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Picking up a old hobby again?

T

Thomas Kievit

Guest
May 19, 2012
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#1
Man, my hands are itching so badly to have a aquarium again. I've had a aquarium several years ago, but I got rid off it since I didn't had time anymore for it to maintain it. It was 100 cm long x 60 cm wide x 60 cm tall. Not really big but not small either. Still I want it back and actually even bigger this time (somewhere around 150 cm long x 70 wide x 50 cm tall). Maybe in the future I will start with it again.

Is there any of you here on TB that is itching to start with a hobby again that you quit years ago?
 
#7
About 3 years ago , I picked up an old muscle car after not having owned one for over 30 years. Got it cheap on CL with a locked up motor and no brakes. Bought a motor (also CL) , an engine hoist and a couple jack stands and went to work on it with my son ( then 16.) Got the motor in and running and had the brakes done all the way around. Been terrorizing the streets of Hagerstown with it ever since. Funny thing is , everyone says I drive like an old lady. Hehehe.... not when I'm in this thing. My son once made the comment "Holy crap , the old man sneezes in that thing and he's going 100mph." Took it to the drag strip and turned a 13.5 sec 1/4 mile at 101 mph. Not too shabby for something my kid and I just tossed together.
 
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#8
Very nice

sharkbait130 said:
About 3 years ago , I picked up an old muscle car after not having owned one for over 30 years. Got it cheap on CL with a locked up motor and no brakes. Bought a motor (also CL) , an engine hoist and a couple jack stands and went to work on it with my son ( then 16.) Got the motor in and running and had the brakes done all the way around. Been terrorizing the streets of Hagerstown with it ever since. Funny thing is , everyone says I drive like an old lady. Hehehe.... not when I'm in this thing. My son once made the comment "Holy crap , the old man sneezes in that thing and he's going 100mph." Took it to the drag strip and turned a 13.5 sec 1/4 mile at 101 mph. Not too shabby for something my kid and I just tossed together.
Click to expand...
 
#9
In a way, my hobbies are what I also do on a daily basis now, so are they still hobbies?

One is bass playing/music. I consider it a hobby in a sense that I love to play my bass to get away from it all, get
my mind off of things, chill out, etc., but I also play as part time work to make extra money.

The other is martial arts. I teach a style of Japanese swordsmanship and bo/spear. It's my full time "work". (I also teach a
style of Aikido, but more on that in a minute). But, it's also what I love to do when I have free time. I go
to my dojo (school) when no one else is there and practice. It brings me lots of joy, and peace, I find it fun,
as well as relaxing. I do the same thing with the bo (6 foot staff).

So, the above two examples qualify as hobbies in the characteristics of how they make me feel and what they provide
me when I'm doing them, but they are also my "work", so I'm not sure if they do fit the criteria of your question.

What I am finding, though, is that I do too many things (work/hobby), so I don't necessary have the time to fully enjoy
all I do, as well as dedicate enough time to be as good as I want to be at all of them. So, if anything, I deciding to do less.
I may stop teaching the Aikido style I do, because I'd rather have more time to practice and teach the sword style and bo.
 
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#10
Thomas Kievit said:
Man, my hands are itching so badly to have a aquarium again. I've had a aquarium several years ago, but I got rid off it since I didn't had time anymore for it to maintain it. It was 100 cm long x 60 cm wide x 60 cm tall. Not really big but not small either. Still I want it back and actually even bigger this time (somewhere around 150 cm long x 70 wide x 50 cm tall). Maybe in the future I will start with it again.

Is there any of you here on TB that is itching to start with a hobby again that you quit years ago?
Click to expand...
Like you, I miss having an aquarium. I had a 25 gal. one, and really enjoyed having it on top of my entertainment unit. I found it was like a fire, I could just gaze at it for hours fascinated. I came home from work one day and found that it had leaked (stress fracture from not being level) all over the oak unit and onto the carpet. I just stood there in a different kind of amazement. There was maybe an inch of water left in the tank with all the fish flopping around in it. I finally roused myself, put the fish in a bucket (which I donated to a pet store), and gathered up all the paraphernalia to throw in the garbage, including a container of live blood worms that I used chopsticks to feed to the fish who used to go nuts over them. I dropped the container on the landing and had a boiling mass of tiny worms squirming on the carpet which I had a hell of a time cleaning up. Actually, I was in an apartment at the time and I think I just ground them into the carpet with my feet. That was maybe 15 years ago and I think that I'm sufficiently over the trauma enough now to reinvest (maybe salt water this time). My step son had a massive 100 plus gallon tank that was incredible.
 
