2019 Reflections

[YellowThumper]

Great thread @Cudajason .
Bit late but here goes. 2019 was a 50/50 mix year for me.
Most all my life for the past 6 years has evolved around my daughter and her chosen sport of basketball. Very high level player in HS and multiple traveling club teams. High school senior. 3 games before season end then playoffs she blows out her left knee. Both meniscus and ACL. Team went nowhere in playoffs without her. That's the bad... good was she had already signed a scholarship contract for a local college. Scholarship remains valid if injury is from playing and it covers roughly 95% of the cost for full 5 years.
Surgery went incredibly well. All meniscus remained intact and ACL was tight and strong. For 9 months... With no known cause her ACL tore 50% again. No injury or over exertion caused it. Belief is scar tissue damaged it when therapy was working thru it. Her body created excessive scar tissue. New surgery scheduled for tomorrow 01/06.   .
If all goes well this time she should still be ready in time for her second season. Red shirted the first already.

Me, the good. I started a new job again (by choice and Nov 2018). Very difficult place to get into. I am a plastic injection mold maker. Medical research and engineering facility that also produces their own tooling.
The bad is my (business friend) that got me in there was completely inept at one of his positions. Company also has many (many) offshore (mostly China) production molds being produced.  I ended up helping him out with those builds to get him caught up.
Good/bad is the engineering staff took notice that I was getting the tool projects moving forward better than him. His boss stole me away from him and made me the sole project manager for the tooling offshore.
Plenty of animosity from my friend who hired me in there in the first place. Previous employ I managed their offshore builds for 20 years. Sorry for him but at 58years old I dont care what I do as long as they pay and treat me well.

Bad x2 for me is doctors found I have a bad Mitral valve in my heart. It is fairly severe so most likely it will require surgery. Always tired but keep pushing on.
As noted I am 58 years old. 6' 1" tall. 180lbs. Don't smoke, drink in absolute moderation. Not perfect but overall eat healthy.
Just cannot get past the genetics of my family line.

The good...
I get up every day and trudge on.

2020.
Kid schooling is paid for. Many neglected (kids sports) house items are addressed.
I expect to actually work on Challenger this year. FI AND TT here we come.

[Cudajason]

Great thread @Cudajason .
Bit late but here goes. 2019 was a 50/50 mix year for me.
Most all my life for the past 6 years has evolved around my daughter and her chosen sport of basketball. Very high level player in HS and multiple traveling club teams. High school senior. 3 games before season end then playoffs she blows out her left knee. Both meniscus and ACL. Team went nowhere in playoffs without her. That's the bad... good was she had already signed a scholarship contract for a local college. Scholarship remains valid if injury is from playing and it covers roughly 95% of the cost for full 5 years.
Surgery went incredibly well. All meniscus remained intact and ACL was tight and strong. For 9 months... With no known cause her ACL tore 50% again. No injury or over exertion caused it. Belief is scar tissue damaged it when therapy was working thru it. Her body created excessive scar tissue. New surgery scheduled for tomorrow 01/06.   .
If all goes well this time she should still be ready in time for her second season. Red shirted the first already.

Me, the good. I started a new job again (by choice and Nov 2018). Very difficult place to get into. I am a plastic injection mold maker. Medical research and engineering facility that also produces their own tooling.
The bad is my (business friend) that got me in there was completely inept at one of his positions. Company also has many (many) offshore (mostly China) production molds being produced.  I ended up helping him out with those builds to get him caught up.
Good/bad is the engineering staff took notice that I was getting the tool projects moving forward better than him. His boss stole me away from him and made me the sole project manager for the tooling offshore.
Plenty of animosity from my friend who hired me in there in the first place. Previous employ I managed their offshore builds for 20 years. Sorry for him but at 58years old I dont care what I do as long as they pay and treat me well.

Bad x2 for me is doctors found I have a bad Mitral valve in my heart. It is fairly severe so most likely it will require surgery. Always tired but keep pushing on.
As noted I am 58 years old. 6' 1" tall. 180lbs. Don't smoke, drink in absolute moderation. Not perfect but overall eat healthy.
Just cannot get past the genetics of my family line.

The good...
I get up every day and trudge on.

