Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful Father’s Day weekend. I had a relaxing Father’s Day at home. Mrs. RB40 got me an old Snoopy t-shirt from the Charles M. Schulz Museum Store. it’s great. All my old shirts are worn out. Fine! I have a new shirt for our trip to Japan. I also got some bowls from my ceramics class. they are great. I had so much fun making it. Today, I want to share my experience with starting a new hobby and keeping busy after retirement.
Keep working
One of the secrets to a happy retirement is to stay busy. What!? Some people will object. Why do I want to be busy after retirement? I want to watch TV, play video games and relax after retirement. It’s healthy to relax, but you’ll get bored if you have too much free time. This is a ticket to depression.
Think back to when you were a child. It was a wonderful summer when the school year ended. But it got boring after 3 months. By the new school year, you were ready to go back to school and see your friends. Likewise, it’s good to be a little busy after retirement or else you’ll get bored.
After early retirement
I have been very busy after I retired from my engineering career in 2012. Our son was a toddler and needed a lot of attention. I also published 3 blog posts each week at that time. I didn’t have time for anything else. Life was very busy. Fortunately, it wasn’t stressful. It’s been a good kind of busy.
Being a stay-at-home dad got easier as the RB40Jr got older and spent more time at school. Now, he’s a teenager and doesn’t need (or want) much supervision. At the same time, I spend less time blogging than I did in the early years. These days, I only publish one new post a week. It’s hard for me to write a new post now. I think this is because interest in FIRE has declined. I’m not as excited as before because we achieved this. The struggle is over. In addition, life now seems more difficult for young people. They suffer from inflation and rising housing costs. FIRE is not an option when you are living paycheck to paycheck. Traffic is down and blogging is no longer as exciting as it was when I started in 2010.
Oh, I almost forgot. Last year, I was driving 10 to 15 hours a week for Uber and Doordash. This year, the pay got worse so I cut back. Now, I only deliver a few food orders a week.
As a result, I have more free time than ever this year. I found myself watching a lot of TV and napping throughout my days. It was nice for a while, but I need to be a bit busier to stay happy.
Introduction to ceramics
Earlier this year, I was looking for piano lessons for the RB40Jr. Our community center offers a piano course, and I might as well take something while I wait. I browsed the program and found several ceramics lessons. By chance, I was looking for a chaoan tea pot to make matcha tea. Maybe I can make chawan myself. These tea bowls can get expensive. It’s art…
Unfortunately, all ceramic and piano lessons were filled as soon as they opened for online registration. Ceramics and piano seem to be very popular these days. I looked for other ceramics classes in town and they were full as well. For recklessness? Anyway, I put my name on the waiting list because I’ve been through this before with swimming lessons. Some people sign up for classes and cancel before they start. I was number 3 on the waiting list.
As it turned out, the community center called me one day before the semester started. A place has been opened in the Introduction to Ceramics class. Well, I’m in! The class was great. I focused on making tea bowls, but the teacher showed us how to make cups, plates, and other shapes. I learned alot.
Surprisingly, shaping a bowl is very soothing for me. It’s almost like meditation. I can easily get into the “flow” when I sit down to make a bowl. It feels good to make something with my hands. The nice thing about Xuan is that it doesn’t have to be perfect. It can be asymmetrical and imperfect because it is meant to be. this Wabi-sabi. Nature is organic, imperfect and temporary. I like this concept. Starter bowls aren’t as pretty as store-bought ones, but they’re part of the process. I know I will get better with practice. I enjoy making imperfect bowls because I’m not a perfectionist. They turned out to be pretty cute, though. Verified.
Bowls have taken over the dining table. Heh heh. I still have about 10 more pots in the oven. I’m going to pick them up next week.
Enjoy life after retirement
In conclusion, I had a great time making these dishes. Pottery has kept me busy and out of trouble. Surprisingly, making pot seems therapeutic. I can get into the flow and it feels good! Obviously, your brain releases all kinds of stimulating neurochemicals when you’re in a state of flow. I’m glad I found this hobby.
Yes. This is the price of my new hobby.
- Introduction to Ceramics Course – $350. This is very good for 10 lessons.
- Additional bag of clay – $16. The class involved 25 pounds of clay, but I was prolific. I made bowls at home so I needed more clay.
- Beginner Kit – $28.
- Banding Wheel – $30. I got this from Amazon. It’s good, but I really want a better one.
So far I’ve spent $424 on pottery. This isn’t cheap, but many hobbies are more expensive than this. We can afford it. I will be frugal with our groceries.
From here, I can make more xuan at home and fire them in the ceramics studio. I think I can shoot 4-5 pieces in the studio for about $20. I need to go check them out. Alternatively, I can take another class. It would be more expensive, but I wouldn’t mind supporting our community center. It’s a great resource.
Well, that’s all for today. Do you have a hobby that you enjoy? How will you stay busy after retirement?
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