New Hobbies In FIRE?

[ElizabethT]

Great question. For me:
- Backcountry Flying
- Motorcycle (Off road)
- Skiing/Back country skiing
- Hiking (Mountains and Camino)
- Mountain Biking
- Shooting
- Sailing
- Scuba
- Photography
- Painting
- Drawing
- Guitar

So many things, so little time.

This list, plus what everyone else has listed and shared, is why I tend to get annoyed when people ask about 1) what I use to do, as in my paying job, or 2) express concern they'll be bored in retirement.

I feel imminently more interesting, and interested, than during my working years, so please ask me what I'm doing now!

 

[meleana]

I am always pretty busy between the regular activities of daily living and social gatherings. Add to it that I put myself out there and hooked up with people in the state and my local community who have the same political persuasion as me and we are very active. I started to go back to church every Sunday as well. Daily neighborhood walking group and my own exercising. I participate in the local parks and recreation dept group hikes and snowshoeing when they are offered. It helps that we live in a vacation area so lots of time at the lakes, our HOA pool and social events, and cultural events like comedy and music venues. Outdoor fairs and festivals.My husband hunts and he took up fishing this year for the first time. He joined a sportsmen’s club. We like to go on an occasional sightseeing excursion in our beautiful state. I read and write a lot. I could go on and on. The things to do are unlimited! You just have seek them out!

I honestly feel so much more engaged in life now that I have stopped working.

 

[jollystomper]

I got back into bowling, which I did a lot as a teenager since it was cheap and walking distance from my home, but probably did less than half a dozen times once I went to college. Now that I can afford my own bowling ball and shoes, so it is a lot more fun.

I did not start golfing until I was over 50, but have gotten much more into it since retiring. I try to play 3 rounds or more per week. It is just as much a form of exercise since I walk the course as much as possible, and move (playing by myself with no delays I can play a round in just over 2 hours).

Increased levels of hiking and biking. When we travel, DW and I try to pick hotels that provide easy access to golf/hiking/biking opportunities.

I may have to start scheduling myself to get to all the other hobbies I want to try or pick up. These include:

- Learning guitar or bass (won a free electric guitar, but now thinking of trading it in to get a bass guitar)
- Electronic keyboard to build music tracks (I can play somewhat by ear, maybe I should get piano lessons)
- Woodworking
- Swimming (can move enough to avoid drowning for a while, but we just signed up for lessons)
- Shooting (driving range opened nearby)
- Programming languages (yeah I am a nerd, but writing programs relaxes me, just want to keep current)
- Pickleball (never played, but health club now has it, so I may sign up)
- DJing (using electronic tacks instead of vinyl records)
- Digitizing photos/videos/vinyl records/CDs to home entertainment server
- Reading books (still prefer grasping a book for hours instead of staring passively at a tablet)

I also have access to other hobbies like volleyball, basketball, softball and flag football. There are over 50 and over 60 leagues for these in our area. But I've decided to retire from those, as I do not think I'll heal from injuries as fast anymore .

 

[ijack]

I've started reading lots of books

 

[Music Lover]

I would be happy if I could strum half-way decently right now! So easy in principle but my mind-body is fighting me. I know eventually I'll be able to set a rhythm and think about other things (like the fretting hand) but one thing at a time. I look forward to the day something clicks in my brain. I will be especially grateful when I learn something that is fun I that can go back to to re-energize myself when I feel stuck on whatever I'm learning.

When I was learning guitar I kept a guitar in the living room and several times a day I'd pick it up (sometimes just for a couple minutes) and quickly run through several chord changes training my fingers and developing muscle memory.

Once you can move between chords smoothly the rhythm will come. But it's hard/impossible to set a rhythm if you can't change to the next chord on the beat.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

When I was learning guitar I kept a guitar in the living room and several times a day I'd pick it up (sometimes just for a couple minutes) and quickly run through several chord changes training my fingers and developing muscle memory.

Once you can move between chords smoothly the rhythm will come. But it's hard/impossible to set a rhythm if you can't change to the next chord on the beat.

Ha, right now I actually am setting time limits so I don't practice too much (fingers hate me!). I am shocked that I am enjoying it this much when I cannot play a song yet. I bought a wall hanger and it will hang next to the TV.


I'm going with his lead and just got a set of chords to practice along with some strumming patterns and pentatonic scale (and turned me on to jam tracks so practicing the scales is SO FUN and will help with dexterity and hand strength. Jam track also is helpful for rhythm. I'm having fun and learning and that's what matters!

 

[Dalmore]

- Programming languages (yeah I am a nerd, but writing programs relaxes me, just want to keep current)
- Pickleball (never played, but health club now has it, so I may sign up)

Like you, I enjoy programming and learning new languages. My problem of late has been coming up with an idea of what to program. I prefer to do something useful, not just "book exercises". What do you use as a source for new ideas?

We are about to get some pickleball courts in our area. DW and I just signed up for a class to learn how to play. Looking forward to it.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Like you, I enjoy programming and learning new languages. My problem of late has been coming up with an idea of what to program. I prefer to do something useful, not just "book exercises". What do you use as a source for new ideas?

We are about to get some pickleball courts in our area. DW and I just signed up for a class to learn how to play. Looking forward to it.

