Hey Ralph ! Don't Worry, be Happy

 As the duck said to his friend with the ingrowing quills, "don't get down-hearted !"

If you don't spend time with shooting folks, you're not likely to pick up on the way shooters tend to be either "Responsible" or "responsible for mayhem", and the first group really hates to be confused with the second.   Even knowing that, I wasn't sure if that "step right back" was humorous or not.

  IMHO, speaking as a foreigner from a country where if anyone even sees a gun in public it usually results in a SWAT team arrest and newspaper headlines, I think there's maybe a touch of hypersensitivity in the US about the dichotomy between "everyone has the right to bear arms" and "people + guns can kill innocent people". Not to mention the NRA do have a really bad reputation amongst some Responsible shooters, because they're the people who lobbied against introducing technology that would "personalise" some types of newer handguns so that they could only be fired by the legal owner. (Helping to eliminate the "if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" problem.)

In Scotland, I practically count as a gun nut because I have actually fired about three different types of weapon and used to do target shooting on a range.   Most people here will never ever see a firearm except on TV.

So, like the fox that went amongst the chickens, you may get a bit down in the mouth, but sometimes you just find out about gun use the hard way...!

Anyway, while I'm here (this question is open to anyone on the forum)...what do you do to escape from things ?  (Ironically enough, for me it used to be target shooting, but that's not open to me any more.) I'm looking for a new hobby - preferably cheap    - that will occupy not only my hands but my mind as well, without being too energetic.

Reading is my standard escapist pastime, but I get very stiff shoulders and headaches sitting reading nowadays, so I think I need something more active.

I'm lost. My concentration is lousy at the moment, so open-ended questions like this are really not my forte.

Any suggestions ? Anyone ? 

Golf is a great pastime. It sure helps me and my depression. It seems to one of the only things I enjoy doing. You don't have to be good at it to have "fun". You just have to find others who are worse than you to make it interesting.

Weather here makes it only possible to play from April until October.

I would certainly like to be as well read as you are Snohrare. Your intellectual capacity leaves me in the dust. Golf might bore you.

It can be expensive if you join a club. But we just pay "green fees" which costs about $35 for a round of 18 holes. Don't know if this compares to Scotland, but I know in the U.S. the price is much the same and there are many public courses.

The game itself is one where great friendships are made. Then there is always the"19th hole". Do you play, RainDance?

I also find projects I can do around the house a great pastime and good therapy. The only thing here is my do-it-yourself creations look like I did them myself.

It reminds me of the story about the guy who applied for a job as a Handyman. "Do you know carpentry' he was asked. "Nope" he replied.
"How about electrician" ? "No I never did any". " Plumbing then"? "No can't say I can do that" "Welding"? "I don't have a clue"

"Well , what makes you so handy then?"

"Oh, I just around the corner"

  I think that could indeed be a "hole in one" guys ! You must be "on the ball".

Golf (originated in St Andrews, just down the coast from here) is something I did have a short lesson at once, and really enjoyed the focus needed. Which is what shooting requires, and I really miss. I had completely forgotten I had ever even tried it. Most of the golfers I know are well off, and frankly I can't afford to spend much money if any - £5 a time at most. (My income's only £72 a week.) I'd also kind of thought, golfing = long bus journey/long walks, both of which are impossible for me at present. But I had forgotten the local council course, which is bound to be cheap if not actually free to the unemployed, and only a short bus ride away.

 Ralph, I'm going to steal that joke ! As anyone who knows me here will testify, that is exactly how I ended up becoming a "handyman" - I was who they had to help them...("Always practice on other people's property" is my motto )

I'm not really into the winning thing RainDance, what I'm after is the "Zen Zone" mind/body focus like you get with rock climbing... so I think golfing practice will do just hunky-dory. 

apart from golf, you may want to try taking Yoga clases or dancing leasons! even you can try learning some music instruments or singing. lots of things you can get involved with :) it is always good to have more than 1 hobby ^^

 Oh, if only Ralph !

I'd love to go out for an overnighter to one of my beloved bothies.    

I used to spend all my spare time in the hills. My stamping ground was the Cairngorms, a range of hills bordering the Dee valley, near Balmoral where the Queen stays. (Hence known as "Royal Deeside".) Even now my parents have moved out there to retire (our family roots are in the area), and most of my relatives are in the village of Braemar, where the Royal Highland Games are held. So given the chance, I'd spend half my life out there.

Nowadays however I find that even the two hour bus journey can be a gruelling ordeal - no toilets on our buses ! - and given that a trip to our local Safeway is often the limit of my daily perambulations, the idea of a mile or two is laughable. Sadly. 

For a man who used to fell trees, build mountain footpaths and do cross-country ski-ing and solo winter backpacking, I'm afraid my options now are extremely limited. Three or four hours on my feet, never mind walking with a pack, is enough to leave me cream crackered.

Still, as my muscles shrink my mind expands...  

I think I may be a harbinger of the next stage in evolution as discussed by science fiction writers; I am gradually losing the power of mobility, and becoming all brain..... Next stop, the daleks !

I must admit my ignorance of your desease leads me to make suggestions that are unreasonable. I must also state that being "longer in tooth" has rendered me much less mobile than I once was.

The fact that I am also a "couch potato" has not helped. I sometimes think that 20 years ago was yesterday. My mind is willing but the body is in bad shape.

Sno, is there a chance for remission in your case? You are a young man and you seem to have made reference to being able to accomplish many physical tasks.

Raindance . You must be quite a specimen to have broken cement like a convict. Hey, maybe you were a convict. Your driveway story made me tired. I'm sure I'm not up to that heavy labour. My hat is off to you. (if I wore a hat)