Obsession! Yea, I've got one... er, two or more really.

Well, I guess I can’t ask if I don’t tell. My obsession is my 9 year old rottweiler “Merlin”. When I’m not at work or in the shop, he is my faithful companion and usually right by me. Loves to play ball and swim. Occasionally in Lake Michigan, but usually in his plastic pool at home.
Merlin soaking in the pool.

Merlin Picture

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

Sorry, Merlin dosen’t count. hes not an obsession, hes family. rtb

-- RTB. "dumb animals are not stupid they simply can't talk "

I have too many other obsessions…which sadly tend to keep me out of the shop. The first is the family and esp. grandson. Then there’s my Lab Assistant “Chip the Lab”. The computer and LumberJocks comes in third. Occasional beer fests, camping, auto repair, bicycle repair, fishing, hunting, photography…it just goes on and on. But when I’m in the shop, I’m “In the Shop!”

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Woodworking is the only obsession I have time for…..see picture on left. With Thing 1 (top left) and Thing 2 (top right) aka my twin 3 year olds, I don’t have much time for another one. Maybe in 20 years I can get back to. It used to computers. I’d build them for friends and family….just for fun. What the….? I can’t imagine doing that again.

-- Dad to 5, Son of The One

When I saw the still frame of the Merlin video, I thought you had a black bear in the kiddie pool!

My other obsessions are photography, and, mainly, banging on the piano and writing music. Here is a link to a page with a few of my pieces:

http://www.loyno.edu/~cbmarsh/mp3links.htm

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Charlie,
Great music! You are really talented! Very nice

Considering where you live, I was anticipating some good ole cajun too…

And yes, he is my little black bear! Everyone just believes he is a dog…<g>

Tom

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

Quigley and computers.

Lew

makin big deep powder turns on my snowboard. thats why i stay in colorado.

-- Roper - master of sawdust-

Here’s my extended family.

Noodles and Munchkin

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Man, we’ve got some great dogs on this site! Here is Candy.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Fishing, fishing, fishing, and oh yeah fishing. After that, I spend a lot of time volunteering at a local park which is part of the County Historical Society. Summer months when the grass is growing, I usually don’t spend too much time in the shop.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Other than woodworking/woodturning fishing is a great passion of mine. My daughters love fishing as well as my wife and here in Kentucky, we have a lot of fantasic lakes. even better than having family fishing time is my daughters 7 and 11 are now enjoying woodturning. Makes a dad feel real good to share his passions with his family. On another note, I’m in a contest to win a fishing boat and if you want to help me have a chance, go to www.wfn.tv and place your vote for me. You can vote 3 times in a 24 hr. period using 3 differnt e-mail addresses. Anyway I’m headed back to the shop to make some turning blanks for my girls.

-- www.woodturneddreams.com

Gary, you need to iron them dogs!

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com

Let’s see…backpacking, rock climbing, computers (I’m trying not to spend too much time on them outside of work any more though…SketchUp is wrecking that attempt, however) and role playing games (yup, I’m a geek). Oh, and diving when I get the chance.

-- -Mohkev

A friend of mine contends that we only have attention to give to three things, and for most people these are family, job, and one hobby. I think he’s probably right.

I don’t have biological children, but there are a number of kids who look to me for an “uncle” type role, and with my partner I think we’ve got the family side covered. My job has also been my hobby, and when I’ve got spare hours in the time I’d normally spend working I do similar computer geekery type stuff, for instance I’m working on “a better bike computer” right now when the clients don’t require my time.

And then I’ve got projects for the house, which encompasses my woodworking.

I try to sneak some bicycling (used to mountain bike, now I road bike) in there, and the town we moved to has a skate park, so I’ve broken out the inline skates again, and I enjoy photography, although digital photography has changed that a bit, and I love cooking, even though our new kitchen really needs a rework to be usable (see woodworking again), but I’ve tried to purge myself of all of those other things that could be distractions, like model railroading, and model airplanes, because if I let myself have that many projects in play I never get anything done.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke