Former endeavors that used to give joy and are fleeting now...

LuckyDuck

LuckyDuck

Old Salt
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 4, 2020
2,566
9,178
Pennsylvania
#1
Howdy Hide,

A post from @GrayRyder influenced this idea. Basically the gist is things that used to "blow your skirts up" but for one reason or another you're presently indifferent to (but maybe hopeful that'll change in the upcoming seasons). Some here may celebrate in learning that I'm up tonight because of having oral surgery that left the one side of my mouth is being held together by stitches and what can only be described as silly putty. I was given an insulting Rx of Ibuprofen.

(1) And this goes back to @GrayRyder, hunting... Whelp- I didn't get a hunting license again this year with the rifle season kicking off last Saturday here for Buck in PA. It's not that I have anything against hunting and years ago I couldn't wait for the season to come across (here in PA, even the schools are off for the Monday after Thanksgiving because that was the traditional start of rifle season for bucks here for many decades. So that to say- it used to be a big part of my life. These days though- after years upon years of seeing anything but bucks, I started questioning whether I was making the most use of my vacation time to sit in the woods alone, in the cold, and only seeing a couple of squirrels. The rare times that I did see deer that I could legally shoot, I spent years of making excuses that they weren't 'big enough' to warrant the effort entailed afterwards but as the years went by- the fact of the matter is I just don't have the drive I used to carry to kill a deer. Nothing sacred about it/them- just it doesn't give me any joy in doing so like it used to.

(2) Fishing- Good lord did I used to love fishing. Specifically fishing in creeks for trout. I never got into fly fishing but growing up- I was permitted a day off of school for my birthday (which coincided with trout season here in PA) and I picked that every single time because I just enjoyed the hell out of that. About 10 years or so ago though- it was like a switch flipped and I stopped caring about chasing after stocked fish. To be fair, I was in my last year (of my 2nd attempt of college) and I was taking a heavy course load and chasing after fish had to take a backseat to reading textbooks and I don't think I ever rejuvenated that passion after I graduated from college.

(3) I used to love going backpacking. It honestly scratched a lot of my itches, I loved being in the woods, I'm a self professed 'gear queer' and would get untold hours of enjoyment just researching the latest and greatest equipment for backpacking but in this pursuit- I simply lost all of my friends who used to join in on the adventure and it stopped being fun doing it by myself.

(4) Back to hunting- but birds this time instead of deer, by and large, chasing pheasants & grouse was always my favorite form of hunting. It just was.. different I'd say, you didn't have to worry about being quiet or stalking them, you just walked the fields with your friends and talked shit until a bird exploded from your footsteps and then the whole line instantly went alive trying to pop said bird. Similar to my previous comments about backpacking, those friends either died or moved onto other things. The grouse in PA all but disappeared and the pheasants turned into a sore point where the state game commission started charging a stamp that cost more than a regular hunting license to participate in pheasant hunting but cut the stocking of said pheasants by more than half in the same year. That was the end of grouse/pheasant hunting for me.

(5) Waterfowl hunting- that was a relatively new one for me and different enough to fill the gaps left behind from my grouse/pheasant pursuits, but that was also dependent on having a friend with a boat/decoys (for ducks) or a friend with a relationship with a farmer and also decoys (for geese). And they all got married & got out of the waterfowl game.

(6) Concerts- I used to be the biggest concert whore you'd ever met, 20 years or so ago, I saw them all and I was front row and center. I was there with my battle buddies and a mosh pit started at a Korn/whoever concert 20 years ago and someone left with a broken collar bone. I was there at a 3 Days Grace/Breaking Benjamin concert where some chick literally bought the shirt off of my roommates back depicting a stripper pole and the text "I support single moms". Now- I don't keep up with modern music nor do I care to. I seldom participate in concerts but when I do, I opt for the cheap seats away from the crowds and give me a place to park my ass.

(7) Holidays (in general)- I remember when I used to care about New Years, St. Patricks Day (in particular), Memorial Day, 4th of July, Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Now- I feel like New Year's is amateur hour for drunks, St Patricks Day isn't far behind that. Memorial Day is nothing more than a commercial excuse to put things on sale while I try to keep whatever demons I may have in check, 4th of July- I frankly don't know what we've been celebrating anymore other than an excuse to send up fireworks. Halloween is still cool although very commercialized anymore, Veterans Day... I'm just going to skip sharing my opinions on that one. Thanksgiving is now a financial and/or expected societal burden and Christmas... hell I couldn't tell you the last time this was a holiday that held any 'magic'... maybe it did in 2007 for me but that pursuit is also long gone. Now, at least for me, it's nothing more than a commercial pursuit to buy family members crap they felt forced to write a list for so they in turn can also buy you crap that you felt obligated to write a list for.

