It's Not ALL About the Fishing

[gunsinger]

Now, don't shoot me or call me treasonous but, my hobbies don't end with fishing.  I'm a country music singer (back in the day) that plays a little guitar and an amateur woodworker.  This 8' 4" farmhouse table was my latest project.  The top is red oak that came from local trees and was rough cut to 1"x6".  A planing and jointing and this was the result.  The base is from reclaimed pine, cleaned up and painted.  The chairs we bought.

[J Francho]

I have a few other hobbies.

My latest toy:

 

Another hobby of mine, this pic is from 1990:

 

And last week:

[A-Jay]

My 'other' life long hobby revolves around working to stay lean & strong (relative term) 

1995 here 

 

2021 here

A-Jay

[Way2slow]

I've had or have so friggen many, it would take a day to list them, and the only reason I don't have more, I either don't have the time or the money.

I don't see how someone can sit around spending most of their time doing nothing but maybe watch television or doing one or two hobbies. 

I guess I have some mental disorder because I can't just stick to one thing.  I go in spells.  I'll get started building and designing an electronics project, then I may change over and start restoring or building clocks.  Then I might get started on wood working and building a piece of furniture or some other wood project.  Next I might get started back on building my Native American style flutes.  Then I might drag out an old outboard or something to rebuild or start restoring a car or something.  Then I might drag out the radio control planes, helicopters, or truck and fly them for a while.   Like right now, with a half dozen other projects, like restoring an old Stratos boat, getting a pontoon boat going and a couple other things, I thinking about building me a new drum roaster and fluid bed roaster for my coffee beans.  

If, I sit down for more than a couple of hours, I can't feel comfortable because I feel like I should be up doing something.  I like to watch NASCAR and PGA tournaments but even then, half the time I have to record them because I can't sit there long enough to watch them, and when I do, I'm doing something on the laptop.  

 

Like I've said, I'm a 100% certifiable nut case. 

 

A-Jay, back in my college boxing days and for years after that while I was playing GI Joe with the Special Forces and other military special duty assignments , I was that way also, but now and a bad back and arthritis many years later you would never know it.

[Deephaven]

I think we are related Keith.  

[Way2slow]

If you have that problem also, I feel for you.  People that know me ask me how do I know so much, and I just tell them, because I've done it all my life.

 

What really sucks, is having all the tools, equipment and parts to do all the different things I do.  I could use a 30,000 sq ft building for a shop and storage, and have a less than 1,000.  It takes me more time to find and dig out something I need than it does to do the project I'm wanting to do.  

I've said many times, if I could spend as much time working on something as I do looking for something I need to work on it, I could get twice as much done.  Actually probably three or four times more.

[Jigfishn10]

4-5 days a week I like to come home from work and weight train. 

Spring and summers I’m constantly either working in the yard or have the boat out in the Atlantic either fishing or just going port to port.

 

Fall is time for my passion and that’s projects at my summer home. That house has been a labor of love since I bought it back in 2001. In ‘04 I moved it to the driveway to put a foundation under it. It’s been a constant transformation from there. It’s proving to be my retirement asset.

 

Winter, I just like to cook on the weekends as well as keeping my training up.

 

@Way2slow, I wouldn’t say certified nut, maybe just a pinch of OCD...?...I’m mean that in the spirit of fun and casual banter.

 

@A-Jay, keep up bud. It keeps my training inspired. 
 

@J Francho, my knees wish they could keep up with you. ?...keep it up man!

 

@gunsinger, that came out SAHWEET!

 

[soflabasser]

I enjoy weight lifting, running, spearfishing, gardening, and other hobbies.

[Skunkmaster-k]

I’ve been staring at my phone for 5 minutes trying to think of a hobby that isn’t connected to fishing somehow. I got nothing . 

[lo n slo]

[Way2slow]

Pretty neat and very good.  That required just a little bit of wood working skills.

Unless you took a short cut and painted it, but even if painted, it's interesting.

[galyonj]

My entire adult life, the one constant hobby I've had has been cars. I've not yet done a ton to the Corvette I have now beyond maintenance (although I've got some small stuff done) because it's my daily driver and I couldn't afford to have it out of commission for very long, but I expect that's gonna start changing in the nearish future now that I'm 100% working from home. Most of my high speed driving is done on road courses like Road Atlanta or VIR, or tearing up mountain roads around here. I don't do much in the way of drag racing.

 

I really miss lifting weights. I started when I first got sick in an effort to stave off the atrophy that comes with extensive nerve damage, and the strength I gained from it is all that's kept me out of a wheelchair.

 

A barbell's the best therapist I've ever had. 

 

Haven't been to the gym since COVID, but I'll be able to start back probably next week now that I've been vaccinated. I'm awaiting the day with a mixture of excitement and dread, because I know the DOMS is gonna be absolutely brutal.

