Im in Texas, and my flavor of financial infidelity is definitely automotive in nature. The only thing remotely as interesting as automotive knowledge procurement is tool procurement. I have an unhealthy obsession with hand tools, and I can admit that the older I get, the more tool snobbish I become. Not for the latest, greatest, most expensive kind, but for the used, abused, custom bent or fabricated kind that nobody but the user has any idea what it's used for. For that one wrench you heated and bent perfectly, 3 different ways, to gain access to a single exhaust bolt on some poorly engineered exhaust manifold/header. I find a tool like that at a garage sale and I'm buying it, without even knowing what it's for, haha.
My day job has little to no use for a shop, but my hobbies are cars and motorcycles, almost exclusively, minus the occasional weekend out fishing on the boat. I've raced and rebuilt engines since my late teens (mid 40's now) but now I only pull engines and transmissions from wrecked vehicles as a "side hustle" on the occasional weekend.
Between the boat, my 1996 Trans Am love affair, and dirtbikes, I ran out of room in the house garage and finally got the approval from the wife to build out a 25 x 30 steel building as a shop/garage. I'm close to finishing up my erosion control measures, and I hope to have the electrical completed in 2 weeks if I can get enough free time, then I'll move everything over from the garage to the shop.