Ugh- sorry, not trying to be bitter by any means, my jaw is just killing me and I can't sleep.

-LD
 
#2
Skiing as a teenager. Sometime in my 20s I kind of started losing interest. Pretty sad considering I live next to some of the best places to ski in the world.

Working on cars. I've got a few collector projects that are just sitting, waiting for me to get back to it.
 
#3
I never skied myself, frankly don't think I could anymore either after an inner ear injury that ruined whatever balance I (used to) have. I do know that we had/have a ski resort here locally and it's a different thing today then it was in say the 90's. Skiing as a hobby (at least in my observation, has priced many folks out that used to be able to participate over the past 10 years or so).

Working on cars though... well that's another endeavor all by itself and glad you mentioned it. 20 years or so ago- we used to work on cars amongst our friends, primarily fox body mustangs, just as a hobby and for grins. I wasn't able to afford one at the time but we must have had at least 6 mustangs of a similar vintage going on in the group and all worked at the one guy's house that had an actual garage for us late teens/early 20's hell raisers.

Every job (fly wheel replacement, ignition box installation, X pipe installation, etc.) was always based off of how many beers the job was (again we were in that 21 year old ball park). I still remember being under the car (didn't matter who's car it was) and joyfully throwing a wrench from underneath it laced with profanities about whatever nut we had to remove being metric. Great memories but kind of a stupid story putting it "on paper".

Either way, appreciate it and your input.

-LD
 
#4
Same here but fly fishing is still my favorite but having to move back to the shithole of it all to get my health back in order that just pretty much killed my fishing. I don't give a rats ass about walleye fishing like all these rude idiots do. I am ready to move back to where I belong and get back into fly fishing with my dog and not see too many dumbasses.
 
#5
So you're getting to be that cranky old dude.

Sounds like you don't like PA. Why not move somewhere that you can fish and hunt again?


I get it though. I have a trout stream 3 blocks from my house but I'll drive 2 hours with the camper and spend the weekend catching walleye and bass instead.

I still really enjoy eating the deer. But the farthest I drug one this year was 300 yards across a planted field. Should have let him walk across to the hay field so I could drive right up to him. 🤣
I'm not one to chase big antlers. So we drive out to one of the many ranches that are sick of deer tearing up their haystacks and glass from the truck.

I still have dirtbikes, mountain bikes, and mountain snowmobiles. They either keep me young or remind me that I'm getting older depending on the last wreck.
Also gives me another thing to do with the kids. Always need to be fixing something in the shop.
 
#10
Life happens. You get older, interests change. As a kid it was bmx and skateboarding, in my 20’s (in the USMC) it was mountain biking and drag racing, in my 30’s it was mountaineering, in my 40’s it was PRS, now just entering my 50’s I’m focusing on music and playing in bands, but most of all, my family.

I still shoot, occasionally fish and hunt, but not as much. I also used to go to a lot of concerts, and even though I’m in a band, I hate playing live at bars. I hate the whole scene. Mostly just interested in musical creativity.

I’ve always been a jack-of-all-trades, master of none type person. I can’t get super interested in something to the point where it’s my whole existence. That’s boring. I need change and it sounds like you do too, OP. Nothing wrong with it.
 
#12
I used to fish A LOT, so much that I kept a tackle box & a couple rods in my car.

Can't remember for sure the last time I wet a line, 8-10 years ago maybe.
 
#13
I no longer have to be the smartest guy in the room. I used to work on proving Einstein wrong but he was right, relatively speaking (pun maliciously intended.)

I spent a lot of time trying to prove the Bible wrong in spite of some religious upbringing. Only to realize that I was the one with the logical misstep. I had read the big mouths of the day, including Christopher Hitchins. But he shared (RIP) the same weakness of the argument as others. No explanation for good or bad values. Then my wife had her medical condition and thanks to a clogged tracheostomy tube, a Code Blue.

They pulled it out and put in a new one and started chest compressions. That got her pulse going again. And it collapsed her left lung. So, they (this was summer of 2021) put in a chest tube and changed her IV to a central (near the clavicle) line to get meds in faster.

And I wholeheartedly and unabashedly thanked God.

And I cannot explain all of life but I have had some humility infused into me by these experiences in life.
 
#14
Hunting whistlepigs and rock chucks lost some of it's luster. I used to love it more than big game hunting. I would get buck fever early in the season hunting those little critters, but not when I hunted big game. I think training made me concentrate differently when big game hunting. Hunting varmints took me back when I was a kid shooting little critters. I still shoot them, I just don't work as hard to get out there for them. I spend more time chasing after coyotes and badgers in the spring/ summer.
 