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#11
Wow, incredible story! Luckily this never happened to me, but I can totally see the whole trauma thing behind it. If you would start over again, how many gallon tank would you take this time? I would go for 125 - 150 or so.

bachlover said:
Like you, I miss having an aquarium. I had a 25 gal. one, and really enjoyed having it on top of my entertainment unit. I found it was like a fire, I could just gaze at it for hours fascinated. I came home from work one day and found that it had leaked (stress fracture from not being level) all over the oak unit and onto the carpet. I just stood there in a different kind of amazement. There was maybe an inch of water left in the tank with all the fish flopping around in it. I finally roused myself, put the fish in a bucket (which I donated to a pet store), and gathered up all the paraphernalia to throw in the garbage, including a container of live blood worms that I used chopsticks to feed to the fish who used to go nuts over them. I dropped the container on the landing and had a boiling mass of tiny worms squirming on the carpet which I had a hell of a time cleaning up. Actually, I was in an apartment at the time and I think I just ground them into the carpet with my feet. That was maybe 15 years ago and I think that I'm sufficiently over the trauma enough now to reinvest (maybe salt water this time). My step son had a massive 100 plus gallon tank that was incredible.
Click to expand...
 
#12
Lets just say that as long as you have fun doing it and as long as you consider this something you do quite often in your life, we can sort of consider this as hobbies :)

GKon said:
In a way, my hobbies are what I also do on a daily basis now, so are they still hobbies?

One is bass playing/music. I consider it a hobby in a sense that I love to play my bass to get away from it all, get
my mind off of things, chill out, etc., but I also play as part time work to make extra money.

The other is martial arts. I teach a style of Japanese swordsmanship and bo/spear. It's my full time "work". (I also teach a
style of Aikido, but more on that in a minute). But, it's also what I love to do when I have free time. I go
to my dojo (school) when no one else is there and practice. It brings me lots of joy, and peace, I find it fun,
as well as relaxing. I do the same thing with the bo (6 foot staff).

So, the above two examples qualify as hobbies in the characteristics of how they make me feel and what they provide
me when I'm doing them, but they are also my "work", so I'm not sure if they do fit the criteria of your question.

What I am finding, though, is that I do too many things (work/hobby), so I don't necessary have the time to fully enjoy
all I do, as well as dedicate enough time to be as good as I want to be at all of them. So, if anything, I deciding to do less.
I may stop teaching the Aikido style I do, because I'd rather have more time to practice and teach the sword style and bo.
Click to expand...
 
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#17
Thomas Kievit said:
Wow, incredible story! Luckily this never happened to me, but I can totally see the whole trauma thing behind it. If you would start over again, how many gallon tank would you take this time? I would go for 125 - 150 or so.
Click to expand...
The thing about aquariums, is that the larger the size of it, the easier it is to maintain (especially salt water) as it becomes more self sustaining and requires less maintenance. In this case, bigger IS better. When you do maintenance, it is more time intensive, though, because you've got more water to change, etc. Since posting about this, I've been looking my place over and wondering where I could fit one and how big. Unfortunately, I think another 25 gallon would be about the max.
 
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#18
True that about the maintenance. I have a lot of room overhere, only question is, when shall I start. Haha

bachlover said:
The thing about aquariums, is that the larger the size of it, the easier it is to maintain (especially salt water) as it becomes more self sustaining and requires less maintenance. In this case, bigger IS better. When you do maintenance, it is more time intensive, though, because you've got more water to change, etc. Since posting about this, I've been looking my place over and wondering where I could fit one and how big. Unfortunately, I think another 25 gallon would be about the max.
Click to expand...
 

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