Everything That's On My Mind - Tempus Fugit Edition

Back when I was a sophomore in high school or thereabouts, I first heard the saying "Time flies like the wind.  Fruit flies like bananas."  It cracked me up.

I realized yesterday that I haven't posted anything since last Tuesday, and I can hardly believe that nearly a week has passed so quickly.  I'm tempted to ask where the time went... but if I think about it, I can probably recall what I have been doing with my time the last few days.

I came to the realization a few years ago that I go through phases with my hobbies (or, if you will, my time-wasters-of-choice).  Some phases come around more or less often than others, and some last longer.  It's unpredictable, for the most part, but it always seems to run in cycles.

The last few weeks I've been on a reading kick - I got a new library card (my old one not having been used since well before I got married and changed my name) and have been spending most free evenings curled up on the couch or on the bed with a novel.  This phase tends to come around every 6 months or so, usually when we've gone to visit Hubby-head's mom and picked up a grocery bag full of paperbacks.  Since we haven't been out to her house in about 10 months, I had to hit the library this time.

I've been trying to keep up with reading the blogs on my blogroll/RSS subscriptions pretty regularly, but don't always have enough to say to warrant a post on my own blog.  There will be weeks when every little thing that pops into my head will make me want to blog.  I'm going through a down cycle on that one - thankfully, I never seem to lose interest or motivation completely to keep up with this particular hobby.  And thankfully, enough of you have the patience to keep coming back even when I don't have a lot to say.  *grin*

Then there are the computer game cycles.  There have been weeks when, every time I get a few spare hours, I'm at my computer playing some sort of puzzle game or arcade game.  I signed up for a RealArcade Game Pass during one of those cycles.  I have a ton of downloaded games to choose from - but I haven't been in the mood to play them lately.

Television is less likely to be my amusement of choice these days.  A few years ago, I was in a baseball coma and during baseball season every time I was home the TV was tuned to the Diamondbacks game.  When the Diamondbacks weren't playing, I was watching whatever other baseball game was on.  Or Sportscenter.  I even signed up for a Fantasy Baseball league a couple of times.  I've gone through phases where I'd watch whatever I could find on TV to keep myself occupied, but it's been a while since the compulsion was that strong.  Lately, if the TV is on, I'm probably not paying all that much attention to it.  I'll watch a couple of TV shows with regularity, but if I miss an episode, it won't drive me nuts.  Back when the X-Files was on, it was a different story.

I've had cycles for other Internet whimsies - general web surfing, Blog Explosion, Blogshares, Usenet newsgroups, instant messaging, and even chat rooms when I was on Prodigy and AOL...  I've had cycles for creativity and crafty things - crocheting, painting (tole painting as a kid, faux-finishing my bathroom a year or so ago), photography, poetry, songwriting... 

My hobbies are many, and while I don't stick with anything horribly long, I usually end up coming back around to it eventually. 

For instance, I started making a big crocheted afghan for a friend of mine as a birthday gift.  When I make an afghan, I do a very simple pattern - basically, I make one huge granny square that winds up being about 6' long on each side - but with an assortment of yarns, coordinated colors and varying textures.  This particular one I made with purple and deep blues and greens, including some fun textured yarns.  I got it started, but didn't have time to finish it before her birthday.  Or her anniversary.  Then she and her husband moved, and redecorated their living room with colors that totally didn't work with the afghan I'd started.  The colors worked for my living room, though.  After a couple of years, I finally got the urge to finish it, and spent about a week's worth of evenings completing the afghan.

I started making a really cool mosaic-topped end table for another friend of mine as a housewarming present.  I got the table assembled and stained, the molding at the top edge affixed and stained, and a bunch of cool thrift-shop dishes broken into bits to make the mosaic.  I went to the home improvement store and bought sanded grout and a trowel.  I even got the mosaic started on one corner... and then got distracted and lost interest.  This was over three years ago, and the friend whose home it was supposed to go in has since moved back in with family, and we aren't nearly as close as we used to be.  I still haven't finished that table.  I really want to - in fact, I would really like to make a matching coffee table and use it in my own living room.  Eventually, I figure I'll get back around to it.

So my question to you is, do you have hobbies that you stick with, or do you go through cycles like I do?

Comments

[Gene]

Like you, I tend to waste my time in cycles. Surprisingly, I also enjoy many of the same things. I get on reading kicks where I'll rip through several novels in a row-then nothing for the next few weeks. I find myself blogging in spurts--and I even flirted with BlogExplosion (which I found about here) and all those other crazy 'counters' for a while. I also play online video games to death--and then never touch them for months at a time. The only thing time waster I do consistently is watch sports--once one season is over, the next sport season begins!

[John M]

Absolutely! You bet! Unh-hunh!

Right now it's walking. Two hours every night after dinner enjoying the neighborhood.

Books
Cars
Bicycling
Programming computers
Racing games on the PC
Six Feet Under
Chuck Pahlaniuk novels
Renovations
Rubik's cubes
Photography
Blogging
Researching (this is my cool name for collecting stuff on some subject on the internet)
Driving
Chocolate
Guitar
Walking

I thought I was the only one! I didn't really notice the pattern until I got into my late thirties and looked back at how I'd stayed amused most of my life. Like you, there are things I love that go dormant for a while and come right back fresh and rewarding again and again.