I like to bowl. I bowl in two winter leagues each year and sub in two morning leagues at two different bowling centers. I meet friends on Wednesday to bowl six practice games. One of the bowling centers has a special offer where you pay $120 for a Pin Pass and you can bowl as many games as you want from 9 am - 5 pm everyday for the next three months. Lately, I've been bowling 18 games a week there (6 games on three different days). It takes me less than two weeks to pay off the Pin Pass and I save over $900 during that three month period. Over the course of a year, I'll save nearly $4,000.

I love working with the colors and whether plying a needle or a hook, find it so relaxing! I can even combine them, since single crochet swaths make a great ground for cross-stitch embroidery.

to do both.

So much joy to be had, or relived...

my wife into a film buff!

Film Noire mysteries (late 40s early 50s) mostly B+W..

it's listening to music, watching Chinese (and sometimes Korean) dramas, and scouring YouTube for great videos. Oh, and plotting revenge, lol.

Last edited Wed Jul 30, 2025, 04:18 PM - Edit history (1)

.

Which is a good thing because my Mandarin sucks.

I started it as a hobby 5 years ago during the pandemic shutdown, and it quickly became an obsession. I retired from teaching in May of '24 to pursue it full time, and it now provides me a nice little side income via local craft shows to supplement my pension. If any of you are on Instagram, I display my work under @scouthikerdad1. Here is a nice platter I turned recently from black walnut.https://photos.app.goo.gl/JUvueaWUnRV6jHHk9

I pour all my heart and soul into black walnut.

I am sort of specializing in large bespoke platters and centerpiece-style fruit and salad bowls, and lots of big live-edge bowls from local wood (including what I am calling "storm bowls" from trees downed by Hurricane Helene-these sell faster than I can turn them).
I am actually enrolled in a platter class with the great Matt Monaco at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC next week (my 3rd class with him). If you peruse his webpage, his work is stunning, and to watch him turning is the closest thing I have ever seen to poetry in motion: https://www.monacobowls.com/gallery

The learning and growth never stop.

Anyway, we all find creative ways to stay (mostly) sane, eh? I'm glad to see that others on here are doing the same.

Model rockets, mid-power rockets, and high power rockets. Some of which require a waiver from the FAA to fly.