Everyone's gotta have a hobby

Everyone has to have a hobby - reading, camping, fishing, scrapbooking, - - - the list goes on & on. 

Even I have a hobby or two.  But my wife complains that my hobbies are too expensive.  Soooo - - let's compare.

A few years ago I was into police scanners.  Yes - Police Scanners.  I had a BUNCH of them - one in every car, and one in every room in the house.  Now most of them I bought used, either at rummage sales, or on eBay.  But all in all I probably had around $1000 invested in various scanners over this time. 

My wife on the other hand was interested in stamping and cardmaking.  Now you say how expensive can that be?  A few stamps, some colored paper, some scissors, and Viola - some nice cards.  Now here are the facts - - each set of stamps she bought cost anywhere from $8 - $15 a set.  And she had over 60 sets of stamps!  Plus a bunch of individual ones that cost $3 - 5 apiece.  And then scissors - 27 pair of scissors - wavy cut, zig-zag cut, classical cut - the list goes on.  and let's NOT talk about paper!  Card stock in multiple colors, decorative paper, translucent paper, etc. etc. etc.  Plus the inks, embossing powder, embossing & glue guns - she had more tools than me - and I'm a mechanic!!  I am willing to bet she had between $1100 - 1200 invested in her hobby.

Both of our hobbies were so expensive to maintain, we finally made a deal - if I spent money on my hobby, she got to spend an equivalent amount, and vice versa.  It worked out pretty well.

Now the thing about hobbies is that you get bored of them after a while, and look for something new to do.  Which happened to both of us.  She "fell" first - her interest in stamping wained, so she started doing scrapbooking.  Some of her stamping stuff (paper, pens, markers, scissors, etc) she could use, but not so much the stamps.  Luckily stamps were still a hot item, so we managed to sell all of her stamps, except for a favorite few (we actually made a few bucks at it, too!).  Unfortunately she tired of that pretty quickly (my daughter showed her how to do video scrapbooks using PowerPoint).  So off to the sale for that stuff.  THEN - she got into Jewelry making.  Beads, wire, pendants, etc.  BOXES & BOXES of it!!  BUT - after a year or so of making necklaces & bracelets as gifts, I said to her - "Have you ever thought of selling them?"  And BOOM - off we went!  She actually had found a hobby that could make money!  And she is still doing it today!

Now for me - I also was lucky - I was able to sell all my scanners but one - and I also made a fair profit on the sale of them (Thanks eBay!).  But my next hobby was a little more elusive.  I tried auto customization, but that was TOO expensive (although I still dabble), woodworking (again, too expensive - that never did take off as all I could afford was a circular saw, router & drill).  But now my newest hobby - and for this I have to back up a bit - - -

I have been a computer geek since high school.  I remember in my Junior year of High School taking Computer class.  They had a huge teletype-like machine that had no screen (everything printed out on paper) and all we could do on it was some simple programs, and communicate with other schools.  Then we got the first "real"computer - it had the "Green Screen" - nothing but text - but with this new technology we were able to hack into one of the University computers and access their databases.  What Fun!  From then on I was hooked!

My computer life started with a Timex Sinclair computer - you plugged it into your TV, and used a cassette player for your storage device.  But I wrote a program to do my taxes on this machine.  Then - a Tandy 1000 computer with Deskmate operating software.  WOW - This was "the future" - I was online for the first time with Compuserve (You remember them - the little Internet provider that became AOL?)  Then my first Windows PC - a Packard Bell with Windows 3.1.  Then a "Custom made" machine from a local store with Win95, which I upgraded to Win98.  Then a Gateway with WinME.  Then it hut me - I was spending between $1500 to 2500 for each machine - only to get it home and find it was already obsolete!  CRAZY!  So I started buying "obsolete" computers at yard sales & flea markets, and rebuilding them myself.  Then I got into networking - and the rest is "history".  I now have 7 computers, all networked together, and all online via cable modem.  I haven't taken the jump to wireless yet, although I do own a wireless router.

As far as the next step - who knows?  I have turned my hobby into a bit of a moneymaker, too, as I buy, jazz up, and then sell PCs.  I also repair some as well.   Not alot - just enough to keep my fingers in it.

Hey - everyone's gotta have a hobby!