2020.
Kid schooling is paid for. Many neglected (kids sports) house items are addressed.
I expect to actually work on Challenger this year. FI AND TT here we come.

@YellowThumper ... I think we all have our ups and downs, its all in how you weather them.  Sorry to hear about your daughter.  My daughter is a national level athlete (Karate) and had a complete tear of her ACL about 18 months ago, during a training seminar..  She is 13 months out from surgery.  I have seen how tough that is to come back from...I can only imaging how tough it is the second time.

I hope she recovers. 

Jason

[js27]

YellowThumper- I found out I also had MVP(mitral valve prolapse) in my 30's. Always had it checked once a year. Always classified as Moderate. When I got into my 50's it started pushing towards the severe. My Cardiologist said we will need to talk about possible surgery in the future. This was in 2012. In early 2013 on my appointment he said nothing changed so he would not recommend surgery yet. On labor day weekend 2013 my Mitral Valve Ruptured. I had no pain and never felt a thing. I did 6 hours of yard work on that Friday and when I went to bed and laid down I could not breath. If I sat up I was fine so I slept sitting up on my couch. Saturday I felt fine and went to the beach and spent 4 hours playing in the waves. Saturday night went to bed and could not breath laying down so back out on the couch I went. Sunday felt fine did another 4 hours of yard work-no problems at all. Then I was talking the garbage can out and got real dizzy and had to hold on to the can so I would not fall down. 10 minutes later it passed but did feel a bit tired. Sunday night went to bed couldn't breath laying down  and just started feeling crappy. At 2:00 am my wife takes me to the hospital. MY valve had ruptured--my lungs were 80% filled with fluid ( why I could not breath laying down)-my kidneys were shutting down--my digestive system was shutting down. I was on my way out.. I learned that this is what happens when your heart doesn't pump enough blood. Seems that your brain take all the blood it needs to continues working. If there is not enough blood then the brain starts shutting down other body systems. Hence multiple organ failure. I was lucky I got to the hospital when I did. Had open heart surgery a few day later after they stabilized my other organs. I was on bypass for 5 1/2 hours and had no heart beat for 5 1/2 hours. I was lucky and they were able to repair my valve with " The Ring". I was out of work for 9 weeks. The surgery kicked my ass-I have never felt that week or helpless in my life. At that time I was 58-never smoked-never drank-165 lbs-exercised 1 hour a day-5 days a week and was in perfect health-took no medications at all. Please do not under estimate MPV if you are in the severe range or close to it. Shit can go downhill fast and you may not even know it. Best of luck to you and a Great 2020. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
JS27

[Burdar]

The older you get, the faster the years go by.  Lately the years all seem to blend together without anything huge separating them.  We did take a nice trip to New York state and got to see West Point and New York City.  That's the main thing that stands out for the year.

My daughter continues to grow and learn new things.  She is definitely opinionated and wants things done HER way.  Hoping that 2020 brings the end of diaper changes and continued health for her.

Julie started a new job on Dec 23.  She has been at the same company for 15 years so making a change was very hard for her.  Over the past 2 years she's struggled to get 4 hours of work per day.  Obviously that's been frustrating for her as well as being not good four our bank account.  She will be traveling more rural roads to get to work instead of traveling the interstate.  For that reason we just bought her a 19 Jeep Cherokee so she can feel more comfortable on the road.  I took over driving the 16 Dart.

For me personally, 2019 saw me balloon to my heaviest weight I've ever been.  I feel like crap and need to make a change or I won't be around much longer.  Hopefully I can get off my ass in 2020 and make that happen.  Also, hoping that if Julie's job change goes well, we can get the 68 Dart into the paint shop in the fall.

[wldgtx]

If 2019 put shade on your life, I hope that 2020 brings sunshine.

Like everyone 2019 was up and down, but I count my blessings and thankful for what I have and where things are going.  I was told by my knee doctor that I have stage 5 osteoarthritis... (there are only 4 stages) so that is not good... But I was able to run a 10k and placed 17th in my age bracket, 127th overall out of thousands.  So that was a highlight for me considering I trained for two months and had not run since I was in the Marine Corps.

Honestly, I cannot complain about any setbacks I had...

Again to anyone that has posted or will post, if you had misfortune in the past, I hope that you find a new path and it guides you to whatever or wherever you find happiness.