Special Interests are Expensive!

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Don't take this post too seriously, it's kind of a rant, and besides, I'm halfway joking.

But it seems like everything cool that I want to do costs a lot of money!

What special interest would you like to pursue, if you had the cash?

 

[Gerontius]

Don't take this post too seriously, it's kind of a rant, and besides, I'm halfway joking.

But it seems like everything cool that I want to do costs a lot of money!

What special interest would you like to pursue, if you had the cash?

I want to learn how to ride horses. I used to go ride an old horse that lived behind a friend's shop. He was a lot of fun to hang out with--big red-roan Tennessee Walker but not the pampered, mutilated, messed-up Walkers of the horse-show circuit. I mean just a plain old Horse with respectable family connections. Used to go hang out with him & he seemed to like the company. He let me ride him a little but he was always expecting me to take him outside the fence which of course wasn't happening.

I also liked riding a gray pony that was at another place--he was a fun little animal, like a sawed-off horse with the personality of a very intelligent dog. The difference was that he had an attitude of harmless disobedience: unlike dogs he knew when he'd carried the joke far enough & would stop acting ridiculous. They say "the shorter the horse the closer to hell" but I don't think that was true; he just had a lot of personality. He was a bit of a chowhound--loved treats and would come wait for them when he saw me show up. Used to be able to play a lot of games with him: sit backwards, sit forwards, lay flat on his back, and he'd be perfectly safe. Actually riding him places was different--he put up a show of being snotty but then would quit fooling around and play along. I never rode them with saddles and bridles as that's hassle I haven't figured out--while I learned nothing about various disciplines of horsemanship, it was fun to learn about how horses really behave when they're just being themselves. They are very communicative animals with fascinating behaviors.


So yes I think I wouldn't mind keeping horses around--also if you have animals you probably don't have apartment neighbors and I like that too.

Also--If I could afford the time commitment I want to get back into writing creatively.

 

[Luca]

I want to learn how to ride horses. I used to go ride an old horse that lived behind a friend's shop. He was a lot of fun to hang out with--big red-roan Tennessee Walker but not the pampered, mutilated, messed-up Walkers of the horse-show circuit. I mean just a plain old Horse with respectable family connections. Used to go hang out with him & he seemed to like the company. He let me ride him a little but he was always expecting me to take him outside the fence which of course wasn't happening.

I also liked riding a gray pony that was at another place--he was a fun little animal, like a sawed-off horse with the personality of a very intelligent dog. The difference was that he had an attitude of harmless disobedience: unlike dogs he knew when he'd carried the joke far enough & would stop acting ridiculous. They say "the shorter the horse the closer to hell" but I don't think that was true; he just had a lot of personality. He was a bit of a chowhound--loved treats and would come wait for them when he saw me show up. Used to be able to play a lot of games with him: sit backwards, sit forwards, lay flat on his back, and he'd be perfectly safe. Actually riding him places was different--he put up a show of being snotty but then would quit fooling around and play along. I never rode them with saddles and bridles as that's hassle I haven't figured out--while I learned nothing about various disciplines of horsemanship, it was fun to learn about how horses really behave when they're just being themselves. They are very communicative animals with fascinating behaviors.


So yes I think I wouldn't mind keeping horses around--also if you have animals you probably don't have apartment neighbors and I like that too.

Also--If I could afford the time commitment I want to get back into writing creatively.

I used to ride horses too I worked with Arabians and Morgans particularly. Horses are my second favorite animal (everyone knows by now that dogs are my favorite lol.)
The horses you worked with sound delightful!! I'm so glad to hear you've had this experience

This is a good time to bring up this topic anyway because I was thinking about it the other day... if I had more money I would buy a farm or a big plot of land and rescue dogs and other animals! And have some of my own animals too. I would love to have horses.
It would be pretty hard to find any animal I don't like lol except for spiders and centipedes... but they have their place in the world too!

 

[Unclewolverine]

We have a farm and horse, but she belongs to the wife and is mainly a lawn ornament. Special interests are crazy expensive though, I would love a whole garage full of classic cars and motorcycles but barely afford to keep the daily drivers going, let alone make headway on projects. Just had to sell my 66 triumph spitfire last year because it needed way more work than I could afford!

 

[Fino]

I've spent close to $15,000 on web design and optimization and am now in about $8,000 of debt!

 

[Gerontius]

I used to ride horses too I worked with Arabians and Morgans particularly. Horses are my second favorite animal (everyone knows by now that dogs are my favorite lol.)
The horses you worked with sound delightful!! I'm so glad to hear you've had this experience

This is a good time to bring up this topic anyway because I was thinking about it the other day... if I had more money I would buy a farm or a big plot of land and rescue dogs and other animals! And have some of my own animals too. I would love to have horses.
It would be pretty hard to find any animal I don't like lol except for spiders and centipedes... but they have their place in the world too!

LAND I want. I sometimes regret going to college even though it's helped me a lot with intellectual & emotional maturity alike; college has helped me some ways & almost ended me in others. I have to get out away from cities.