I also like programming. I have started getting into home automation. I mostly use home-assistant but have started working on a few projects on my own that are not covered by that. For example, we use rainwater catchment for our water supply so I am building a system to monitor tank level, pressure drops, pump cycling, and so forth and integrating with a weather station to watch for water losses. ( I know how much water I should be catching and can calculate the actual from tank level. Also building in water flow and automatic shutoff if a line breaks (has happened twice in 8 years!).

The programming is not the biggest part of this project. But there are so many new things out there to explore that you can make programming a part of almost any hobby.

 

[DrRoy]

Not new for me but I've pushed photography a lot.
.

 

[swakyaby]

@DrRoy

Wow, wow, wow. Your photos belong in National Geographic.

 

[swakyaby]

Another old hobby I have returned to is listening to music. I am an audiophile and have recently added a network music server and Spotify premier membership. I am finding many new artists to enjoy.

I recently purchased new speakers for my tv viewing room and have been trialing various high definition music streaming services for eventual subscription. Right now, I am on a 3 month trial of Tidal music and have been really impressed with their music offerings and master audio quality selections. Next will be Apple Music, then Amazon HD unlimited.

 

[jollystomper]

Like you, I enjoy programming and learning new languages. My problem of late has been coming up with an idea of what to program. I prefer to do something useful, not just "book exercises". What do you use as a source for new ideas?

That is a great question. I still try to follow technology and the software industry. I also hgave friends and acquaintances who are still working, and when they discuss what they are dealing with at work, I get the "what if tried..." bug, and then see if I can program something similar to it.

Volunteering provides lots of opportunities. For example, I still observe many cases of manual data exchange between applications, or reports that really do not show the info that is wanted, or people not being aware of sources of data for which they are currently guessing. With the increased usage of APIs, I enjoy helping folks understand "you can eliminate/cut down on that manual work, let me program an example for you" - and try to do it using things that already exist in their environment.

One skill that has helped me for the above is being a good listener. It is amazing the ideas one can glean from conversations - even the ones overhead - in this matter.

Then there is home data I am just interested in capturing and tracking for my own nerdy reasons. For example:

- when Quicken 2017 stopped supporting stock updates, I had no desire to move beyond it as I do not need the other newer "features"... so I found APIs for stock prices, and wrote programs that now run at scheduled times to capture the data for daily import into Quicken (my next step is to automate the import of the data files using technology like Microsoft Power Automate). Or,

- I like to capture NFL game stats for Fantasy Football analysis purposes. various places offer APIs for "big bucks", but I figured out how to capture the data in JSON format and then analyze it as I need.

- Tracking our house temperature from various locations (e.g. basement, attic, bedroom) and with outdoor temperature data to figure out any interesting correlations as well as determining if actions to minimize temperature differences between different floors make a difference.

As I said, I am nerd . I have a list of close to a dozen software/programming projects I have not even started yet (the thread about home cameras and Zoneminder software is the most recent to make my list) And when I do program, I will challenge myself try it with programming language X running on platform Y just for grins - but to learn as well .

 

[dixonge]

Is RV maintenance/repair a hobby?

New: ukulele

Older hobbies reinitiated: rock climbing, piano, genealogy, birding, hiking, learning Spanish

 

[SecondAttempt]

@DrRoy

Wow, wow, wow. Your photos belong in National Geographic.

+1

 

[DrRoy]

@DrRoy

Wow, wow, wow. Your photos belong in National Geographic.

 

[tb001]

I also like programming. I have started getting into home automation. I mostly use home-assistant but have started working on a few projects on my own that are not covered by that. For example, we use rainwater catchment for our water supply so I am building a system to monitor tank level, pressure drops, pump cycling, and so forth and integrating with a weather station to watch for water losses. ( I know how much water I should be catching and can calculate the actual from tank level. Also building in water flow and automatic shutoff if a line breaks (has happened twice in 8 years!).

The programming is not the biggest part of this project. But there are so many new things out there to explore that you can make programming a part of almost any hobby.

Home automation is a great hobby! I’m obsessed with all of the possibilities, but my lack of programming skills keeps me constrained. It’s amazing what people have done on Home assistant.

 

[ncbill]

Home automation is a great hobby! I’m obsessed with all of the possibilities, but my lack of programming skills keeps me constrained. It’s amazing what people have done on Home assistant.

"Alexa, make me a sammich..."

 

[lem1955]

Volunteer board work including raising money for capital campaigns
Hiking, walking, non-technical mountain climbing
3 bicycles - road, hybrid (for rail trails) and E-bike (for steep or unknown dirt roads)
Back-Country X-C skiing and Track X-C skiing
Reading
Travel
Knitting and Rug Hooking
Selling accumulated possessions we don't need or use anymore
Book discussion group
Death & Dying discussion group (more about how to live as an elder than dying)

Bored? I still don't have enough time to fit in all the things I want to do.

 

[Scuba]

@DrRoy

Wow, wow, wow. Your photos belong in National Geographic.

+1 … absolutely gorgeous photos!

 

[Nougat]

Just a few month retired and starting some studies in open university. Also interested in wild bird observation and photography but I have yet to study and purchase appropriate equipment.