#43 – Hobbies and Other Time Consumers

First, the promised home picture below. After waiting five months, we finally have our landscaping in place and the our home no longer looks like a construction site. Give us a couple more days for the new sod to green up….

After not having a yard to take care of over the past 4.5 years, I suppose my new “hobby” will be yard work. Anybody have a riding mover for sale? Believe my push mower days are over.

The past couple of posts dealt with considerations for part time work and volunteer opportunities. But some retiree peers mentioned their hobbies which have been life long passions or recently pursued interests. If one starts with the premise that we begin the retired phase of our lives with a relatively empty daily schedule, that gives us plenty of room for “other time consumers”, whether they be travel, part time work, volunteering, outdoor/indoor activities, entertaining grandkids or other activities. The main objective, according to most media dealing with retired living, is to stay physically/mentally engaged and continually expand your horizons. Some resources will highlight the objective of “doing good”: I listened to a retirement podcast recently about a couple who started their own 501(c)(3) non profit for charitable work. They also use crowdfunding venues (which I think are for-profit) to raise funds for various activities.

• I mentioned earlier a married couple, both have an impressive collection of woodworking tools and they make all sorts of wood articles as gifts.
• Another friend does fly tying for fishing. This same individual has a passion for railroad history research and writes articles on the subject.
• I don’t know any other writers in my circle of friends, but I’m pretty sure they’re out there.
• My wife does some serious knitting- kept her sane during the pandemic, and the family ended up with all sorts of new sweaters, socks, knit hats, etc.
• Our son spends considerable time organizing dance events (there’s a pretty large, international dance “underground” out there among younger generations who don’t to clubs for dancing, but rather set up their own dance venues).
• I don’t have any friends who play pickleball- that I know of- but I think it’s one of the fastest growing sports out there, especially among seniors. We have more pickleball courts than tennis courts here at Fairfield Glade.
• Haven’t heard of any friends taking courses, pursuing another educational degree, learning a new language, or learning to play an instrument. They all sound cool to me, but the end results don’t motivate me to take any of these up right now.
• Hunting, fishing, hiking, golf. We have lots of senior hikers in our community here with several great wooded trails between 1 – 10 miles. Not like the Appalachian Trail though, huh Vance?
  • When I started playing golf, I never had the vision that this would be a lifelong activity- for which I’m thankful. But as I get older, those golf skills are gradually fading. Thankful for the person who came up with the idea of gold tees!
• Reading. Going to revisit that post sometime soon.
• My old college roommate is now a part time pastor (I’ll just let my other college pals who knew him ponder that development a while…..).
• Grandchildren. OK, this subject is worth a couple of posts on its own. On one hand many of us will agree this is the best way to spend time as retirees, but there are some less-than-ideal family situations out there where the grandparents are raising their kids’ children 24/7/365. Spending time with our grandchildren is a great pastime, but none of us envisioned having to do that in retirement.

For these first six months of retirement I’m just dabbling in various activities and asking a bunch of questions. Several retirement resources urge seniors to look at the rest of their lives as a career, possibly with a theme, but certainly where you can develop additional skills. You don’t need to worry about the size of the paycheck, but you also control the daily/weekly/annual schedule.

Comments welcome!