I have many hobbies and collections. The two sometimes overlap. My hobbies, or whims, rotate depending on my creative state of mind or an external influence such as YouTube or family.  It makes it tough to focus and become good at any single hobby or skill.

Take for instance, photography.  On a whim I decided to expand my photography skills.  I watched YouTube videos on portraiture, I bought all the equipment needed and I set up a portrait taking setting in the foyer of my house.  And I learned how to take portraits.  And I practiced on my family.  And I began to think I could do this when I retire, take school pictures, animal portraits and the like.  I bought multiple background screens, including a green screen so I could take pictures and then photoshop persons into exotic locales.  I bought and took courses on photography, stuff I already knew but wanted to freshen up on.  And then I ran out of steam.  I took all of the lights and screen down, packed it all up in storage bins and that is where it sits today.

Probably my most expensive whim was due to watching YouTube videos of people that travel around the U.S. in their RVs and Vlog about their adventures.  I wanted to do that.  I wanted to be a RV YouTuber. So, I bought an RV.  A Winnebago Micro-Minnie that suited me and the wife perfectly along with all the accessories that are needed for a comfortable camping life (outdoor rug, outdoor furniture, hammocks, outdoor string lights, etc.).  There are a few posts on this blog of some of our trips to various RV parks.

To further my future YouTube life I bought a GoPro Hero camera, the tiny little camera you strap, stick, or hang from practically anything.  I figured I needed one for documenting our drives to RV parks and hiking adventures we would go on.  Then I bought a drone, because lots of YouTube RV channels have drones that take glorious sweeping videos of a state park or the mountains of Arkansas.  I wanted to do that.  Over the course of 15 months, we camped 6 times and then, due to family dynamics, the RV sat in storage for 6 months at $200 per month. That was expensive for a toy that was not getting played with.  So, we sold it back to the dealer.  I still have the GoPro, drone and all the RV accessories if anyone is interested.  I guess we are too lazy to put them up for sale.  We should.

I have a collector’s mentality, but I collect stuff I enjoy.  Comic books, certain toys and anything from the 1966 Batman show. I’m slowly rebuilding my Vinyl collection as well. Unfortunately I am a collecting completist.  I pre-order my comic books two months in advance, so I’ll order the first, second and maybe even third issue in a series before I get and read the first issue.  If after two issues the story sucks, I’ll continue to buy the book monthly and force my self to ready it just so I have a complete set of the series. I think its a OCD thing. A fear of missing a key issue in a series.

I plan on retiring soon. This means no more extra money to expand on my hobbies or continue to pad my collections. Then it will be time to start selling off the comic books and action figures. I will never sell my 1966 Batman collectibles though or my vinyl collection.