[J Francho]

As those C5 get on to 25 years old, I really think they are going to be a good investment, if a car can be one. They check all the boxes: sexy, fast, reliable, good handling. And for the over 50 crowd, they have round tail lights. 

[galyonj]

4 minutes ago, J Francho said:

As those C5 get on to 25 years old, I really think they are going to be a good investment, if a car can be one. They check all the boxes: sexy, fast, reliable, good handling. And for the over 50 crowd, they have round tail lights. 

 

They came out when I was in high school, and I've been in love with the body lines ever since the first time I saw one. Knowing the newer models are faster and a little better equipped (I like to joke that GM spent the entire R&D budget on the drivetrain, then looked between couch cushions for the rest of the car), I still like the C5 better.

 

Plus pop-up headlights are rad.

[J Francho]

The headlights are the real reason these will be desirable.

[galyonj]

Daggum right. You can't build a car with popups anymore.

 

Funny story about how I came to buy this car: A buddy of mine that I came up in the car scene with had a S13 240SX sitting around that belonged to his mom before she passed, and he wanted rid of it, but he also wanted it to go to someone that was gonna be respectful of the car.

 

I've owned three 240SXs, and had experience doing some pretty involved modifications to them. I was one of the early people that figured out that the Z32 300ZX brakes and hubs could easily swap on for a very good budget braking upgrade, for example.

 

So I wanted to get this one as a project car and swap in an LS with all the trimmings to turn it into the track hooligan I wanted. One day we were in group chat and he asked me why I don't just buy a Corvette and save myself some effort if I was gonna try and reverse-engineer a Corvette on a Nissan chassis. The rest is history.

 

He eventually found the right buyer for his S13 and we were all happy to see it go to a good home.

 

Driving this car home from Asheville where I bought it was suuuuuper sketchy, though. Torrential downpour on 10 year old tires. By the time I got to my driveway, I was absolutely sure the traction control worked.

[J Francho]

Old tires, ugh. At any rate, it's a beauty. 

[galyonj]

Thank you, sir. Soon as I've got some time to breathe in my work schedule, she's gonna get some TLC. I've got a whole pile of maintenance parts to put on that I just haven't had time to do more with than stack in my office in the shipping boxes.

[TnRiver46]

22 hours ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

I’ve been staring at my phone for 5 minutes trying to think of a hobby that isn’t connected to fishing somehow. I got nothing . 

I’m in the same boat (pardon the pun). Fishing is all I think about, anything else i need to get out of my mind to make room for more fishing info. I do enjoy frog gigging and frog legs but I don’t do that as often as I used to. But fried fish and fried frog legs is as good as it gets!! After work and all the other silliness there ain’t enough time for a whole lot 

[Skunkmaster-k]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Fishing is all I think about, anything else i need to get out of my mind to make room for more fishing info

LOL

[TheBasslayer]

Running is pretty fun for me. This past year, I've been in Cross-Country, Track, and I ran over 10 miles last summer, the longest run was 11.3! But other than running and playing on my phone, there is nothing else that I really do besides fishing.

[bulldog1935]

Here's my '57 Raleigh Lenton (same age as me) - always wanted one, the classic English Club Racer, and when a bare frame came up, snagged it for $150.  

Though I built the bike with the top essentially original, the bottom is entirely engineered with much newer parts, better wheels, beginning with Phil custom hubs to fit the 3/8" axles and 114 mm rear axle spacing. 

Designed the gearset with half-steps + granny - the two larger chainrings exactly split the steps on the 5 rear cogs, giving it 15 closely spaced gears, but wide enough to climb the steepest grades in the Texas hill country. 

The original bike had a "suicide" front derailleur, which also offered a chain guard, so I used a Simplex chain guard to hide the more modern derailleur.  Worked out hanging the chain guard from the FD clamp bolt by swapping the bolt for an M5 computer board stand off.  

The classic bike has a front fork lamp-mount boss.  I worked out a modern bike lamp mount beginning with a speargun tip converter to grab the fork boss threads.  

Riding with young guys in most every-Sunday crack-of-dawn sprint (most of them USAF officers), I'm often asked if I have a motor in this thing.  

 

 

 

  

 

When my daughter was 14, she built her 19-lb road bike from an '84 Team Fuji frame.  

[jimmyjoe]

On 4/21/2021 at 7:53 AM, J Francho said:

And for the over 50 crowd, they have round tail lights. 

 

   Thank you for remembering me!  ???         jj  (<- used to be JJ, but I've shrunk with age.)

[galyonj]

1 hour ago, jimmyjoe said:

 

   Thank you for remembering me!  ???         jj  (<- used to be JJ, but I've shrunk with age.)

 

The C5s don't actually have truly round taillights-- they're just a little bit oblong. The C6 went back to properly round taillights, though.

[J Francho]

47 minutes ago, galyonj said:

The C5s don't actually have truly round taillights-- they're just a little bit oblong.

They look right on a C5, though.  Perfectly round would not have had that low and wide persona.