Kind of thinking at this point that modern society is turned turtle and will not survive longer, so want to get away from a lot of inner cities and escape. I'm sad.

And lol no I would hardly call hanging out with horses "working" with them--we were all just playing around, roughhousing and chilling out and all that. They're neat. I am not overfond of dog odors and dog personalities--more of a cat person, to be honest.

My least favorite animals? Flies, roaches, and those type. Fruit flies are everywhere lately.

 

[Gerontius]

Just had to sell my 66 triumph spitfire last year because it needed way more work than I could afford!

Sorry to hear about that. The British cars are delightfully bizarre under the hood. Triumphs are nice-looking cars and definitely icons.

I hope that you can find some good ones around to work on--A lot of old cars are declining in value these days so hopefully something else fun will come up. I like bone-stock prewar cars but admittedly they're not overly exciting...and I like Toyotas from the '90s but not the cool ones, just the boring 4dr sedans. Still got a '96 model that is old and slow and a little shabby but still going strong. What do you like fixing most and what do you think your next car will be?

As for the cost of interests--Currently on a parts hunt for Edison cylinder phonographs, both of them pre-1910. That's not going to be cheap.

 

[Sherlock77]

We have a farm and horse, but she belongs to the wife and is mainly a lawn ornament. Special interests are crazy expensive though, I would love a whole garage full of classic cars and motorcycles but barely afford to keep the daily drivers going, let alone make headway on projects. Just had to sell my 66 triumph spitfire last year because it needed way more work than I could afford!

I would love to own even one classic car, but that is well beyond my current income and always has been my entire life, and the way my life is going I might never own one...

And just trying to keep up with photography gear is hard enough for me financially, when I finally need to replace my current camera body it will be a tough one to afford if I stay with Fuji mirrorless... I have always owned older (almost vintage? ) camera gear that is older than what most other people are using... I know lots of people who can afford both a gorgeous classic car and great camera gear at the same time (and, yes I'm envious of them), I have always had to make a choice between one or the other

Had one conversation with one guy recently, he owns a 1973 Dodge Challenger and is in his 60's, he freely admitted about the cost of a classic car... He told me that he couldn't afford to go into the current market for classic cars, but owned that Dodge Challenger when he was a young man, stopped driving it at one point in time but it was stored well, he revived it again when his father sold the family home, never had to restore it... His remark was that he got lucky with his circumstances...

And I do realize that relatively few people even own a classic car, just that because of the circles I hang out in I simply see it far more often, I do get tired of being asked what car I own, because I spend so much time at shows in the summer... Meantime I drove a 2009 Hyundai Accent there, not exactly classic...

 

[Aspychata]

Stain glass- l would love a stain glass studio. I enjoyed making the designs and also cutting the glass which is challenging. When you cut glass, you have to carefully cut a design out. Then you solder the pieces. I could go for a room of computers too. Just a mixed media art studio would be so much fun.

 

[Progster]

I collect music, physical copies as well as digital, and this can get extremely expensive. Rare items from the 60s and 70s, especially first pressings, can sell for thousands of dollars/euros/whatever (I can't afford those and don't buy them or go for a repress/reissue), and 'high end' audio gear is unbelievably expensive. There are turntables out there that cost as much as a house. I'd love to have the disposable income to be able to buy a physical copy of any album I hear and like, and afford to update my audio gear more regularly.

 

[Suzette]

Cars, horses, music, art? Don't you all realize the most important thing is a proper espresso machine?!

In Mexico I have absolutely no way of earning any money. I have done a little sewing but those jobs are very few.
But the McDonalds near my mom is paying $18 an hour. Not a big sum but I can live with mom for free for a few months while I stash my cash.
If I had reliable internet I would try for an online customer service job.
I like retirement. I don't like not having money.

@Aspychata, I miss my kiln. I was getting really good at enamels on copper when we bought the boat. Modern designs, not the stuffy cloisonne most people think of.

 

[Raggamuffin]

Building gaming PC's is expensive. I keep putting off my next build, even though I just dropped just shy of £850 on a new graphics card.

I'd love a high end Hi-Fi for my music, but that could cost in excess of £10,000. Same goes for good quality headphones and MP3 players - you're talking thousands for each.

I'd also love a top end space telescope, but we're also talking crazy money.

Then there's cars... I don't even know how much money I'd need to acquire all the cars I'd want to own. Plus all the money I'd then want to do them up.

Ed

 

[Mary Terry]

I want to learn how to ride horses. I used to go ride an old horse that lived behind a friend's shop. He was a lot of fun to hang out with--big red-roan Tennessee Walker but not the pampered, mutilated, messed-up Walkers of the horse-show circuit. I mean just a plain old Horse with respectable family connections. Used to go hang out with him & he seemed to like the company. He let me ride him a little but he was always expecting me to take him outside the fence which of course wasn't happening.

