Our Hobbies: Present Pastimes and Past Pastimes

Great thread Donna!

Present hobbies:
Lurking on this forum, digital artwork, converting 300 VCR tapes to DVDs (!!!)

Past hobbies:
Making jewelry, painting and drawing, knitting and crochet, gardening, woodworking, home improvements, pottery, photography (still do some), hiking, camping, basketball, canoeing, walking the dogs, I’m running out of space so I’ll stop there… 😉

Hobbies are great for adding some zest to life. I can only work about half of what I used to and my kids are grown and my wife busy in her life, so hobbies are great for playing with my day. Since I have to be flat much of the day to keep my pain under control reading is a great hobby. I love to read, especially mystery novels and have about 1000 mysteries in ebook format which I have to sort by author and series, etc. so reading and organizing my titles are great fun. I also have a great communications receiver and I monitor military aircraft activity around the country on HF and am especially interested in monitoring Coast Guard air traffic. Finally I love sudoku and have become good enough to take on challenging puzzles-nothing like the thrill of solving a hard one.

Jeff

present hobbies:
photography, scrapbooking, candlemaking, jewelry making, reading

past hobbies:
collecting precious moments, coaching cheerleaders, walking, swimming, fishing

Gosh! I have so many of them! Lets see here:

Past hobbies used to be more sports, like swimming, water skiing, fishing, jogging, camping, hiking. Mainly enjoyed outdoor activities. Refinishing antique furniture. Gardening!

Present day hobbies:
Gardening: Used to enjoy that past day as well but now I switched to Container Gardening making it much easier on my back and less weeds to pull.

Refinishing furniture: But a much easier version. Smaller pieces instead of larger ones. Have not done that in a while since my house already has enough furniture in it! No more room to put anything else!

Crocheting: Can still do that but much slower in my hands than I used to be.

Reading: I like old books. Antique Books. Stories from another century. Love reading antique medical books. So much learning in them.

Sea Shell Art: This is one of my favorites doing today. Making things out of Sea Shells. Sailors Valentines! Have made Victorian Powder Boxes, Mirrors, Picture Frames and even have an old antique trunk that I am working on.

Beading: Like making Christmas Decorations with Beads.

Yard sales: Love them! Hit at least two every weekend! When I feel good!

Canning and Freezing Homegrown Fruits and Vegetables. My husband has to help me tighten my jars but I still try to do that!

Web Surfing! Enjoy that!
Online games. Enjoy playing games!

Things I like to collect: Antique Greeting Cards and Post Cards, Antique Fashion Magazine Books and rare unusual Books that are Antique, Collect Antique Trunks and redo them for storing things in, Collect Antique Quilts, Antique Bottles from 1940’s down. German Beer Steins, Cookie Jars, German Pewter, Antique Silverplated items, Ironstone, Depression Glass, McCoy Vases. Antique Costume Jewelry!
I could go on with collecting! I love antiques and have a rather huge collection of them all over my house! Each room has something antique in it! And my trunks are filled with hidden treasures!

Since June when I had the major attack on my nervous system. I really have not done to much except for my gardening with the help of my husband and canning and freezing along with reading. Tons of Web surfing. Only a few yards sales this year. Alot stopped because I was so sick and just felt so bad.
Hopefully I will be doing some of my hobbies again The fall and winter I do more crocheting and sea shell work, and beading. I like playing with the sea shells the best. It’s like putting a puzzle together making a design and each project turns out it’s own personality.

sewing
knitting
crocheting
photography

absolutely no good at any of them, but i try:)

cooking – im good at that! i cook for my parents a couple times a week cuz they work hard and are tired when they get home.

volunteering for kids school
talking to my grandparents
hanging out with my parents and sisters
blabbing with you folks
learning – i love, love, love learning!
cleaning – love cleaning when im in a happy mood!

Right now I love to read, knit, do crafts, and watch my kids play hockey. Yes I am a hockey mom! 😮

My past hobbies were camping, hiking, biking. I will stop there as I can’t think of any more rhyming words!

Presently, I love to read mystery novels, true crime, sudoku, hanging out here, word games, knitting, needle point, flower gardening, piano, writing(especially poetry)

Past hobbies: crafts, flower arrangements, crocheting, baking, sewing, padded photo albums, singing (can’t anymore due to vocal chord damage from GBS)

(Still love the past hobbies, but there is only hubby and I here to eat the baking and cooking so I don’t do much, still love to sew but it has gotten more costly than to buy so only do it when I want something special i.e. for the grandkids)

what a cool thread! So many talented people here and it looks as though we don’t let GBS keep us down.

Present:
photography and being brave enough to enter contests

reading tons! Have gone thru so many authors since I got sick LOL!

Cooking for my family. Havent been too creative lately and am bored, but they have enjoyed trying new dishes. My middle boy told me my ex said I used to suck at cooking and was surprised to hear how much I have improved. Made me laugh 🙂

Arts and crafts. Love to make bead and wire wrapped bud vases, angel bears for christmas, and just made my daughter some adorable cats for her wall out of styrofoam and craft foam and pipe cleaners. I enjoy creating things with my hands.

Hanging out with my kids. We seem to have gotten closer (if that is possible) since I got sick.

Past:
reading

hiking (geocaching actually. Can still do around town caching, but haven’t tried a days worth of hiking in the hills since i got sick)

used to write but am way out of practice.

