What's your 2017 "Year in Review?" 100 words or less

 While I like my new job and the people I work with, the hours are wearing me down and only being home from late Friday night to early Monday morning right now isn't helping. Noticed a little grumbling from the wife, too.  Problem is finding a job in IT that doesn't require 60h/week minimum and doesn't bore me to tears.

Automotively, it's been a crap year - between the 996 getting totaled and the ongoing achilles tendon issues, I've lacked the motivation to do anything about racing, including putting the motor for the formula car back together. All that while not driving the ND and the RX8 being attacked by furry critters.

I guess at some point I should make the effort to find out if the lack of motivation is burn out, depression or both.

Not sure how many words are in it but I took 1-5 second clips of every video I shot this year put them all together in one Supercut-it tells a story

Mark's 2017 Supercut

Good: Got lift installed in the garage.

Middle of the road: Challenge truck was a disappointment, but should break at least even selling it.

Bad: More gut, less hair, possibly damaged hearing....

My first full year as a grandad, and I like it !

Went to the Runoffs for the first time to spectate with my son.

Got 8 cousins together with my last remaining aunt for a weekend.

Working on a family reunion with all 43 cousins for next year.

Went to the Challenge for the 5th time, but this year I took a car and did reasonably well .

Still playing hockey. It's been a good year !

Good stuff: 

Bought a project from a fellow grmer, did some racing both on motorcycles and in cars, semi successfully. Got to drive at an hpde at the indianapolis motor speedway. Have a garage full of crazy toys I don't need, job is going well, sister got married, healthy family.

Bad stuff:

First major car accident, my fault. Concussion still has lingering headaches and possible impact on my optimism. Blew the engine in the e30. Stagnant, depressing social life. General aimlessness as to what the point of it all is, getting worse every year. Dealing with it by building cool stuff. 

Can't say that 2017 really sucked that bad, but I definitely have some things to work on for 2018.

The second half was far better than the first half.

Working backend at a high-end dealership is fun.

I wouldn't move back to BC if you paid me.

Ontario's even better than I remember.

High school is BS, college is great.

Everybody needs at least one car that just works.

The Infiniti G35 might be the best daily-driver bargain right now.

It's better to buy a few really nice/high-quality things than loads of cheap E36 M3.

It's awesome when you find people who've been through some E36 M3 and know that it's okay to not always be okay.

2017 was good. 

Kicked ass at work, my daughter is 2 and amazing, and my wife is due in February. Had to sell off some toys (my f250 and snowmobiles) but we’re almost out of debt except the cars and house so... win?

New city. New job. Purchased new house. Girlfriend moved in. Decided to keep the BRZ instead of spend $45-60k on a car that will see 150-200 miles per month. 

All is right in the world for now.

2017 recap.

Family, still married, kids 24, 11, 11, 8 years of age are great.  

Racing, the car still runs after last year, best finish was a fourth place Lemons race @ Joliet.  Shaved four seconds off of my best at Grattan on old tires with the HPDE/DD car.

Bad stuff, my oldest daughters mom died from a self inflicted bullet to the head, this is going to make for a long year for of grieving and firsts with out her.

Good stuff,  1st year of cabin ownership has been great.  I still have a job, and added a CDL to my skill set.  

Life is overall good and ready for 2018.

I made it all the way through and considering how many high school friends we've buried in the last few years, that isn't a given.

After 12 years of being in the MINI world, I finally have a R53 MINI of my own.

I planned, wrote and published a 3 day route book for America's British Reliability Run

Besides the MINI, I added another two project cars to my already overwhelming collection of cars.

I'm in the worst physical shape of my life, which is my #1 goal to fix in 2018.

I have no social life... 

The bad: My grandmother died, found out my sister has very very little time left, lost my job, politics.

The good: Got a job with higher pay and less hours, had some fun trips with friends.

I hope 2018 is better then 2017

Ian F said:

 

I'm in the worst physical shape of my life, which is my #1 goal to fix in 2018.

 

Same here, I got on the scale this morning and it's literally the heaviest I've been in my entire life. 

Built a new shop. Worked on some house projects. Found out that Little STM is on the way. Bought MrsSTM a mom-mobile.

They didn't get permission to use the nearby airfield for autocross this year, so the closest event is now 1.5 hours each way. I didn't make it to a single event this year.

72 Chevy won't start (probably needs a new fuel pump), Need to make new seat brackets for the race truck, finally get a dyno tune, and hopefully resolve a TPS issue. No progress at all on the Nova.

Overall, feeling pretty fortunate.

Daughter went to a top college and is killing it, son went to kindergarten and is killing it, wife's company is growing an she is killing it, me...not so much.  But I ran a hillclimb, took first in HS again and am improving as a driver.  

Baby # 2! Adorable and still not sleeping through the night. Central theme of 2017.

Baby # 1 is now 3 and smart as a whip.

Everything else is window dressing.

Here's my 2017 thoughts:

Great things:

-Did well at my day job (IT Admin), learned lots and gained experience

-Did well at my 2nd job (writing about cars), made some connections and even got to do some stuff for GRM!!! 

-Started going to a gym and learned what to do there

-Didn't die!

Not so great things:

-Stopped going to the gym halfway through the year because I literally stabbed myself in the foot in a freak kitchen accident (don't unload a dishwasher barefoot, kids!)

-Too busy to do anything, and that includes wrenching on my project cars

-One of my project cars got crushed by a tree

-Everything in the world outside my little bubble of fun is going straight to Hell as if we are on the wrong timeline

Looking forward to a better 2018!!!

berkeleying awesome.

You be the judge, bad or horrible?

I started the year engaged to my best friend. She is tall, sexy, smart, likes hunting ducks, fishing and a good driver. I have known her for 20 years, dated her for 4 years and lived with her for 3 years, May 21st she died unexpectedly. In August  I broke the scaphoid - lunate ligament in my left wrist. I am put in a cast September 3rd I had surgery to repair it mid September and  another surgery December 8th to remove the temporary pins. I was in a cast until December 18th and now wear a removable brace until March 19th.  September 8th the transaxle in my 944 started making death noises. It sits at home needing the replacement transaxle installed.

I do have a job that I love and it is likely to be available to me for the next 2 years until I am eligible to take the Certified Welding Inspector exam.

In reply to pilotbraden :

I had no idea CWIs got paid so well.  I was one back in 97-99 for the princely wage of $9 an hour.  And it was just a side gig for the company I worked for, we also inspected dirt, concrete, plastics, and about anything else one could use to build anything from a landfill to a skyscraper. 

It was fun work but back then it didn't pay well (around here).  Good luck!!

Kinda this:

With a helping of this:

I am very grateful to the wife unit for doing more laughing than not at my ongoing antics. I will try for a 26th year.

2017 was the year without a summer. Not weather-wise, but more in terms of life getting in the way of me doing summer things like boating, jet skiing, kayaking, SUPing and going to the beach.  Wife had a major surgery. Youngest son had 4 surgeries. In-laws had several health related issues. Basically from March thru the end of the year I worked and took care of people. 

The good parts are that I have people to take care of and work is good.

Looking forward to 2018. 

2017 saw a lack lack of life and forum participation on my part due to the millstone of house renovations being firmly tied around my neck. I worked till the 11th hour, and still didn't quite manage to get everything achieved that I'd hoped to. But I'm 98% done, and that's a pass mark in nearly any test you'll ever take, so I'm good with that.

We took chances we weren't sure were going to work out in our favor....

... and they did.  By a large margin.  and I'm very happy.