I also liked riding a gray pony that was at another place--he was a fun little animal, like a sawed-off horse with the personality of a very intelligent dog. The difference was that he had an attitude of harmless disobedience: unlike dogs he knew when he'd carried the joke far enough & would stop acting ridiculous. They say "the shorter the horse the closer to hell" but I don't think that was true; he just had a lot of personality. He was a bit of a chowhound--loved treats and would come wait for them when he saw me show up. Used to be able to play a lot of games with him: sit backwards, sit forwards, lay flat on his back, and he'd be perfectly safe. Actually riding him places was different--he put up a show of being snotty but then would quit fooling around and play along. I never rode them with saddles and bridles as that's hassle I haven't figured out--while I learned nothing about various disciplines of horsemanship, it was fun to learn about how horses really behave when they're just being themselves. They are very communicative animals with fascinating behaviors.


So yes I think I wouldn't mind keeping horses around--also if you have animals you probably don't have apartment neighbors and I like that too.

Also--If I could afford the time commitment I want to get back into writing creatively.

Horses and donkeys are big expensive pets. We have 3 horses and 3 donkeys. No one rides any of them anymore but we still buy winter hay, pay the farrier to tend to their hooves, give them vaccinations and de-wormer medicine, ensure they have fresh water, provide mineralizing salt blocks (I call that their potato chips), keep the barn clean, repair fences, etc. Plus, they can live a really long time. Horses live well into their 20s; donkeys live even longer. They are really family pets which we will take care of till they die. Or we die, whichever comes first. I think I'll groom them today; I've ignored them lately and they love to be brushed and fussed over and are very jealous of each other. I wish you could be here to mess around with them. They do love attention.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Sorry to hear about that. The British cars are delightfully bizarre under the hood. Triumphs are nice-looking cars and definitely icons.

I hope that you can find some good ones around to work on--A lot of old cars are declining in value these days so hopefully something else fun will come up. I like bone-stock prewar cars but admittedly they're not overly exciting...and I like Toyotas from the '90s but not the cool ones, just the boring 4dr sedans. Still got a '96 model that is old and slow and a little shabby but still going strong. What do you like fixing most and what do you think your next car will be?

As for the cost of interests--Currently on a parts hunt for Edison cylinder phonographs, both of them pre-1910. That's not going to be cheap.

If I had the money I would get a Sunbeam Tiger. Right now I am saving up for putting in a 2ZZ-GE engine and 6 speed tranny in my MR2 Spyder.

 

[Judge]

Right now I am saving up for putting in a 2ZZ-GE engine and 6 speed tranny in my MR2 Spyder.

That was the engine and transmission I had in my 2000 Celica GTS. Loved the car, though by the 17th year of ownership I was ready to part with it. Knew the input shaft bearing had been going for some time. And that the cost to replace it exceeded the value of the car, so I replaced it with a 6-speed Mazda 3 GT. Much more low-end torque than was in my Celica GTS, but not as "sporty" either.

Expen$ive, indeed.

 

[WildCat]

Yep, and as another PC builder speaking it's pay to play right now. The price of graphics cards and computer hardware has shot up due to, among many things, supply and demand and people using GPUs for mining cryptocurrency. Still don't get the appeal of crypto either, but I never built a PC for that purpose. About tempted to throw in the towel so to speak if the prices continue as they are.

That's putting me off from doing a new build...won't be replacing everything outright, but the prices right now for what I'd like to have are ridiculous. The good thing about PCs is the modular aspect...you can stick with what you have for a good while and upgrade later down the road as needed, but if anyone thinks I'm shelling out $1000 USD for what's supposed to be a mid-range GPU, they can kick rocks. Not happening.

 

[Judge]

That's putting me off from doing a new build...won't be replacing everything outright, but the prices right now for what I'd like to have are ridiculous. The good thing about PCs is the modular aspect...you can stick with what you have for a good while and upgrade later down the road as needed, but if anyone thinks I'm shelling out $1000 USD for what's supposed to be a mid-range GPU, they can kick rocks. Not happening.

Not to mention that Windows 11 has thrown a monkey wrench into the whole equation. My third-generation Intel CPU and TPM 1.0 won't cut it, so I know I'll have to either build or buy a new system. But with Microsoft making another mess of its latest OS, I'll just be sitting it out for probably another year just to see how the hardware requirements intensify or get relaxed through public ire. And of course for so many bugs to be resolved before actually installing a new OS.

For a fairly robust system, I expect to shell out a minimum of $1500. Ouch. Not expecting to prices to fall off much even once the pandemic and supply chain issues are resolved.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Every time I want to buy something, bills and responsibilities to others get in the way. So I don't get nice things for myself. And it's okay. I make do with what I have, and I am blessed with a wonderful home full of little fun things.

But I would like beading needles, little pretty seed beads, embroidery floss and patterns, so much fabric. An industrial sewing machine would be nice too. I want canvas for painting, goats to milk, and a dog to train.

And now you guys have me all squirrely about horses.

 

[Jordy]

It's a bit off topic, but i realized even with infinite money there is nothing i would really want to do that could me happy, for myself atleast. I'd probably spend it all on my family,

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

It's a bit off topic, but i realized even with infinite money there is nothing i would really want to do that could me happy, for myself atleast. I'd probably spend it all on my family,

AGREED!!! I have lists and lists in my head of things I'd like to buy the people I love.