most here do interesting things in their off time.I vaguely recall having a rather rare commodity called "spare time." For several years I spent most of my waking hours in a speedboat, because I worked as part of the security team at a lake resort and state park. (Which probably sounds more glamorous than the reality of it actually was.) Even on off time, back then, I spent a lot of time outdoors, hiking and some horseback riding. Used to do a lot of photography (stills, movies) and did most of my own B&W darkroom work. Still occasionally use the Super 8 camera (Kodak is still putting out new film stock)...probably the last major use of that was a trip to the Bahamas a few years back. (My uncle just gave me one of his old cameras over the weekend, which has a stop-motion setting, so I'm thinking about playing around with that, when/if time allows. Haven't done any animation since I was a student.) Also dabbled with snorkeling for a while.
Sometimes one might get the feeling hanging around here that all we ever do is go to work, watch moviesWith summer on the horizon, I really find myself missing the drive-ins. Not just because of watching movies, but because of the way we watched movies: Carload of buddies (or occasionally just me and the girlfriend), cooler full of drinks, maybe grab a pizza on the way or, if we were feeling reckless, maybe even risking the food at the snackbar. If you were watching a bad film and wanted to make comments, you didn't have to worry about disturbing anyone next to you. It was more of a social activity or party, compared to the multiplex experience. We had one drive-in that was pretty much a grindhouse affair in the late Seventies/early Eighties, where low budget American horror would be intermixed with Euro-horror on double and triple bills. The snack bar would close down about 20-30 minutes into the final show, and then the owner's dogs (a couple of German Shepherds) would be let loose to gobble up any food that had fallen on the ground. And, if you went on the 4th of July, there were fireworks at intermission.
