What is your "other" expensive hobby?

[11B10]

One last camera picture for the thread, then I'll stop. I finally got around to unpacking the darkroom and some of the bigger cameras, so here's one of my Kodak 2ds I sometimes break out for studio stuff. It's a heavy pig, but the quality is amazing.
Attachment 7108

That is an amazing camera! What do you know about its history?

[MD7305]

I FINALLY got my new bike. Its so nice, I'm beside myself with joy! It required my gun safe getting picked apart and axing some nonessential stuff but riding has always been my favorite hobby.
Yeti ASR-C Enduro




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[Paltares8]

Just wanna say how awesome I think this thread has been. I've been very caught up in my somewhat-new-found shooting "hobby," that I've neglected my guitar playing, and reading and others, for some time now. My wife and I are also getting into some carpentry/woodworking and she's also making some jewelry and keychains and stuff. And all that is squeezed into the however many minutes a day we're not rangling the 3 boys. Anyways, might pick up the acoustic and play for awhile tonight, and hopefully in the coming weeks I'll be able to show off a table and chairs I'm going to make.

[olstyn]

Sir - our family had a long canine history with the inevitable age or health-related putdowns. Then, a terminally ill friend gave us a cockatiel. I have never seen affection displayed from any animal to top her. When she tragically died too young, well, you know where that's going. We're currently petless, but I'm looking at retirement in three months and I can't stop thinking about another puppy or ? Because of the circumstances of our last two dogs (very premature, but unavoidable "put downs), I honestly don't think I could take the trauma if something were to occur - do you understand?

I absolutely understand. My wife and I have had several conversations around getting a baby leopard gecko again, or possibly a snake (likely one of the small australian pythons), but we haven't been able to actually do it yet. On the one hand, I genuinely miss our leopard gecko, but on the other, I'm not sure I want to take on the emotional attachment or responsibility of another pet right now. I'll probably keep on going using the money excuse for a while, and then eventually cave.

A perfectly acceptable answer to "why don't you have a dog?" is "because dogs die."

Yeah, it's hard to take losing an animal, and unless you're going to have a pet elephant or tortoise, you're highly likely to outlive it. Of course, if you do have one of those few animals that lives longer than humans, you have to figure out how to provide for its care when *you* die, which is a whole other can of worms.

Why can't someone develop a breed that lives oh, I don't know - how about 50 years? I'd be the first in line for one of those! Or, maybe better yet - a breed that talks! My last dog - Rocky - was trying to tell us he had issues for a couple years - after it was too late, we got it. I think that's the real reason I hesitate now.

That, in theory at least, is a major plus to reptiles; most geckos can live 15-25 years, and some snakes are good for 30-40+. They're not "cuddly," and they're obviously not for everyone, but as long as they don't catch some weird disease and you provide the correct environment for them, they'll be with you for a lot longer than a dog/cat/other mammal. There are some birds that typically have pretty long lifespans, too, but they're also not for everyone; I'm definitely not a bird person.

[olstyn]

I FINALLY got my new bike. Its so nice, I'm beside myself with joy! It required my gun safe getting picked apart and axing some nonessential stuff but riding has always been my favorite hobby.
Yeti ASR-C Enduro

Clean mountain bikes are an anathema. Get some dirt on that sucker before I start talking about how slow those big fat tires are and then move on to being mean about its gear ratios.

(Yes, I'm a road biker; how did you ever guess?)

Joking aside, much respect to folks who actually use real MTBs for what they're for; I just see tons of them on the roads being slow, and, well, mean comments start floating around in my mind.

[olstyn]

Pelicanparts.com is a very helpful site for BMW/Audi/Porsche info and usually have good prices on OEM parts

ecstuning.com isn't bad for VW/Audi stuff, and genuineaudiparts.com usually has pretty good pricing on OEM Audi parts, too. Pricing can be all over the place just for different colors of the same part, though; I once paid $7 for a sunroof switch that was slightly the wrong color for my interior vs paying $110 for the correct color matching part. Yeah, Paying 13x more wasn't an appealing option, so I live with the fact that something I rarely look up at is now a "contrast" color.

[MD7305]

Clean mountain bikes are an anathema. Get some dirt on that sucker before I start talking about how slow those big fat tires are and then move on to being mean about its gear ratios.

(Yes, I'm a road biker; how did you ever guess?)

Joking aside, much respect to folks who actually use real MTBs for what they're for; I just see tons of them on the roads being slow, and, well, mean comments start floating around in my mind.

Hey, easy with the roadie attitude bro! I just got it home today! The plan is to get it filthy tomorrow or Sunday, I'll post photographic evidence.

[olstyn]

Hey, easy with the roadie attitude bro! I just got it home today! The plan is to get it filthy tomorrow or Sunday, I'll post photographic evidence.

Haha, sounds good! Hopefully the "attitude" was received as the joke it was meant to be. I just had to make sure you weren't one of those people I pass like they're sitting still even when I'm horrifically out of shape. No, I don't want to join you on some nice downhill singletrack with my 23mm completely knob-free tires.

[MD7305]

All in good fun, my friend!

[scott]

That is an amazing camera! What do you know about its history?

Thanks. This one is an empire state no. 2 in 8x10 made after Rochester optical was bought out by Eastman kodak. The markings put it between 1910 and 13. It seems to have been original when I bought it. It's not quite now; I frankensteined it somewhat with a mostly broken Kodak 2D I had on the shelf.
It came with a couple unmounted, unmarked brass lenses that I haven't really tried to identify. Mostly I use a barrel mounted 30cm Schneider xenar from the 30s; if I need a shutter I use a g claron that I keep around as a portrait lens for the sinar 4x5 I posted earlier.