An older coworker once told me, as I was becoming a homeowner for the first time, that I would never be bored again. There is always something that needs to be fixed, organized, cleaned, remodeled, moved or tinkered with around the house, he said.

He was somewhat right. Being a homeowner does keep me busy, though not as much as expected considering my lack of handyman skills make me revert to the classic homeowner strategy of ignoring anything that needs fixing because I’ll only make the problem much worse if I try to mend it.

However, this coworker of mine didn’t have children, so he was unaware that being a parent is an absolute guarantee you’ll never be bored again.

Around the time I bought that first home, and several years prior to becoming a dad, I re-discovered NASCAR diecast collecting. And thanks to this hobby, there’s always entertainment and enjoyment to be found.

Like many collectors, I spent an inordinate amount of time dedicated to this hobby (and that doesn’t even include the time I spend writing for this publication). Whenever I find down time — only about six minutes a day, it seems, thanks to work, being a husband and the aforementioned fatherhood and homeowner duties — it’s typically spend doing something related to the collecting hobby.

I scan eBay or other selling services in the hopes I might come across something unique, desirable or even something mundane I might want to add to my collection. Of course, there’s always the hope I’ll come across that elusive diecast we’ve been searching for, unfruitfully, for years. Or maybe one I’ve never seen before that, upon discovering it, I must have. Maybe I’ll hit the proverbial jackpot and find some rare, ultra-valuable diecast being sold on Facebook Marketplace just one town over that is listed for $40, knowing recent examples have sold for four or five times that price. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s bound to eventually, right?

My social media feeds have been effectively stripped down to where I see nothing but posts from family/friends or posts from diecast groups. Additionally, there’s some diecast forums to peruse, learn about new diecasts or older models I don’t know the history behind, or connect with my fellow collectors. Or just admire the additions to their collections or show off my own.

I guess this wasn’t enough, though. So I started making custom diecasts. This opens a seemingly infinite amount of entertainment. Between buying donor diecasts, searching for decals, attempting to make decals myself, stripping, painting, applying decals, clear coating and finishing customs, there’s always something related to diecasts to do. Plus, I can continually search for diecasts I want to make. My current obsession is trying to find reference media for Mike Bliss’ 2004 Chevy Rock & Roll 400 No. 80 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevy. Bliss was sponsored by Hunt’s, and I want to make a custom of this car to add to my food/drink sponsored collection. If this exhaustive search for seemingly lost media were under any other umbrella, I would have already given up. But because it’s related to diecasts, I’m enjoying the hunt, pun kind of intended.

It’s easy to complain about things that must be done around the house, or other day-to-day responsibilities we must tend to, but there’s never a complaint when I’m doing anything diecast related. Part of that is because I control those times, but mostly, it just underscores how much I love this hobby.