What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

[Shades of Gray]

Still actively employed, serving as President of a seminary, traveling about 75% of the time, and teaching video conferencing seminary classes (anywhere I can get high-speed internet); visiting congregations, teaching weekend retreats.

Hobbies: guitar playing, reading (fiction: legal, political, medical mysteries; non-fiction: biographies, selected eras of history), computer technology, walking (running until early 50’s).

[Paddy]

Free time seems to be in short supply these days...I'm part of the sandwich generation. Elderly parents (almost 84 and 90) and 2 teenage boys, though one is now away at university. Plus I work at home (web design and some desktop publishing) - so it feels like I'm always working!

But, when I do have time, I love to read - I almost always have a book on the go, and belong to both a book club and a neighborhood book trade where we get 12 books a year - trade each month and get to keep the last one. I do have a few favorite TV shows which I always record and watch later without ads. (What did we ever do without DVRs?) I have two great Canon DSLRs and wish I had more time to spend with them and in Photoshop. My garden is always a work in progress - both here and at my parents' cottage, with veggies in the summer there, plus perennials both places. Love to travel - we're off to Eleuthera for the 6th time next week, where I intend to read lots of books, go snorkeling and look a pretty fish, take long walks on the beach and go on photo safaris with my friend Sky, while the The Providers (aka our husbands and son #2 - son #1 is at school and can't come for the first time ever) hunt for dinner in the ocean. One of these days I want to do a walking tour of Ireland - and visit relatives on both sides of my family in England, some of whom I've not seen in 25 years, and go to New Zealand, where a friend has just moved. (No, he's not in Christchurch, thank goodness!)

I also have a collection of hundreds of old family photos and letters now, from both sides of my family. They were all in the basement at my parents' house, deposited there when my grandmother and great aunt died 30 and 33 years ago and nothing was ever done with them. When my parents moved into a retirement apartment this fall, I became the family archivist. There is utterly fascinating stuff in there as I seem to be descended from two clans of pack rats, some of whom liked to write letters and kept everything. I really want to create some photo books, with some of the letters as well, to share with my cousins and sister. I may also transcribe my Dad's sister's writing. She was 19 when she died, but a fascinating person and a wonderful writer. She started keeping a journal at the age of 15 and spent the last 18 months of her life living in England, so wrote her parents regularly. It's an amazing portrait of life as a young girl in the 1930s.

I started scanning the photos at Christmas and framed a bunch of them for my Dad and my sister as presents. They're gorgeous old photos - I have some that are from as far back as the 1860s/1870s and there is one daguerreotype that is probably a bit older than that. Everyone is all dressed up and very stern of course. So...never time to get bored around here! (and of course, there is TS and I also participate quite a bit at EhMac, the Canadian Mac forum)

[RNKIII]

What can I say, Paddy, but  


Bob K.   rnkiii

[kimmer]

QUOTE(Shades of Gray @ Mar 1 2011, 08:11 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hobbies: guitar playing, reading (fiction: legal, political, medical mysteries; non-fiction: biographies, selected eras of history) ...

Have you ever read anything by Donald Harstad? I recently read The Big Thaw and enjoyed it. Also, for non-fiction I *HIGHLY* recommend "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand -- wonderful book. One that has renewed the joy within my heart.

QUOTE(Paddy @ Mar 2 2011, 08:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I do have a few favorite TV shows which I always record and watch later without ads. (What did we ever do without DVRs?)

I think we all watched less TV.

Your travel plans sound grand. Enjoy your vacation!

[Xairbusdriver]

Paddy, your "free time" activities have made me so tired I may just go to bed right now!

I trimmed the two huge crepe myrtles this afternoon and put the trash in the little utility trailer my loving wife bought me a few years ago (after 40 years together, 'gifts' become much more practical! ). I usually take the limbs/leaves and such to our church property (some 38 acres, much of it 'natural' and not a few gullies to fill). Got the Highlander stuck trying to push the trailer up an embankment. Of course, I didn't bother bringing my cell phone...walked back the quarter mile to the church and happily found one staff member still there so I could call for help. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of that ant home but I figured I could save a walk back if I didn't get the vehicle out of the mud by the time 'help' arrived. Just as my daughter-in-law pulled up, I got out of the mud hole!

The worst part is that my best friend, who I would have called, is in hospital recuperating from three bypass installations! He had two arteries 100% blocked on the left ventricle and another one on the right 50% blocked! I'm not sure he'll make the two practices this Saturday for the Drama being presented Sunday night at our church.

