Last summer Rose and I took up a new hobby: horse-riding. I’d sat on a horse many times in the past, but always as a passenger rather than a driver! We got hooked, and we’ve been going once a week ever since. I wish we could ride more often.
I was trying to work out quite why I enjoy it so much, and I think it’s largely that it’s so different from anything else I do. Much of my time I spend working with machines, which generally behave in a fairly predictable and repeatable way. My car isn’t sluggish about changing into third gear just because it didn’t get a good night’s sleep. But on the other hand, it doesn’t rub affectionately against me either.
Another factor is that I spend so much time trying to predict, invent and plan for the future that it’s fun to pursue an activity which is shamelessly wallowing in the past. Good for preserving one’s sense of balance (in more ways than one).
Recommended for geeks everywhere.
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