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Similar situation - I’d been at a job for about 10 years that robbed me of all of my time, but didn’t pay me enough to comfortably stay home or take vacations.
I went freelance but current events happened and now I’m home a lot. I beat Elden Ring. I put like 100 hours into Rimworld. Gaming can get super depressing in a concentrated binge, so what I also have done:
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Backpacking. Nerd out on gear for a week or so, go to REI and drop some money, and go walk for days at a time. I love it. Most recently just did a 15 mile out, sleep, 15 mile back trip and it definitely was good on my brain (rough on my body)
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DIY tech projects. I had a couple raspberry pis around. One is now a synth / sequencer / workstation with a midi keyboard using the Zynthian OS and the other is going to do some self-hosting.
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Fixing my furnace. This one isn’t one I recommend.
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Cigars for me, but any kind of highly indulgent consumable that people like to talk about. Chocolate, wine, cheese, etc.
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Exploring. You’d be amazed what you can find just walking around. A friend just showed me a crazy underground stream that I’ve been walking over for YEARS now and I had no idea it existed. Going to go check it out.
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Plants and Birds. I have a front porch. My days of nothing to do usually start with about an hour or so on the porch with a cigar, watching and trying to identify the birds that come to my feeder and admiring the progress of my plants that are growing out there.
This album was a frequent listen for me when I was in high school, every once in a while I go back to it and it still holds up.