#17
Motocross racing/riding. Martial arts . Are the main ones. I miss. I didn't lose interest in those things. They are hard on the body and I have some injuries that made me stop. Hip wearing out was the main reason. Stopped doing moto and Martial arts to preserve my hip. Pretty much pain free now. I still practice a bit of martial arts. But have not ridden moto for 5 years.
I use to hunt birds a lot and fished a lot too. Those, I have lost interest in. I do occasionally fish. Last 2 times.
Was out east , we went shark fishing. When I go to Ecuador I fish there too. I will hunt deer, but not real hard.
I do work out a lot now and do a lot range of motion and calisthenics. Been doing a lot more pistol shooting.
But if I had my choice. I would still moto and train Martial arts.
 
#18
I was a hobbiest woodworker for years. Just passionate about it. Went pro in 2001. The business has grown hugely since then, and I'm now sick to death of sawdust. My poor wife has to beg me to build something now.

Fly fishing was a passion about that same time. There was one year that I fished two days a week for 50 weeks out of the year. Tied my own bugs, blah blah blah. I still fish, but maybe 4-5 days a year, and I just gave all my fly tying crap to a buddy a few months ago.
 
#21
Eating a great steak with a glass of really fine wine. Chew on that bastard half the night... Take my time and savor. Bananas Foster for dessert and end the night with a glass of Armagnac and maybe a fine cigar.

Did I mention a lot of chewing?
 
#23
I'm not as old as most of you I think, but probably like many of you, my life has changed drastically over the years and will continue to do so. I became aware of a trend in my life a few years ago, that my life would have been unimaginable every 5 years from where I was 5 years earlier, and what I expected it to be. I'm terrible at predicting the twists and turns my life will take. I sort of eliminated all existential angst after really thinking about it, (on acid), and had this epiphany that my life isn't a chapter, it's multiple chapters. There are the things I used to do, used to be/ identify with or as, and then there is the me that I am today. I don't dwell on or mourn the past much, because it's wasted energy. You aren't the same person you were this morning, let alone 10 years ago, and there's nothing sad about that. It's life, and I won't let yesterday's nostalgia cloud the life in front of me.

I used to shit in my diapers.
 
#24
Fishing, hunting, and shooting. I only shoot a couple times a year now and don't enjoy it like I used to. I'm to the point of questioning whether to sell most of my shit.
 
#26
I used to bowl all the time. Had a goal of going pro. Didn't work out due to an auto accident.

I last bowled leagues in 2010. I've hardly rolled a ball since. I joined a league with my nephew this year, and have quickly realized I'm just not the bowler I once was. It's sometimes hard to accept the fact that you're older and just not as good as you used to be.

Almost the same story with 3D archery, except I had no desire to go pro. Used to be fairly decent at it, but haven't shot any courses in quite a few years. A coworker had been getting into it this past summer, and would tell me about the tournaments he'd shot, and I actually considered going to a few. Never did, and really don't know if I will next year.

Oh well, getting older kinda sucks, but it beats the alternative.
 
#29
Finishing concrete…seriously, or not. I used to really enjoy watching a big ticking time bomb turn into a flat smooth hard surface. Then my lower back decided to go gunny bag from skating a slab. So now I batch and deliver it. Occasionally pour and trowel a slab, but I can barely walk the next day. Guess I’m just a 44 year old old man.
 
#32
I don't know if it will help but it gets worse from there.

Once you get over the hill, you realize you are now going downhill. And picking up speed.

If I had known that I would live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.

Then, again, I never learned to act "old." I turned 60 this year and still do not know how to act old. I still feel some of the 18 year old in me but the body slows me down. As the verse goes, the spirit is willing though the flesh is weak.

Seriously, there I was about a week after my birthday in the spring and I was perched on a rickety extension ladder that I have and reaching above my head with my electric chainsaw to cut off branches broken by a storm. And no one to take a picture of this old doing something acrobatic like that.
 
#33
I've got to tag in on the 'fine cigar' portion- I used to, well maybe still do, enjoy a good cigar. I've posted some of my collection here n the cigar thread and most of them by this point have been "aging" for 10 years or so now and I've spent that whole decade+ making sure the humidors had the proper RH and temperature and I still seldom crack into the 5-6 humidors I have "packed to the gills".

I always used the excuse that I seldom found myself in a situation that allowed for the time/location to enjoy one but ever since moving into the house, I've had a cigar ashtray on the patio table and I still can't find the "right" moment to start smoking them again. The excuse was always valid with right place/right time, but now it seems to be more of a chore than anything else to dedicate an hour or so to a stick and always seem to talk myself out of it because there likely is something more productive I can be doing with my time. So the cigars sit untouched other than my monthly schedule of rotating/inspecting them/etc.

