MycoolFitz

I'm retired and getting in a rut. No family but thinking of getting a stuffed animal. Serious hard to be sober with time on my hands. Ideas of stuff to do would be good. How do people fill sober time? Love to hear activity ideas.

NewHouse2012

Meetup.com is pretty cool, there are all sorts of meetups and activities posted on there if you join a group you will be invited to all sorts of activities. I go to the gym and read as often as I can. Local community centers also hold classes of all kinds, art, cooking, photography, internet ect. Good luck, there is lots to do out there.

MycoolFitz

I'll check it out, thanks

Happier

I think there is a "sticky thread" that has hundreds of ideas of things to do. Hopefully someone can post a link.

I recently retired as well. Haven't gotten bored yet but a little curious about how I'll do through the winter. As of now I:

Golf (better now that I'm sober), Run, Cycle (as in bicycle), take walks, spend time on this site, help with house chores, read, go to antiuqe stores or garage sales, watch too much TV!......especially Cardinals games.

I recently signed up for a couple of courses that seemed interesting to me at a local tech school here. One is "Antiquing and Collectibles" and the other is "Creating a Web Page". Just cheap interesting courses that meet for a night a week for 3 or 4 weeks.

One other thing I did was to make a list of my favorite accomplishments. I mean go way back to as early as you can remember and just write them down. Then take a shot at just roughly prioritizing them. This helped me to identify what must be important to me and sort of defines where I may want to consider investing more of my time. After all, these are all my most prized accomplishments. Give it a try. Even if it doesn't help you fill your time at least you'll get to have a lot of good memories and feel good about yourself : )

Good luck!

artsoul

I like working with my hands.... it's very therapuetic, and the possibilities are endless. Knitting, carving, gardening, painting, refinishing furniture..... There's a satisfaction that comes from making something (and from giving it away, too!).

bjames

Have you thought about volunteer work? I volunteered at an animal shelter for awhile and loved it.

least

I'm also retired and spend my time with my dogs. I also help care for my mom who's in assisted living due to dementia. None of this would be possible if I were still drinking...

Sugarfix

With drinking I had very little time to do anything. If I wasn't sat with a glass of Wine in my hand... I would be suffering the next day with a hangover.

Now, when I drop the kids off at school in the morning I go and do the shopping first thing... and am home by 10am. I clean the house, prepare a meal, use the internet...

.. evenings I read books, watch movies, speak to friends, use the internet for talking to people... research vitamins and things I can do to improve my life.

I love it! Only been sober 6 days but the change is incredible!

I have so much more money too so have been treating myself and the kids to little bits... like things for the house.. I wouldn't usually care for!

MrsKing

I love to bake. It's something I've only got into since I've been sober, but it's definitely my favourite thing to do when I have some time available or if I'm stressed. I find it very therapeutic and afterwards it feels great to look at pretty cakes I know I've made them. Other people love it too

I also walk my dog and play badminton - I'm currently building up my ability and confidence to join the badminton club at my local gym... but there are lots of sport clubs available, and also walking clubs. Both of those seem like great things to do to meet new people and have fun.

silly

Woodworking! Although that can get expensive up front. But if there's a technical school in the area it could be a great place to start. I've taken some pretty cool classes at the tech schools and did things using tools I just couldn't afford to have at home.

My aunt retired recently and she takes adult learning classes at a nearby college. Her classes consist of people in her age range and the classes are everything from current events to spanish to political science. She takes Spanish because she always wanted to learn and well, why not?

Jakkolantern

More hobbies than time... I write and record music, practice different instruments, write software, read books, watch movies, go for walks, go to the gym (now), crawl the web for news unavailable to the North American news networks, engage in photography, search for new music, attend night courses, and cook like a madman. And visit friends.

backbeat

Photography, and I post my pics online... I started a photography business shooting kids and families. There are websites like DPChallenge.com if you like to take pictures, where you can enter your pics into online challenges.

Reading, I take my kindle with me everywhere... and I take myself out to breakfast/lunch/dinner sometimes. I bring the kindle if nobody's around to join me. It's fun actually, to just sit there and enjoy a meal and be immersed in a good book or magazine and people watch.

Nap!!

I also belong to a few Meetup.com groups.

I'm going to add meetings to my list of things to do this time around...

Occasionally I try to learn French using Rosetta Stone, try learning some guitar chords, and I'd love to spend a day with a lump of clay soon. I watch TV, watch movies, cook, plan some awesome-sounding recipe and go get the ingredients and make it. Walk outside, ride my motorcycle.

pooky

i can hear you are struggling Fitz you were on here when I was here last year.I have an empty nest.. not quite retired but I hear ya.Keep up the good work