A boot rack with warmers. You hear all the best jokes about snowboarders. (Then again, you tend to hear them over and over.) Getting paid to ski. And you get to introduce yourself as a pro skier if you want!
I’ll admit that it’s not for everybody. You definitely have to be a people person and have a pretty high tolerance for frustration. It’s nice to be able to unwind, bitch, and moan with fellow instructors at the end of the day in the locker room or the local apres spot.
One thing I haven’t changed. When I was 13 and in the hospital having my appendix removed, by aunt gave me a copy of Astounding Science Fiction and I got quickly hooked on Sci-Fi. My parents said that I would lose interest when I grew up. They were wrong (or maybe I never grew up).
When I was a child I had developed a fondness for pasta. An unfavorite aunt (who I never forgave for this) commented disparagingly that “well, children love spaghetti”. I’m still a voracious pasta eater.
In terms of betrayal, my younger gardening self was more into growing annuals, whereas now most of my gardening efforts are in raising hardy perennials, shrubs and trees.
Add me to the failed readers club. As a teenager / young adult, I would go to the library and bring home a stack of books every week. My neighbor paid me 50 cents to read all the books in the Chronicles of Narnia over Easter break - I think I was 9 or 10.
I current have a paperback in progess. I set it down over 3 months ago. I don’t dislike it, but it was different enough from the television show (Murderbot) that I found it distracting. I have another book in progress on my Kindle, and I have several other books on my Kindle, which I bought, and haven’t read.
I only read a book if I can sit for 30 minutes or so. Otherwise, I’m on a message board or doomscrolling.
Christmas baking and decoration. When I lived at my parents house, I made gingerbread houses and decorated cookies, I decorated the tree, and put up lights etc. Days of effort. Now? A few token items, and I might bake cookies, but just the normal rotation. Decoration takes < 2 hours.
Being conservative was pretty central to my identity for years. Though not frothing at the mouth like many, it was a bit tribal. Now? Fuck that guy. Trump has turned me into a bleeding heart (i.e., a decent human being).
I was pretty heavily involved in the circus & juggling community for years.
Despite what most people assume, this did not mean I spent all my time with weird hippies (though there’s a heavy sprinkling) but a lot of programmers. There are so many programmers involved in juggling.
But I wasn’t.
I was smugly the biologist of the group, by inclination if not always by job. None of that sitting in front of a computer all day for me! No coding! My interests were with real, solid living things. For me, pythons were snakes, bugs were order hemiptera and that’s all I wanted to know about the matter.
The I decided to take my education into biology further, focussing more on plants, so I could get proper work in the field I wanted… and was dragged, step by reluctant step, down the dark and slippery path to the pit of bioinformatics.
Dammit.
We have jazz streaming from an all-jazz radio station in SFO on the Sonos most every day. Sunday morning is an exception, as the jazz station is playing really old timey stuff with banjos and the like. Not my cuppa. So I usually put on some music from our library, which also plays through the Sonos, which is one of several genres.
I’ve always been a reader. Never without a real book. Until COVID. When stress and being quite ill with Delta kind of lessened my attention-span. Coupled with the real inability to close out the world and do that delicious “dive” into a novel or any book, I cannot concentrate enough. I’ve tried. In the last 5 years, I’ve read 2 books and one was a re-read. ( My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok. )
Similarly, not only have I always loved going to the movies but I’m a Camera Operator. LOVE seeing movies in a real theater ! Between the rapacious costs ( +/- $ 20/ ticket here in NYC ) and the bathroom issues, we simply no longer go.
My book-owning arc is quite similar- and I suspect similar to MANY posters into this thread.
I never got rid of a book. I just kept gathering. A real thrill to walk into a used bookstore in some random town and find gems. When the 1st marriage ended, we negotiated who got which authors, etc. I had 2 huge Rubbermaid tubs and no less than 8 liquor store boxes with books. A few hundred. Which sat in storage, because of lack of space moving forward. I tried to donate them all, but it was post-COVID and EVERYBODY was doing this. Used bookstores went from giving cash to giving credit to picking over your collection to taking nothing. I eventually found a local library that would accept all of them, on the hope that most wouldn’t get dumpstered.
I miss books, I truly do. I can barely make it through a movie on the t.v. set at home in terms of attention span.
I’m 63. No obvious or diagnosed cognitive issues. Just… not able to close out the noise any more.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t call the shifts in attention or time spent on social service a betrayal. That’s too harsh. I cannot physically do what I used to. Had to give up volunteering as an E.M.T. and so on.
Somehow many things, including SDMB, have given all many of us a late-blooming case of attention deficit. And not having lived with it since childhood, we’re I’m lousy at coping with it as opposed to surrendering to it.
I used to enjoy watching baseball, whether in person or on TV. Tried watching the World Series last night at home w no distractors. Halfway through a single at-bat I had lost track of the game, forgotten who was batting or what the count was, and was seeking something else to do at the same time. Frustrating.
I imagine I could relearn to read a book, as opposed to just the summaries of articles that serve as my present reading. At least I hope I could.
Since early childhood I’ve been the walking talking overacting disciplinary problem model of ADD.
But, it was the mid- and late-1960s and people didn’t use words like that. My teachers nor the principal in whose office I had my own special seat at one end of the bench. The psychiatrist I saw as a young child ( 5…8? 9? ) didn’t use words like ADD. I was “emotional” and “difficult” and “unable to focus”.
ADD. Please.
More and more aware that even though I WANT to be watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team play, I have gone from reaching for the ole cell phone the moment a commercial hits to surfing while the game is being played. Why, then, am I watching??
I can watch a movie without reaching for a phone. I can immerse myself enough in that context.
