I like to claim I retired in 2010. Since then I was a chicken rancher, and when I realised that making $20/week wasn't the retirement nest egg I was hoping for, I had to look for some additional income. Landed a job at a seasonal fall festival, which turned into a year-round part-time job mowing their acres and acres of grass. I moved up to operations manager full time and designed new structures and attractions for the kiddies, in addition to tending sheep and goats, while still mowing the grass. Then health issues took me out of that gig. Oh yeah, I also drove for Uber for a while. It helped with putting food on the table, and you meet some interesting people. You also meet jerks. I also teach my own blend of yoga/Tai chi/qi-gong from time to time. Guess that's actually more of a hobby, though.
Before retiring, I was a hardware design engineer making automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor industry for 30 years. For almost my entire career, my title was analog design engineer. I specialized in converter testing (ADCs & DACs) for a decade. My last decade was spent in flash memory testing. Our corporate motto was, "driving down the cost of consumer flash." It would appear to have worked.
Hobbies circle around my former occupation. I love music, both listening to it, as well as making it. Stereos are a hobby. I also like to record music. This last fall I was stage manager at the fall festival, and I got the opportunity to record many bands. I also enjoy designing and building synthesizers, in addition to playing them. Photography occupies some of my time, and just aimlessly wondering about my ranch is fulfilling, too.
Since guns seem to be the subtopic here as well, I'll share my opinions on them. When I lived in California, I never thought twice of owning any sort of firearm. But, after living in Texas for four months, I announced, "I gotta get me a gun!" Varmints killing my chickens (and eating into my pocketbook) were really pissing me off. Whacking raccoons in the hen house with a broom stick just makes them look at you like, "hey buddy, you wanna knock it off with that damn stick?" Besides if you don't stay up all night repairing the damage, they just go right back in as soon as you leave. Thus, the need for a gun. My first weapon was a Smith & Wesson 642 revolver. It's small, fits in the pocket, and comes out easily because it has no external hammer. In California this would be a great 7-11 holdup gun. In Texas it is the perfect chicken coop defense when loaded with shot shells. I became a fan of guns when I first examined them. The solidity of the build, the heft, the smooth machining of materials, the precision of the fit of parts. They are a marvel of manufacturing, even without firing them.
Then there's that too, the actual shooting. To get good at anything, it takes practice. Whether it be playing a musical instrument, typing on a keyboard, or shooting a firearm. It's rewarding to increase your skills. At first, rodents would just laugh at me because I was such a poor shot. But who's laughing now that I usually get them with the first shot. Buying one gun leads to more and more. Rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic pistols - they all have their place. All of them have been beautiful examples of precision machining.
Shooting a gun is nothing like in the movies. It annoys me when the actor casually shoots a .44 revolver off to the side with his elbow bent, and there's no kick at all. Or, there's a massive shootout indoors between good and evil, then one of the good guys whispers to his buddy to circle around. Yeah right, like they'd be able to hear anything short of a shout. But, I digress.
But, with great power comes great responsibility, and I've learned my lesson. At first I was hell bent on eliminating all snakes from around the chicken coop. And I did. After all, constrictors swallow a couple eggs whole, then wrap themselves around a tree to break them inside. Big mistake. Want to know what happens when you kill off all the snakes? You get over run by rats. Turns out I'd much rather have snakes then rats. I pray to baby Jesus every night asking to have the snake return, He ain't budging - I must live with the rats. Lesson learned: don't screw with the delicate balance of nature.