I was going through some junk today and decided to toss a very old computer motherboard that I’ve had laying around for over ten years. A casualty of the upgrade fever, it was rendered obsolete by a new faster system and replaced long ago. It got me thinking, perhaps my biggest vice in life is periodic obsession with the gear associated with some hobby or activity. It truly is a sickness, an almost overwhelming obsession.
Several months ago when I built up a 26 inch mountain bike as a fun side project one of the big reasons behind it was to find a use for some 26 inch wheels I had laying around. After a few rides I begin to dream of building a light retro racing bike and found some very nice light 26 inch wheels for a steel on ebay. I spent hours looking at old wheels trying to find the best bang for the buck. I kind of lost the point of the whole project, but I couldn’t stop myself. I spent 125 dollars to get some wheels that would have been sweet 15 years ago.
Last month while Shauna and I were camping at Natural Bridge State Park in Kentucky I took my Canon 10D, a 12 year old digital SLR camera that I’ve loved since I got it in 2005. For maybe the first time I realized how old the 10D is, how obsolete it has become. I compared shots taken with the 10D to those taken with my Olympus Tough point and shoot camera. The 10D had much less dynamic range, more noise, and half the resolution at 6 mega pixels. I’ve included a couple of crops from the image so you can see what I’m dealing with.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Now I’ve got Upgrade Fever of the camera variety. My single track mind has become obsessed with camera reviews, mega pixels, sensor size, and trolling ebay for sweet finds. It’s kind of sad that the 10D which retailed for 1500 dollars in 2003 is now worth 50 bucks, not a good investment. And yes I know, any camera I buy now will probably be worth half what I paid for it in a few years, but I got the fever.
Barn Door Cycling 
One of my issues also MG. But what I have found is that it truly doesn’t matter what the hobby is, if you plan to do it right and enjoy it fully, it will be expensive. And if you are going to do a hobby, you might as well do it right. Prime example – when you think of knitting, you think of some little old lady living in a old farmhouse crafting blankets and dishcloths costing little more than her time. WRONG – they make TITANIUM knitting needles now for Christ sake. My wife got into knitting a bit a few years ago. The “good” yarn is expensive and the knitting needles can cost more than $100….. You need different needles for different projects. Making those dishcloths or fingerless gloves rather pricey when you figure in the 8 hours it takes to make a pair of fingerless gloves.
I have tried reducing the number of hobbies that I have, but it is very hard to do. I seem to be picking up more and more hobbies and they aren’t any cheaper than those I already have. This spring I purchased a fly fishing outfit. Yep, you guessed it, expensive hobby. The initial investment isn’t bad, but those tiny little flies are $3 each. All of the accessories you “need” are expensive too. Most recently I purchased a new backpack for actual backpacking…. I’ve never been backpacking, but didn’t have a pack so never really considered it. Reading about your adventures and talking to JW about his awesome trips this spring made me think I “needed” one. So, I bought one. Now, I just need to make myself use it. BUT, now I need a camp stove, water filter and endless other things to make my backpacking adventures more fun.
It really is a never ending cycle. I have friends that don’t really have any hobbies. Except watching TV and surfing the internet. They seem to have more money than I do, but I have so many more fun experiences and stories to tell. I can usually talk for an hour about what I did over the weekend on any given weekend. When I ask them what they did, they answer with “not much, just hung out at the house and watched some movies”… I guess that is enjoyable to some, but not me.
fly fishing… I had an uncle into that who would spend ungodly money on bamboo rods. It floored me when I found out how much just one of his rods cost.
I also find it very hard to get rid of stuff that I bought years ago that was cutting edge and now is totally obsolete. I’ve got several digital cameras that are totally worthless, but they were expensive when I purchased them, so I don’t want to get rid of them.
I know, its so hard to get rid of something when you know how good it is, or at least used to be.
I’ve just done the camera addiction thing! FZ1000 in the end. Now I’m straight back to MTB and surfboard desire…
Better than Beer though huh?