Yes he is in a class all by himself! When I was a boy I had an airplane hanging from my ceiling too but it was 1:24 scale.

So,an update. Now I've added being an ambulance driver and Emergency Medical Responder to the list but it's much more than an "interest". I'm doing 24 hours on duty every week with a weekend day on a rotating schedule. Driver training won't be finished until this summer and study time for the EMR stuff is taking a lot of time.

So, my list of interests is still long but First Aid is taking priority.

^^Are you doing this as a volunteer?

I've never had too many hobbies. I worked as a painter/carpenter/contractor for 50 years and the jobs and people varied a lot. That keeps it interesting. At the same time I was either racing karts or working on cars. I found that in my racing days, having time for a hobby car was not possible. I had stopped racing and did some cars and then started back up racing. The cars went away.

I seemed to have a Porsche around most of the time but to be honest, I took it to a shop for a lot of work because of racing. I was finally done with racing at age 49, but not really as it turned out. Still a daily working contractor with the tools, I did a car restoration that took a year and a 1000 hours, or so. Who's counting? I didn't even want to add up the receipts.

The next car turned out to be my only race car project, a 914/4 full race. It was fun building it but my track time was nothing compared to karting. Needed a trailer and stuff seemed expensive. It was — even in 2004. Sold that after only a couple times at a HPDE and bought the 71 S which brought me back to street cars. That took me into the R Gruppe for a short period. There is no time for other stuff when you're working days and building cars nights and weekends. Yet I did a lot of house maintenance.

The '71 went away and I was free for awhile until a Carrera appeared that needed some work and I had a jones for doing a custom backdate look. You might have seen that. Lots of time while off work went into that project. Then it got hit, so I returned it to stock and sold it.

Free again, so I started a master bath remodel from bare studs and floor joists. $16,000 worth. This too in addition to working during the week. I worked for myself so I could adjust my time and pick up materials during the day. Again, this kind of thing leaves no room for fishing, playing poker or any of the other things people do. While this involved with the house, I rewired the entire 90 YO house and added central HVAC. Did the kitchen over lightly with new counters and some moving around of a couple cabinets to find space for a Wolf range.

Finally The Great Recession ended my business more or less. I could find work, but advertising was an absolute waste of money. I had depended on advertising and referrals all those years before, but now, nothing. So I took SS and started repairing antiques and collectables. I did do a lot of handywork, but it was hit and miss. Customers didn't have much money to spend anyway.

All of this above to make one point: Now I have time to do all sorts of different things. Guess what? No 2 jobs are ever alike so each foray into a project brought more tools and skills into the fold. At one time I had a complete woodshop, albeit not real big, and a decent metal shop that I could deploy by rolling out some tools and machines.
And a metal shed that doubles for a spray booth if I empty it.

So I don't need hobbies. I've sewn, repaired electronics, rewired many lights and lamps, built custom wood projects, welded, repaired 300 YO plaster over wood picture frames and have worked on 100 or so pieces of MCM furniture in wood metal and plastic. While those too have been an adventure, I dislike the items themselves. It's just work. Nice woods though. I totally rebuilt a 1944 South Bend metal lathe. You get the idea.

Sometimes I wiil dabble in something like ceramics repair and find that it's just not for me. I started into old clock repair which is an entre career in itself. Realizing that, I limit how deep I will go into a clock. But I can say BTDT as with a lot of things. I haven't tried rebinding a book and likely never will. But there is no limit to what is out there.

Like Forrest Gump said, life is like a box of chocolates except my box has also donuts and apples. And I still have the '44 Jeep restoration that I did just before the 914. I think it's about time for a refresh. So then I won't have any time again. ;)

I got an EMT and Emergency vehicle operating license when I got out of college.
At the time, there were a lot of ambulance chasing lawyers, and several bad ambulance accidents, so there was a lot of pressure on the drivers.
A local squad near ours "Manchester" was called "Manslaughter" because of the mishaps.

Not a good time to be learning how to parallel park an ambulance.

That, and I couldn't get used to the rotating schedule.
That, and I ate a big pizza one night and got a call to a guy who got ejected from his vehicle.
The night didn't go so well for either of us.

So I got a different *job.

*It was volunteer, so it wasn't even a job


Mostly it was the lawyers.

Yes

So nice to read about people being passionate about stuff.The majority of Americans don't get it. Money brings very short lived happiness, no matter how much money. One has to have passions in life. Your job, your house, your vehicles, your art, whatever you're passionate about. And then you must engage and act on those passions. This is the only thing that will bring long term happiness in our short lives, so live it

Buncha boyz who don't know what they wanna do when they grow up ....

They never will ... and they never will...

Enjoy reading about their long childhoods too :)

IF I ever grow up... :D

I have often wished that I had skills such as yours but I don't so I contribute to the livelihood of people who do. SmileWavy

Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in awhile you could miss it

Not me....

Let's see. I have a quad bike torn apart, and the engine is in pieces (I have all the new seals and rings now).

A friend's 3.2 is also in pieces in my shop. I was 'resealing' it when we found broken head studs, so it moved to the 'front of the line' so he can sell it.

I have a new (to me) Wisconsin engine for my Bobcat on a skid (in pieces of course), it's been 'several years' because I'm too busy...

My tire install machine and balancer aren't hooked up yet....

This is the short list. The good news is I'm retiring soon, so I can take on more projects. :rolleyes:

But my bathroom renovation is wrapping up.

