Did you return to past hobbies?

[HarryHawk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack I took up guitar again after 30+ years away from it but found I plateaued at the exact same skill level as in my 20’s, so I sold the guitar - not meant to be for me.

If you enjoy music, you might want to try a ukulele. They are easy and fun to play. I know several folks (including my wife) who gave up on guitar, but really enjoy playing the ukulele.

[Taxman59]

I got into genealogy when I was only 13. It gave me time to spend with my DM, and I was enjoying the discovery of scandals (at 13, an ancestor who couldn't keep his pants buttoned was exciting!!!). I kept it up over the years, sometimes more and sometimes less. Since I retired 6 1/2 years ago, I have spent more time researching and connecting with distant "cousins". One day, I might even write a book!

[Music Lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midpack I took up guitar again after 30+ years away from it but found I plateaued at the exact same skill level as in my 20’s, so I sold the guitar - not meant to be for me.

I'm lucky to be in a couple bands with very good musicians and that has improved my playing more than any amount of practice can do.

[Hamlet]

I have a number of hobbies that I have cycled thru over the years that I could see doing more of in retirement. My interest in each of them ebbs and flows depending on my free time and moods, but I’ve come back to each of them in the past. Aquarium fish breeding, comic book collecting and selling, gardening, and poker are all things I have spent a lot of time on in the past and will probably do more of in retirement.

[cat4ever]

Yes, bigly. Guitar and cycling. Main focus is guitar for the past year of retirement, trying to make up for lost time. Will spend at least another year in the same way before addng more cycling and health. If you are into your hobbies at all you will LOVE retirement.

[mpeirce]

I’m not sure reading counts as a “hobby” but I’ve been reading almost as much as I did as a kid since I retired.

I also recently returned to playing chess. Chess.com makes it easy to find an opponent of appropriate skill virtually any time of day - from around the world.

[Alderman]

I like to spend time shooting guns and reloading my own ammunition. Since I’ve retired I started shooting air rifles to go along with my powder burner guns. Whole bunch of new stuff to learn to get the air rifles shooting like I want.

I collected chainsaws while I was working and have always enjoyed cutting firewood when I got the chance. Now I’ve got time to run a saw whenever I want.

[Physics Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keim Blame It On the Boy Scouts! Hello. My name is Keim, and I am a serial hobbyist. Pardon my length, as I have engaged in this behavior for a long time, but never talked about it.* I have numerous how-to manuals related to my varied interests. I take on a hobby until I have a good general knowledge of how to do it, and then my enthusiasm wanes. I never completely drop the hobby, frequently revisiting as needed, but my interests move on for years at a time. Below is a sampling of some of my hobbies over the years...

I am the same. Even my list of hobbies is similar!

[Coach Shoe]

Retirement and a new, adventurous wife made it possible to buy my 8th boat. They keep getting bigger and more costly. (The boat; not the wife). Covid has shut down our offshore plans but life is pretty good day sailing with friends:…enjoying sunsets & a decent bottle of wine. We're in no hurry to give it up.

[albireo13]

List of hobbies I love:

model rocketry
star gazing/telescopes
hiking
kayaking
kayak building
electronics

[SJhawkins]

I see something similar about many posts, most hobbies listed are what I would call "reasonable" dollar wise, expect for the boating people Been around many boats my entire life they can run all over the $$$ place, I'm sticking with my hand me down Alumacraft!

[Goonie]

I got into model railroading as a kid when I was about 9 years old. I've stuck with it for the past 56 years, and have enjoyed it thoroughly. Over the years, besides the modeling and building aspects of the hobby, I've started collecting vintage railroad models, and high quality, limited run models, as well as antique railroad lanterns from the two major railroads that ran through our town, only a couple of blocks from home.

After retiring I added gardening and landscaping to my list of hobbies. They keep me quite active out in the fresh air and sunshine about nine months out of the year, while proving enough fresh produce for us and our neighbors. And besides the produce, the neighbors enjoy walking through the gardens looking at all of the flora and fauna.