If the practices don't go well, I be "sick" also! There will be nine microphones, five lighting sets and thirteen sound tracks to keep coordinated. We'll have one adult 'directing' the tech guys. One adult will be seeing how well he can prevent feedback with that many mics! I may be operating the CD player (we couldn't find an adult for that job). At least I won't be worrying about trying to record the event (my normal job).

Tomorrow (Friday) I get to make another 180 mile round-trip to my late aunts house to open it up for the new garage door installation. I'm dragging the little trailer with me to work on some shrubs that are too close to a wall. Probably drag them back home since I have to meet the guys from whom we rent those microphones! I'll stop by the church then and program them not to interfere with the two or three other wireless mics that will also be in use Sunday night. But I'm pretty sure I will not be dumping the limbs until next week!

[jcarter]

Retired, and we sure are busy all the time too.
Grandkids, Lilly(our Yellow Lab) are the most fun.
Summer,,,, kayaking, swimming, biking, boating, fishing, photography, traveling to our camp in Maine, sailing when the wind isn't too high.
Working on our house and flower gardens.
We used to travel a lot, but not so much now, though my husband and our geologist daughter raft the Colorado every summer. I stay home with grandkids and pets.

Winter,,,, walking, (Cape Cod is where we live), reading a lot, taking classes, hanging out with friends and family, listening to music. Used to ski but not much any more.
We dont watch a lot of TV, but do love the Discovery channel and things like that. My husband studies a lot, math, science, I love on-line classes in Photoshop, web design.  I love cooking too, trying new recipes, our kids are great cooks, always giving me new things to try. (Thank you for the Julia Child book recommendation, and the History of Scotland disc.)

We both love to learn things that we haven't tried before, find a challenge like that is a lot of fun. Find new interests that we never thought we would care about.
I like Economics, and my husband has just finished a lot of research on the history of Religion, that is one I wont attempt.  I learned to trap shoot, thats a lot of fun.
And he and one of our kids made a 6 inch reflecting telescope from scratch, even ground the mirror, a two year project.
This is a fun topic, gives us ideas to see what everybody else does. There just never seem to be enough hours in a day to get to do and learn all the things we want to! Time goes by too darn fast.
Jane

[tacit]

QUOTE(kimmer @ Feb 3 2011, 04:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm really curious ... how do you pass a few hours for FUN and RELAXATION? I'm not talking about things you do because you have to, or feel you must; I'm thinking of things you do when you want to unwind, things that make you happy, things that give you a break from the daily grind. Do you read? Exercise? Raise pygmy goats? Color with crayons? Hatch practical jokes to play on pals? Serve on committees? Play games on your computer?

I do quite a few things for entertainment, sometimes all at the same time.

I play computer games, particularly World of Warcraft. I used to be a dedicated raider in a raiding guild, but when that started feeling like a job, I quit doing it; nowadays I only game for a few hours a week.

I write a great deal, both fiction and non-fiction (sometimes both at once). I'm turning the large, sprawling travelogue of my time in Eastern Europe into a relentlessly inaccurate and highly irreverent ebook which is looking like it'll be about 200 pages long when it's done, and having a lot of fun doing it. I also write erotica, and recently met a lovely young woman who works as an editor who thinks some of it may be publishable, even. (Would that turn it from 'fun' to 'work'?)

I am a dedicated amateur photographer. I have been a photographer for a number of years, but kind of got out of doing it for a while. Recently, a good friend of mine (who is also an outstanding photographer) has been inviting me on photo trips with him, so I've gotten back into it again.

My photographer friend has two girlfriends, one of whom is a real hardcore outdoor adventurer (mountain biking, skiing, snowshoeing, camping, hiking, and so on). I've never been much for that sort of outdoor activity, but she's started inviting me on a lot of the trips she goes on--I snowshoed for the first time in my life a couple months back with her, and I now own a mountain bike. It's been a lot of fun, and I think I may have been bitten by the bug.

His other girlfriend is the director of the local museum of science and industry. She hosts two "Science Pub" events a month, where she invites researchers and scientists to a local bar and they give talks and presentations while the audience sits around drinking beer. She also hosts an after-dark event each month at the museum, a late-night, adults-only themed presentation (last month, it was Egyptian-themed) that hilights the museum's newest exhibits. She's someone I really respect and admire (and have, to be honest, a bit of a crush on), and I've been spending a good deal of time at those events. Afterward we often go out to dinner together with my photographer buddy and his other partner.

And I have unexpectedly had my heart stolen by a very, very tiny white Tonkinese kitten who has adopted me, so a fair bit of my recreational time these days is spent cuddling with her.

[dboh]

"Relentlessly inaccurate" is a great phrase!