Strangely Therapeutic Things

77GreenMachine said:
Splitting wood
Clearing brush
Organizing my garage
Washing a very dirty vehicle

It’s something about being very focused on something, and getting to see actual results relatively quick that leads the great satisfaction when it’s done. I love to see the before and after in all of the above. Except splitting wood at @BigClay house. That wasn’t therapeutic at all.
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Come on up to the house anytime and you can see it in person after you’re finished with all the above.
 
Digging with an excavator. Honestly if I won the lottery, I WOULD quit my current job, only to buy a few $Million in equipment and move dirt, be it just for me...or maybe other people if I chose[/QUOTE]

Oh hell ya, years ago my brother had an acre of woods logged off his backyard. He had a pig pickin and a friend brought a large backhoe/bucket tractor to the party. He and I and a bunch of our friends drank beer and took turns digging up the stumps all day long. There was much fun,laughing and loud teasing of the dumbasses/drunks and peeps who never ran a BH before. One guy who had some experience was yelling/criticizing everyone else who was digging @ the roots and stumps . He finally got his turn and went to work on one big/tough stump we had worked on for more than an hour.He worked it for a while and then went to move the tractor that had been in gear w the wheels spinning fast the whole time. Somebody tried to tell him but the guy who owned it shook his head no and we let it go. He went to move the tractor w the seat facing the hoe.Smart ass reached back and lifted the bucket and then the stabilizers. The spinning tires hit the ground and the BH took off backwards fast, prolly 20mph . It ran about 40' bouncing up and down and into the woods on a steep hill as he tried to turn around and stop the tractor. Dumbass finally stopped it but he was lucky he did'nt roll it or crash into any large trees. He was plenty embarrassed and we all teased him about his phukup..... By the end of the day all the stumps were dug up and about everyone learned how to run/dig w a BH..............good times!
 
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mommucked said:
By the end of the day all the stumps were dug up and about everyone learned how to run/dig w a BH..............good times!
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2005-2009 I suffered from some serious burnout. Got tired of engineering. Went to work for a friend I had made on job sites back in the 90s. Owned a construction company. Was the best backhoe operator I'd ever seen. He could crab walk an extend-a-hoe across footings 5ft wide and never drop the tires on the ground, nor spin the seat back around to tractor mode.
He taught me how to operate an excavator. I'm privileged to use his equipment when it's not busy on a job site. Its saved me thousands, and it's the most fun "working" I've ever had.
 
VortecJeep said:
Splitting wood. Not with a log splitter, the old fashion way.

Some people call it a “maul”, I call it a “go-devil”. Mm-hm.
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I used to like swinging the maul tool and was pretty good w a sledge and wedge though I did break a few handles :eek: the pop and splitting of a fat round was satisfying, picking up, and standing the splits to split again is a most of the work. A few years ago I fubared my left shoulder and now swinging the maul aggravates it.W the log splitter I can split a pile of wood w/o breaking a sweat or making my shoulder ache for days. I park it beside the stack of wood and it's too easy.I grab a log, split it in 4 or more pieces and put the split pieces back on the pile. I can have 5 or 8 pieces split and back on the stack in a minute or less or wheelbarrow full in 5 minutes.
 
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Tuning a guitar ...... even more satisfying if it's a new build being tuned for the first time.
plink, plank, clang
Take your time ..... get it juuuust riiiiiight.
next string
ping pang plong

now back to the first one

plink etc. etc.


Matt
 
-Chipping weld slag
-tying knots
-wandering around completely lost in the woods for hours on end.
-hatchet/knife throwing
-using a weedeater
-walkimg around very old cemeteries
 
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Lizooki said:
Tuning a guitar ...... even more satisfying if it's a new build being tuned for the first time.
plink, plank, clang
Take your time ..... get it juuuust riiiiiight.
next string
ping pang plong

now back to the first one

plink etc. etc.


Matt
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You're making me miss playing my guitar. I might have to go tune mine up again now, just for chits and giggles.

What is therapeutic for me is slinging lead down range (one well placed shot at a time, of course ;) ). I won't say the caliber doesn't matter, because 12 ga. slugs kinda beat the shat out of my shoulder the last time I had to shoot 50+ of them. But if I can go burn a couple boxes of 9mm, .40, .357, .45, or of course 5.56, when I'm done I feel like I just got a massage. Everything strangely comes into focus when peeking down those sights...
 
Writing.

I bet over the last 18 months I've typed a quarter million words... and probably deleted/edited about 100,000 of them.

Spartan Races. Just finished one Sunday and spent yesterday morning in Urgent Care(par for course - I always get hurt.) But there is something satisfying about being a 6'4", 230lb ogre and passing dudes with six packs wheezing for breath or cramping up on the side of the trail. I also enjoy smoke-checking obstacles that involve strength, like Herculean lift, Atlas Stone, etc. But those wiry little buggers always make me look like a turd on anything that involves dexterity or agility...
 
Just floating in a warm lake!
 

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i have to go with bushhoging or box blade work as well as running a backhoe for hours on end.
it's nice to look back at the end of the day and see what has been accomplished.
of course cuddling with the old lady is strangely therapeutic too.
 
77GreenMachine said:
Splitting wood
Clearing brush
Organizing my garage
Washing a very dirty vehicle

It’s something about being very focused on something, and getting to see actual results relatively quick that leads the great satisfaction when it’s done. I love to see the before and after in all of the above. Except splitting wood at @BigClay house. That wasn’t therapeutic at all.
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That wasn't wood, that was straight concrete...
 
One I forgot to mention earlier: Driving.
There's few things that will calm my nerves quicker than scouring for-sale ads, jumping in the truck with several hundred/thousand dollars and driving for hours across multiple States buying random stuff for no damn reason.
 
Grinding/flap discing welds on repairs and not being able to see what was welded and what wasn't at the end. I don't get to weld much anymore so when I do I usually waste a lot of time making something look good that doesn't matter or no one will ever notice, or both :lol:
 
awheelterd said:
Grinding/flap discing welds on repairs and not being able to see what was welded and what wasn't at the end. I don't get to weld much anymore so when I do I usually waste a lot of time making something look good that doesn't matter or no one will ever notice, or both :lol:
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That's a constant battle between us at work and high end customers. They want "seemless" in areas where sometimes a good solid weld is paramount to the integrity of the piece. Design is extremely crucial however, as always. 9/10 times, we can nail it. That one time, we have to pleasantly surprise them by the fact that yes, there may be a weld visible, and none of us exactly suck at it.
I feel ya there 100%!
 
XJsavage said:
One I forgot to mention earlier: Driving.
There's few things that will calm my nerves quicker than scouring for-sale ads, jumping in the truck with several hundred/thousand dollars and driving for hours across multiple States buying random stuff for no damn reason.
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Something about this just seems to really epitomize the freedom that our forefathers envisioned.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Something about this just seems to really epitomize the freedom that our forefathers envisioned.
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Yessir! My sleeves are up as one who fights for it, and hat is off to those who have died for it.
Amen.
 
Throwing hay bales, demo on block walls with hammer, cutting and hanging tobacco hanging really cuttin sucks when ya tall... cold ice baths $7 a month 4 bags of ice fill tub and soak till hypo feels like it’s kicking in then thaw and repeat! Next day and few hours later makes me feel like a million bucks! Painful as fawk tho especially after first defrost lol
 
This one is strange.

Bob Ross, yep the painter.

For some reason I can watch this dude paint for 30 seconds and I am out cold.

Found this out in college when I was dealing with insomnia. Turn this show on, and I am instantly asleep.........
 
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