Cooking is another task that became one of my favorite hobbies since retiring. I absolutely love to cook! I use my mom's recipes, my grands' and great-grands' recipes, my own recipes that I've developed throughout my life, as well as recipes found everywhere else. I walk into my the kitchen and I enter my happy place! Besides my 95 y.o. mom, my neighbors and friends love it when I enter my happy place, because they know they're go to be recipients of some good eatin'!

I'm also a voracious reader, whether paper books or digital. It's how I start each morning before breakfast, and how I end the day, and usually work in some reading throughout the day.

Model Railroading, gardening & landscaping, cooking, and reading.......makes for a very enjoyable life!

[MC Rider]

I could think about model rockets again, model trains, maybe a canoe or kayak.
Does anyone use a rowboat these days?

[old medic]

Plan to continue with my same old hobbies.... just with more time to do them...

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpeirce I’m not sure reading counts as a “hobby” but I’ve been reading almost as much as I did as a kid since I retired. I also recently returned to playing chess. Chess.com makes it easy to find an opponent of appropriate skill virtually any time of day - from around the world.

I like reading too but have only recently upped my hours. Tend towards mysteries and spy novels.

I started playing on-line chess too. Lichess is a good free site. But chess is a very competitive pastime and I struggle a lot just to get an average Lichess rating (mid 1500's). I'm very slow at moves, maybe 1 minute per move on average which is very slow for the current on-line "classical" crowd. I find that competition is only fun when I am winning.

I do enjoy gardening and it's a good way to get outdoors. There is no competition.

Plus I exercise most days with runs and walks. DW joins me on some walks. Fun to see the occasional coyote or fox and birds depending on the season.

[dm]

I started fishing again, but new to saltwater. It’s not like I needed another hobby, I already golf, and shoot sporting clays. But I sold my plane and bought a boat.

Here are a couple of pics of friends that were visiting last Monday. We caught quite a few fish, the one pic shows two caught on one hook. They said they are ready to go again, just call. We have more friends coming next week. I sure have become popular since I moved south.

[street]

Fishing is a great sport! Nice boat!

[scrabbler1]

The resurrection of 2 hobbies began when I first changed from working full-time to part-time back in 2001. One hobby was square dancing, something I hadn't done since 1988. I rejoined dancing at A-1, one level below the one I was at (A-2) when I stopped. I didn't remember the A-2 calls well enough. After a year back, I learned the A-2 calls again and stayed at that level until 2008, when I learned C-1, the next level up, and danced at that level until 2018, when our long-time caller (the great Lee Kopman) took ill and passed away at age 85.

Another hobby I resurrected was playing Strat-o-Matic baseball. I had played very little of it since 1988. I began playing it again in 2006, after finding an online forum which sparked my dormant interest in the game. I didn't become a big baseball fan again, as my cards were from the 1970s and 1980s, my baseball heyday.

Another hobby I began in 2001 was my involvement in the local school Scrabble program (see my screen name?) That expanded over the years until 2020, when Covid shut down the schools. But my involvement would have been endangered anyway due to the retirement and/or pregnancy in 2020 of several teachers I worked with. These teachers ran the school clubs I worked with.

In late 2018, I began playing the piano again, after a layoff since 2004. I play mostly ragtime, and I have resumed laying all or part of 8 rags. I don't play often, just enough to keep my skills at a decent level. Good thing I had kept my old sheet music including notes of small changes I made to make the songs more playable. I have perfect pitch, so I was able to use my tuning wrench to tune the piano and keep it tuned at will.

[2017ish]

No.

I did, however, start weight training for the first time ever (my HS football years predated serious weights).

That, and the planned travel (6 months of the year), were more than sufficient to occupy my time, when combined with the off-day long-distance hiking/walking that we started in the year before retiring.

[Coach Shoe]

DM- Nice boat … love the back yard dock. Makes spur of the moment outings feasible.