So, GAS isn’t only musical. I ordered a thing.
I have a MIG welder that I use for flux-core, but I have some finer projects in mind for my new home, and I wanted to use a cleaner process. The elekchicken is coming next week to install my garage subpanel.
Also getting some press-fit PEX air lines and fittings. I am going to hardwire shop air in the garage as well.
Oh very nice!
I’m a very poor stick welder but do enough to bodge along on the farm.
I don’t consider myself a welder. Given the quality of my welds to date (a grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t) I’m more of a semi-skilled metal haemorrhoidist. You know, the bigger the gob, the better the job sort of thing 
Surprised I never replied to this thread earlier!
Snorkelling. I took a scuba course in 2021 (was an xmas gift in 2019, had to wait until after the first wave of lockdowns to cash in the voucher), and I LOVED it, but I learned the hard way that I have pretty significant eustacian tube dysfunction in my left ear, so I stick closer to the surface now. I love snorkelling to pieces because it’s so inexpensive (relative to scuba) and low barrier to entry. I wish I knew years ago how incredibly beautiful the flora and fauna are in the north Atlantic - I now feel blessed to live just minutes from what feels like an underwater paradise. I’m planning to get a better wetsuit this spring (5mm, full length) so I can start my season a bit earlier. And then hopefully a dive camera. I saw so many giant blue lobsters last year… and no one believes me! 
Cycling. Long, rural cycling trips don’t hold much appeal to me due to back issues (and logging trucks!), but I really do love incorporating cycling into my daily commute and errands as often as possible. I have an e-bike, a one-speed road bike, and a one-speed vintage cruiser. We have a very nice rails-to-trails system here, but frankly, I find puttering around towns and cities a lot more fun and exciting. I grew up in the woods; it’s great, but I’ve seen it. 
Writing. If I’m doing it, I probably want to write about it. That’s just how I like to express myself. But I very rarely make any money writing, and that has been by design. I occasionally earn a bit of money writing book reviews, but otherwise it’s all fun, games, and review-copies-in-lieu-of-payment from indie presses. I took a “History of Rock & Roll” class this semester, and the assignments were all album reviews - most fun I’ve ever had in an academic class. Working on designing an independent study course on music criticism & review.
Darkroom photography. This one has lapsed since the start of the pandemic (my local darkroom closed for a while, and I’m not sure I can afford to renew my membership; plus the only analogue camera repair centre on the east coast closed down in 2020). I’m feeling the itch again & have to figure out which of my cameras can jump back into action without any additional service or repairs. My most prized cameras are my grandfather’s Pentax, my dad’s [broken] Ricoh, my 80-year-old and 100-year-old box cameras, and my Mamiya 220. I love red filters, polarizers, and screw-on prisms.
Pilates. I miss group classes, but the covid index is still through the roof in my city, so I do pre-recorded workouts from home. Trying a pilates workout in 2017 tapped into my long-buried dancer-discipline brain, and I took to it like a fish to water. I danced competitively as a kid, and pilates is deeply influenced by dancers’ drills. It fixes up my back pretty good, and consistently gives me a better post-workout high than anything else I’ve tried over the years. All that deliberate breathing also helped me to realize that I needed a septoplasty - and getting one was the absolute best thing I ever did for my health.
Languages & lifelong learning. I was a fair-to-middling French student in school (bonjour de Canada!), but I took Spanish when I went off to university & loved it - the magic realism, the politics of Latin America, the poetic traditions - everything. Life (and my English major) had other plans for me, so I am back to A2/B1 on a good day. I just completed my first semester of a B.A. in Spanish & currently have a 4.3 GPA - not messing around this time!! I lived in Korea for two years, picked up a fair amount of the language at the time, & want it back, too, please! Thanks to the worldwide popularity of k-pop and k-drama, it’s much easier to find Korean study materials than it was a decade ago!
Cooking. Maybe the most popular hobby on this thread? I love it too! I was raised in a “food is just fuel, and most of it is gross” household, so my interest in cooking was discouraged - wasteful, a waste of time, etc. I didn’t really come back to it in earnest until I moved to Korea: my workplace served us traditional Korean food every day for lunch. It was a revelation! I asked my co-workers for the names of dishes & how to prepare them, and I was off to the races in my tiny apartment kitchen. Korea also has a huge population of Indian immigrants (mostly working for Samsung, etc.), so I enjoyed the most incredible Nepalese, Pakistani, and South Indian food I’ve ever had in my life. To this day, my favourite dishes to prepare are Korean and Indian, and I’m still not very good at making east coast honkey food - rhubarb crisp excepted.
After a 2 hour meeting yesterday I’m just completing the forms to become a volunteer firefighter!
Been thinking about it since we moved up here and finally got things moving before Christmas.
Feel it’s important to share the load especially living in a bushfire risk area
Congrats, @Mac. Good on you.
Did you grow up with Trumpton @mac?
Oh yes @Barney
And Camberwick Green 
I shoot and I hike.
Then I offer Trumpton Riots
that’s awesome! Good on ya! 
Excuse my ignorance but what is it @MC-Canadastan
It’s a benchtop milling machine, @Mac . It’s a companion to my lathe. I have some stainless stock that Im hoping to turn into chips a bass bridge and some brass rod that will hopefully make some saddles.
I’m picking it up next week. With the pedestal it’s over 500 lbs.
Sounds very interesting 
@MC-Canadastan
I would most certainly end up loosing a finger or two
Gaming (no, I never grew up )
Occasionally DIY around the home
Cars I guess 
like buying slightly shabby old cars that have seen better days and restoring them (partially at least)
Taking nasty mods off and putting it back to stock, machine polishing etc.
Reflection of the roof on the bonnet (/hood I guess ) before (left) & after (right)
there’s a few at least 
-5c, no wind and sunny on Record Ridge / White Wolf today. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Hey @Barney , look what I got! Back in the AT game now:
