Honestly, I had to take some years off of work to look after health and despite not having the money anymore, I've found the time to pursue hobbies. I've probably got some mental quirks or defects that makes me gravitate to so many but I've been filling spare time with:
-High End Vaping and DIY E-Liquid Manufacturing, it's easy, it's fun and the community is great aside from pumping out a whole bottle for about 1 buck, the initial investment of buying your flavours, your base and bottles it really saves a person in the long run. Then you're chasing recipes, either using others or creating your own mix. As for the highend, it's really over priced the stuff you buy, but you can tailor a lot of devices to look nice or simply buy a device that is unique and machined in small batches, the money is in resale because of the small batches people will sometimes pay extra money to acquire a rare item.
-Pipe Collecting, Tobacco collecting, I guess this would be the antithesis of a vape advocate but I do apprectiate fine tobaccos... There's a good amount of groups and types and there's quite a bit to learn and all the enjoyment of finding a good tasting blend.
-Safety Razors and Straight razor shaving, this has been a fun one as the industry I worked in (Oil/Gas) it was required to keep clean shaven due to masking up on supplied air to work around H2s Gas Leaks. So I discovered a cheap and affordable way to shave. The razors themselves go from 10-500 dollars but the blades are the real money savers as you can buy 100 blades for about 20 dollars or less. Then there is the whole rabbit hole of different shave soaps and brushes to apply and things of that nature, which I'm ok with but have more or less just been interested in the higher quality shaves for a fraction of the price.
Reading - This has been a good one, I've tackled history, religion, philosophy and occasionally some classic literature but nothing really in the non-fiction realm. Have been able to acquire a lot of great items and even some super rare books through a thrift store ran by a christian family. They sell soft covers for 2 bucks and hardcovers for 3 and I've accrued quite the collection.
Rucking and Walking my Cat... Rucking and Walking my Cat has simply been life changing, as my health progressively got worse I started gaining weight at an alarming rate, some habits, mostly diet, some medications I had to take. Eventually I doubled my weight and after going through the ringer in Canadian healthcare I managed to get somewhat fixed. My initial push for health was a doctor telling me if I don't move I will die, but also because my cat - when he wasn't laying on me as I was bedridden - was always peeled to the window. living in an apartment I knew I needed to get him out, so we walked. It worked out well because outside was scary for him and long distances was physically impossible for me, so we both worked our way up and got comfortable doing long hikes together. Now I do regular 20-30KM treks with 40-60 pounds in my ruck pack through trails and managed to loose more than half my weight and tone up quite a bit. Highly recommded.
Knife Collecting and EDC - This is a fun community to get into if you like sharp things and gadgets but aside from the tactical packs, pants and a handful of expensive blades there isn't much more I can say. There's a lot to it and the amount of money you can spend is quite a bit, but it's really only something I'm interested in because I like survival and camping related stuff.
TL;DR - My Health Oriented Hobbies are negated by Nicotine consumption. Something, Something, Sharp things.
