Can you have too many hobbies?

I have a horesh*t turnaround at work. Off at 9:30PM and go right back at 0500 so I'm not even going to attempt to sleep. I've come home and have so much crap sitting in the babys room that I'm working on.

• A set of headlights I'm retrofitting projectors into. That's part of my car hobby.

• Building a new PC - Computer nerd.

• Working on a camera rig - Trendy photographer.

• Video gaming -

• I work out religiously like twice a day so I can eat like crap.

• And attempting to fix all the sheet in my apartment my landlord is too lazy to fix so I write him a bill of sale for everything I do and he cuts it off rent.

Videogaming has taking a backseat of course and my car hobby has been blah lately because of the lack of race car and I feel like I'm searching for more and SWMBO says I need to relax. The current ride is going to be pulling double duty until we pay it off (which we are trying to do fast). Then RACE CAR!

I used to be like that but after age 50 life somehow got in the way, enjoy every minute of it.

Your list looks light to me... you need a few more... My list

Servicing the Modern cars (TDi, MCS, Volvo 850)

Our six classic cars...

Bicycling.

Guitars/music

Woodworking and home renovation (the latter is consuming most of my free time right now)

Craft beers and wine. More money than time, but it still chews up a few weekends each year.

Slot cars, skiing and a few others I'm forgetting have minor roles.

Nevermind that whatever hobby of the week my g/f gets into invariably takes up some of my time. Not to mention my 2+ hr commute 'hobby' every day...

I have the one main hobby, but it got slit up into several specialities

RV restoration
a) 66 MCI bus

Trailer maintenance
uno. homebuilt

Classic cars restoration
a= 73 Triumph StagS
b= 73 Mercury CapriS
c= 80 Alfa GTV6

Hotrodding
a. 72 Ranchero ZAV
b. 84 5.0 RX7
c. 74 Corona MkII wagon

Race Cars, because racecar
1) 85 Mustang
2) 96 S10
3) 82 Camaro CMC car
4) 85 Camaro lemons car
5) 85 RX7

4x4 tow rig
1. 97 Range Rover SSE
2. 69 International flatbed
3. 97 Expedition

workcar maintenance
i. 11 Elantra
ii. 12 Elantra
iii. 03 300M
iv. 97 Town Car
v. 02 BMW 330xi

Then add in a "few" firearms

oh yeah then there's 3 houses and a wife, when I have time

Way too many hobbies, but I think it's good. Actually, yesterday was my birthday and I got around a bajillion happy birthday emails from all the forums I belong to and it reminded how much crap I have going on.

The one thing that may be a draw back is you become a jack of all trades but master of none. My logic is eventually i'll be a master of all trades.

No $ makes for no hobbies.

DirtyBird - check back in a few years, children have a way of weeding out any non-important hobbies

Ian F wrote: Your list looks light to me... you need a few more... My list Servicing the Modern cars (TDi, MCS, Volvo 850) Our six classic cars... Bicycling. Guitars/music Woodworking and home renovation (the latter is consuming most of my free time right now) Craft beers and wine. More money than time, but it still chews up a few weekends each year. Slot cars, skiing and a few others I'm forgetting have minor roles. Nevermind that whatever hobby of the week my g/f gets into invariably takes up some of my time. Not to mention my 2+ hr commute 'hobby' every day...

servicing modern cars and six classic car are the same category

You're right my list is a bit light (not compared to yours :) ). When I was in Florida I would fish, surf, kayak/canoe, go snorkling, travel more often, and get sucked into whatever project my dad had planned for himself but needed help with. A relocation and a baby have made a few of those impossible to do and are the driving factors for me to get back to Florida. Realizing that the pay increase isn't worth the fun decrease in my life. Plus cost of living in the DMV area sucksssssssssssssss.

dj06482 wrote: DirtyBird - check back in a few years, children have a way of weeding out any non-important hobbies

lol i was writing about that as you posted

Let's see, Cars (repairing, racing, building from the ground up) Scuba Diving RC Airplanes Fire Arms Home Brewing Skiing Golfing

No, I don't think you can. I saw a thread on here recently about soaring...that looks like fun!

firearms....living down the street from the NRA HQ and utilizing their awesome indoor range has been fun.

Too many sometimes.

Two houses.

The Abomination and a 83 RX-7.

The F350 I just bought.

A gas turbine engine that is under construction.

A 1940s Schwinn gas engined bike that is getting a new engine

Several antique engines, 1928 McCormick, 1940s LeRoi, 1930s Johnson.

R/C Helicopters.

A Boat.

Machine Tools and miniature steam engines.

Camping.

Collecting and repairing antique clocks.

Some of them I haven't touched in months. It depends on what I'm interested in at the moment. The last couple of weeks I've been concentrating on the F350 that is going to be my tow rig. I'm about done with that so who knows what's next.

I say yes. I'd rather be able to have a few that I get to do what I want vs many that I don't fully embrace be wise of time and/or money.

In reply to DirtyBird222:

I disagree to an extent. Servicing the modern cars usually requires a different mindset than the classics.

I forgot about kayaks... I still have a bundle of strips made a decade ago waiting to get turned into a baidarka...

I can't even muster the time, energy, and budget to properly pursue ONE hobby. I don't know how you guys do it. Do you ever sleep or see your families?

In reply to aussiesmg:

Wow. And 3 houses?

Datsun310Guy wrote: In reply to aussiesmg: Wow. And 3 houses?

To be fair, none of them is getting very far along, I keep getting distracted, seems I may be spread too thin.

I shortened my list a few years ago. I now have:

One house that takes a good bit of time

One daughter that takes a good bit of time

Co- managing my dad's estate

1974 Jensen Healey JH5

1974 Jensen Healey race car

1980 XS650 Yamaha

Berzerkeley

The GT6 I'm working on for a bud

The dailies (Trooper and Saturn)

Stupid ass cat that for some reason I still like

Two computers

Big ass home theater

What I trimmed out:

R/C stuff

Off road motorcycle racing

Wife

Like Duke said I don't know how some of you guys manage it.

Over the last several years I've given up (for the time being anyway) hunting, shooting, fishing and project wrenching for the most part. Vehicle maintenance and some home improvements get farmed out. Parted out a Jeep project that lagged. Chevy 4X4 project still sits incomplete, haven't turned a wrench on it in 8 months, needs sold this spring. XL 250 project sits dormant. Not dragging any new projects home either.

Working consistent 6-7 days/ week, bum knee, neighbor complaining about project noise and unlicensed vehicles sitting, both parents in a nursing home for a time all contribted to hobby time loss.

I'm probably not alone, anybody else in a similar situation?

I have 3 children under the age of seven, a 2.25 hour round-trip commute, and a job where 50-60 hour workweeks are common. My hobbies include eating and sleeping

In all seriousness, I'm happy when I can get all the basic maintenance done, and keep the driveway clear of snow...

Cars

Trucks

I have no other hobbies that aren't linked in some way to either of those two things.

All other activities I do are required to survive or pay bills.

Beyond the cars, the dogs (rescues), and honey-do list, I recently added road biking to the mountain bike and mountain bike polo collection. I just boxed up the n-scale trains, but am considering un-boxing the model cars (1/24th scale stuff).

Active hobbies

Wife

Auto is strictly fleet maintenance, 98 neon(on it's way out), 03 accord, 05 dakota(long term repair, to be finished after the thaw), 07 accord.

Cats

Skyrim

Inactive hobbies

Bike(to be resumed when winter ends)

lego

models

WoW

Guns

Let's see....

wife

4 kids

House

2 motorcycles

Homebrewing (also baked bread last night from spent grains)

Side IT work to help fund hobbies

Hiking

Cycling

a little gardening in the summer

Yes. You can.

Right now I'm down to basically 2, and even those I don't feel like I've been able to give a full effort:

Mountain Biking (mostly weekends, some weeknights) Weightlifting (mostly weeknights, some weekends)

I'm supposed to be learning to run as well so I can do 12ish miles without a problem by the time November rolls around.

I still love cars, and I would like to get back into autocross this year, but I don't see how I could possibly do it unless I half-ass it. I'm the type that likes to have one major hobby, and fill the empty time with a supplementary hobby. When I was more serious about autocross, it was 30-50 events/year, and that ate up most of my weekend free time as well as 1 night or so a week working on the car.

I don't have a family or a house either. Once I get a house, I'm sure I'm going to lose a lot more free time :(