I am such an underachiever compared to most here. My hobbies are music and reading. Occasionally the music is also a vocation, but mostly for pleasure. Reading will cover fiction and technical stuff. Right now the books on my bedside table are the geological formation of Atlantic Canada and ancient engineers. I also like to spend time in the summer with our granddaughter in the little boat I repaired. I'm not looking for things to fill up my time.
Having said that, I have restored an old VW Golf Cabriolet, I have built every structure on this property and have made some bits of furniture. But those weren't hobbies, they were necessary or favors for friends.
Maybe we'll get back to traveling again. No worries one way or another.
Best
Les

Do you perform, compose or an educated listener?

This is pretty much me too, except also a racing fan geek.

You guys need to drop the bar a little, you’re making us slackers look bad 😂😂😂

I am certainly not an educated listener. As I said in the guitar thread, I picked up guitar in my teens. My drive was to be able to do Lightfoot songs, but soon got into Cat Stevens, Jim Croce and Neil Young. . I started writing songs in university. Not many, they are usually brought on by stories or incidents. I only started playing out in '06, with a small group of folks, most of whom had way more talent than I. Then I was asked to provide music for the opening of the Bistro. I played there almost monthly for 10 years. I still get invited to do gigs from time to time, but my usual thing is a bi-weekly kitchen party at the Legion and a monthly set at the seniors' residence where my MIL lives.
I wonder if the seniors will like the song I'm learning this week: 5 Man Electrical Band's "Absolutely Right ".:D

Best
Les

You are a lucky man to be able to do this Les. A gift I wish I had as I get older.

What an interesting bunch of folks we have here. No wonder there is someone here who can answer almost any question you bring up.

I have too many interests already and it seems I'm picking up a new one. Vicki has this music box that has been in the family for over 100 years. I started tinkering with it, got it working mechanically, and started on repairing the woodwork. I watched a lot of videos on furniture restoration and I've started practicing techniques on an old sewing machine case. The top of the music box is very intricate and was a real mess - it required skills that would take years for me to learn, so I sent it to a reputable expert, who worked miracles. His work inspired me to take my time and really do a good job on the rest of the box. I'm really enjoying learning a few of the the techniques and looking forward to becoming better at this. I have my eye on a couple of other pieces of furniture around here that may go under the sandpaper next winter.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1710354060.jpg

The outside of the box needs some minor veneer repair and some fairly serious work done on the black base.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1710354060.jpg

You wouldn't believe the "before" pictures of the top of the music box.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1710354060.jpg

Before I do anything to the music box I test out my skills on this old sewing machine case.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1710354060.jpg

I love how a little work can bring out the beauty in a piece of wood.

The word "Bored" is simply not in my Vocabulary.

Have no shortage of interests I'd like to spend time on, just having spare time is the issue

I'd like to learn to TIG weld, make my own carbon fibre Porsche body panels/build an uber-lightweight 964, work on my house, overland trips in my Toyota FJ Cruiser, cycle touring, free diving, learn to surf, restore back to stock my 930

My main interest which I do find time for is seeing as much if the world as I can, for as long as I can remember Mrs Ahab and I try to visit at least one new country every year

Last year was a good year, visited Poland, Ukraine twice, Seychelles and Mauritius once and re-visited another 9 countries, some more than once.

This year will be at least 2 new countries, it's either looking like a driving tour around Panama/city break to Colombia. Or 3x long weekend city breaks, to places like Sofia, Bulgaria, Reykjavik, Iceand, Lisbon, Portugal or somewhere further away

My two big interests I want to tick off is to visit 100 countries before I stop travelling and build one last car for myself, a Lancia Stratos replica after decades of doing other people's cars

How did you do this?
I have a Singer table that is missing some veneer on the top and I'd like to fix it and avoid replacing the veneer.

I'd like to travel as much as you do Cap. IMO travel is one of the best educators available.

It's long but the answer is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZdWh_oE-co
However, this is replacing. To do veneer repair w/o any replacement amounts to filling, painting and faux finishing. I have some projects that come close, but none that brave. If my video says "veneer" in the title it does address many issues.

100% agree with you, we spend most of our spare money on travel


It's not a cheap interest, had decades of a driving around in crap cars that I maintained myself, we maintain our house ourselves not eating out as often as we'd like and have gone without big spend materialistic items

Hate to work out how much our interest has cost us but its definitely money we'll spent as experiencing new countries/cultures has given us so much pleasure over years

I am doing it by watching the video Zeke posted as well as more of his videos and practicing on pieces that aren't very valuable.

I am a wet-behind-the-ears young grasshopper when it comes to this subject, but I have been using a tool that I haven't seen in use in any of the videos. I have used these wooden cuticle sticks when cleaning and detailing cars for years and I have found them very useful for cleaning out corners and scraping surfaces during finish restoration. They are a cheap and useful tool at $4 for a pack of 100 on Amazon.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1710441622.jpg

^^I have similar long sticks with a pencil point and they are great for reaching into tight spots with either glue or clock oil. If you want just one drop, this is how. Cleaning too as Patrick suggests.

That sewing case looks very dry. If no stripping (I agree) then it must be 'finished' rather than RE-finished. I start by lightly sanding to see what comes up. If it's real dirty you will know. Once lightly sanded and dust and oil free, apply some non -waxed shellac. Non waxed can be recoated w/o scuffing many times.

There is a lot more to this, of course. I have half a bookshelf of finishing books only. Then there's YT, but before T+YT there were books. The old standard info is in books. They don't mention stuff like wipe-on poly. You won't find any of that here in my shop.