Wow…looks like I have expanded my horizons a bit but am still able to do a lot I used to since my interests are pretty laid back. It also looks like we have all found that slowing down isnt a bad thing entirely and are making the best of it.

present
baking and decorating cakes, researching family history, watching baseball, mowing, printing photos

past
crocheting, reading, sewing, cutting hair, tutoring in all subjects, baseball scorekeeper for U. S. Army 25th Infantry Division, helped coach middle school baseball, Volunteer Army Community Services worker taking care of abused children, camping, fishing and hiking, collect baseball cards and memorabilia, collect old dolls, cooking, filing income tax returns for myself and others free of charge, working puzzles

Hi all.
I love my camping. (modern a motor home)also photographing, re doing old furniture.past hobbys were sailing and raceing. A boat captain on a 65 ft sailboat.diveing and spearfishing. I was raised in the mountains of Wva and loved playing in them

What a cool thread and a subject I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.

I’m a gearhead and spend a lot of time with my car and our car club. When I got hit with GBS my GBS coach (liason?) told me I was going to go down to the point where I was not going to be able to communicate with anybody and be essentially trapped in my body — so be ready with something fun to do in your head for the period you’re down. Well, last year I bought a five speed transmission for my Corvette, but I never had the time to put it in so for the 10 days I was on ventilator and “out”, I yanked and replaced my engine and transmission about 20 times! Each time I found something new to make my job easier or add something else to improve so I can’t wait to actually do it this winter. Should be a piece of cake! Each time I “finished” the job I also “went” to one of my various favorite restaurants in the Bay Area. We would drive to the restaurant, walk in and order a glass of wine and have our dinner. I thought of so many places while I was down that I’m going to make that a hobby in itself!

So before GBS:
Burning the candle at both ends, Corvette club activities, Hawaiian outrigger canoe paddling, surfing, racquetball, hiking, rock climbing, flyfishing, reading

Now:
Watching the candle burn (just kidding), Corvette club activities, I just paddled for the first time yesterday since my attack, Woohoo!!!! No surfing for a while — way too intense stamina wise, same with everything else. On the other hand, I used to build and fly radio controlled sailplanes (gliders) and stopped because I just didn’t have the time. Well now I do and I had forgotten how much fun it was. Here’s a tip: You can fly while sitting in a beach lounge chair. The onnnnnly way to fly! Can’t read just yet because of the slight double vision. It’s so distracting it takes all the fun out of it. But, it’s only been a couple of months since my attack so my vision should improve soon. It’s down to a little halo around the text so I’m almost there.

So again, great thread and I will be sure to let you guys know how the transmission swap went!
Johnny Mac

Well I don’t have any hobbies, unless it’s browsing the internet !

past hobbies: catering and cake decorating(I also used to have my own business doing this) fishing, camping, hunting, restoring old cars (recently my husbands 58 chevy apache pickup with original paint), helping with cattle on my husband’s family cattle ranch, sewing, cross stitch, playing cards, yard landscaping, remodeling and interior design.
wow I used to be really busy doing things!!! LOL!

present: I still love to cook and since my husband redid our kitchen I can again. Canning, writing a cookbook, yard landscaping, camping, fishing, hunting, interior design and geneology. My husband has helped me alot by creating things to be able to allow me to fish, camp and do yard work and my uncle and cousin have designed a way for wheelchair bound individuals to hunt from their chair. My husband is working on a way to modify my sewing machine so I can do that again. So I can still stay busy if only I can remember what I am doing after dozing on and off all day from medication!

Past hobbies:
Skiing, tramping (think you call it hiking in the USA), reading, photography, motorbiking, gardening, cooking, running, duathlons, camping, fishing, travelling, having pets, (cats, dogs, lambs, fish,) school committees and any hobby my children are involved in. Family and friend get togethers especially summer bbq’s. Yeah ha is that time of year again!!!!!!!!!

All the above were off the agenda for 18 mths etc even reading as couldnt hold a book.
They are all back on the present list including a new found family sport, Geocaching. Fantastic outdoor fun for all the family. Would even list work and cleaning the house now as a hobby as get great pleasure at being able to do this myself etc.

Past:
Coaching mighty-mites football. Watching College Football. Cutting wood, firewood, and saw-logs. Hunting/Fishing.

Present:
Anything to do with my girls….I had a tea party, with my oldest daughter, the other day (weekend) that lasted for hours on end. I drank “rainbow” tea till I had to change to “rainbow” coffee. Watching College Football, and hunting/fishing. This past year I was able to pack into the woods and call up and bag a 24 lb MISSOURI MONSTER TURKEY!!!!!! 10.5 inch beard and 7/8th inch spurs….for those that keep track of such things. I packed him out with gear a bit over a quarter mile…I was tired, but nobody but me was packing out my bird.

(BTW, packing out that big of a bird was good re-hab, according to my re-hab doctor…..I thought that was awesome.)

Present: Having lost all of my friends/relatives after GBS and my job, I spend my time reading voraciously…..Wholistic health, Spirituality, Buddhism, Science of Mind, attempting to learn French, feeding the backyard birds, 3 squirrels, two groundhogs, and a chipmunk.

Past: Ushering and giving tours at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center where I saw all the Broadway shows and concerts for free! drum circles, Reiki healing, dancing, learning Arabic

Future: Moving back to Tampa when I get stronger, traveling to Europe or any country that does not need immunizations

This is a hard one because I mostly try to write for my son!!

Tucker Before: Running laps around the neighborhood, learning stairs, bathtime, rearranging furniture!

Tucker now: Running laps around the neighborhood (and being carried home), learning stairs, moving furniture (with mommys help), cuddling and watching cartoons, being held while helping mommy cook!