-LD
 
#35
It happens. I have shot competitively for 30 years. There was a time I'd be out in the freezing cold, pouring rain or miserable weather shooting. Over 500 matches and a dozen national championships. I was everywhere. By hunting season I just wanted a nap without a gun in my hand.

These days I practice a few times a month and shoot the local match because it has free lunch with my buddies.

Do what pleases you for the pleasure of it. My Pardini air pistol is still Olympic grade and the 10 meters in my shop are perfectly fine. I have a wood stove for heat, a fridge of cold drinks and some sports on the TV.

I hunt across the state line because the season is longer and the deer bigger.
 
#37
Heard an old timer once say, "When it stops being fun, I'll find something else".

I don't look forward to new cartridges or guns like I used to.
Deer hunting used to be a magical thing to me, like 100 Christmas mornings wrapped into one. Now, I barely care if I go.
Like has been said previous about life chapters and changing interests.
 
#38
Looks like an order from Thompsons. I have any number of the labels you are showing. My wife objects to the cigars, so I only get one when she's out of town. That isn't often. I note the Padrons at bottom of the pic. I like those.
 
#40
That picture was actually the result of attending a CigarFest hosted by Cigars International here in PA right outside of the Poconos. After COVID, they unfortunately stopped hosting those events which is a shame because the best I could describe them would be like 'trick-or-treating' for adults. You used to go in line and they'd hand you a literal duffle bag that already had probably around 40-50 cigars and a book of 'coupons' and you'd go from table to table staffed by actual employees and be able to exchange those coupons for more cigars and talk to the manufacturers about their product and shoot the shit. The food & drinks were also included and it was honestly one hell of a time. That's how I got to meet/speak to Rock Patel (actual) several times over the years, it really was a cool experience.

I totally understand the wife comment, I was lucky that my (now) wife wanted to go along for the experience so I got at least 2 (again literal) duffle bags of cigars each year that I went. Not that it hurt/took away from the experience but there were plenty of mostly naked women everywhere in the venue too. I'm a huge fan of Padrons as well.

-LD
 
#41
I've got that too and I'm not ashamed to talk about it. As I understand it, depression tends to ride "shotgun" with some other things I'm working through but that also goes back to some of the resources I've shared here as well trying to bring attention to these type of issues and sharing resources on how to get help before it becomes overwhelming.

Make a joke out of my comments if the Pit finds it suites them but I've seen too many examples of what happens when friends/people lose on that front (the vast majority of which were OIF/OEF Vets) so I'm own that and stand by my statements to bring attention to the help that's available out there.

I don't need to change the world, but if I can help 1 person, I'm going to continue to bang the hell out of that drum.

-LD
 
#43
Work and becoming a slave to the fucking dollar $$ is what has just been destroying my spirit lately. Gotta keep the SAH mom secured and the 2 precious babies under 5 happy, all the time, right?

I've got 8 months of living expenses covered. ☑️
5 digits in 2 children under 5's savings account. ☑️
High 6 digits in trade and mutual funds. ☑️
Full freezer and fridge with food + 6 months extra ☑️

And I'm the selfish AH who want's to go put small holes in paper or ring steel one day a week.
Im the selfish AH who wants to update my kart racing chassis after 15+ years.
Better yet.....I'm the selfish AH for wanting to take a day or 2 off to go surf periodically throughout the winter.

*sigh* And people wonder why mental health in men is a huge problem. *pssst* *knudge* It's because all the damn women get pissed when men want to go have some periodic fun.
 
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#45

Yeah, no kidding. Along with weight. But....I don't like what I become when more than 3 or 4 beers or 2 glasses go thru me. Cannabis, at least for me myself and I, is the better vice of choice for medication from the mundane. I can still finely operate coherently and speak after a bong rip or a joint. Even better to play guitar or go surf with. But both are neither permanent solutions.
 
#47
I've seen a lot of and have been myself an angry drunk. More than once.

Can honestly say I've never had any problems with any one after smoking some weed though. One vice grows from the earth, the other is fermented in a jar. Could be something to that and how it effects oneself and their spirit though 🤔
 
#48
I stopped this a long time ago but it was video games. Or, one in particular. I was obsessed with Gran Turismo for quite a while. I had the steering wheel & pedals and I raced some online races. I pre-ordered a few of them and stayed up all night playing when I picked them up. And then one day after work I was a few laps into some race and I just stopped. I put the controller down, turned my PlayStation off, & haven’t fired it up since(except to watch a movie here or there)
 
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