So, how did your 2010 go?

Everything up until 2010 was all the same BS.

2010 was good. Replaced my POS 9-3 with 9000 Aero, enjoyed the last half of my senior year, graduated HS, got out of retail and into something I actually enjoy, bought a '96 900SE, got laid off, got re-hired with a raise, got in my first majorish car accident (not my fault), bought a '91 9000T.

carguy123 wrote: Don't complain to us

I didn't.

I don't have a clue what you guys are arguing about...TLDR...

I can say 2010 wasn't a bad year. A few not so good things but the good was good. Started off with a very good promotion at work. Then a work mentor passed away and I got most of his duties, more work and responsibility but getting more known in the community. Became a grandfather. Found old friends. My uncle passed away about 2 weeks after I visited him. Found out that my health nut and athletic B-I-L has terminal lung cancer (not the kind from smoking), hoping to see his son graduate HS and his son is a junior in HS now. Reacting well to treatments. Spent time twice with grandson, once at son's place in NC and once here in AL during T-giving when I had a house full of family and friends.During the visit to my son's place, his mother was also visiting from CA and she was actually cordial. But did find out that she gets real friendly when drinking, which didn't help things with my wife but she got over it. The above friend I found visited from WA during that time. And found out that I'll be a grandpa again in July. And oldest daughter graduated college - finally. Oh yeah, after autocrossing for about 4 years now and doing some upgrades to my car, came in 2nd in class for the season with the local club.

2010 was probably the best year of my life since law school. 2011 will hopefully be as good or better.

I believe it was Dickens who wrote in the Tale of 2 Cities "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" 2010 certainly feels that way for me.

I buried 2 grandfathers, a great aunt and an aunt who was only a year older than me. I also saw the passing of a great mentor and friend in the car hobby. Finally I said goodbye to 2 of my longtime companion dogs who succumbed to illness this year.

On the other side I started in October of last year being given a 1958 Wartburg which had sat in a field for 20 years with the goal of having it prepped by June to enter into the "trifecta of crap".

First the Big Apple to Big Easy rally, New York to New Orleans in 5 days with a car purchased for $500 or less (www.baberally.com). We finished the build at 11 pm the night before the rally and made it 3 miles toward the hotel start before it died out with fueling issues and we towed it home. Woke up with 3 hours sleep, fixed the fueling system and headed out again to catch the rally only do have the oil pump seals blow 60 mile later. I sent the rest of the team ahead and did a motor swap solo in 2 days then rather stupidly decided to drive 18 hours straight, in a car that we pieced together that had never been proven, never driven, no AAA, no support crew, no sleep. 18 hours, in the rain, no wipers, no defrost, no sanity. My best moment was pulling into the hotel parking lot at 8 pm after departing at 3 am and knowing I could quit and turn it over to my team who went on ahead in our backup car.

After that we came home with 3 days to turn a road rally, street legal car into a full prepped road race car for a 24 hour endurance race at Summit Point WV (www.24hoursoflemons.com). We got her turned around in the 11th hour and burned up the track. Lots of teething pains for a car that never saw a track before but at the end of the day she was fast, danged fast and she took the IOE prize which is the top honor of the event for doing the most with the least.

Finally we turned her around again by September to compete in the Grassroots Motorsports Challenge (www.grassrootsmotorsports.com) Autocross, Concours and Drag race over 3 days for sub 2k cars. The car didnt blow up...dont know if I could ask for more, but more it gave and we won our class and one of my drivers took the prize for best reaction time at the drags to boot.

It was a terrible year punctuated by some amazing highlights. But as much as I love my cars and my build the best parts were punctuated by the people who were there with me for the ride and who made it all worthwhile.

When my dad's father passed away right before the rally I was ready to give in. My team pressed on while I was at the funeral. I was given my grandfathers tools since Im the only "mechanic" in the family anymore. Nothing special, nothing impressive, but every time I needed to grab for a wrench and held one of his in my hand I felt more inspired to press on and felt a connection to the past that I think we all hope to achieve as we work on these relics.

In reply to Javelin:

After 4 years of seemingly endless health issues, I was fairly healthy in 2010! Nothing else really matters.

I could complain about a lot in 2010, but I have a roof over my head, food on the table, a great job, and the Taliban is not shooting at me, so I am pretty grateful.

I participated in my first motorsport event in about a decade at the challenge. It was a modest entry but I managed to not embarrass myself too badly and I made it home in one piece.

A pretty slow year overall but I am happy to have seen some old friends, made a few new ones and restart a hobby. My girlfriend is not exactly thrilled that I am now shopping around for a track toy to update my education

I'm truly glad so many of you had good year's in 2010 and are looking forward to 2011! Happy new year!

You guys are giving me some wonderful quotes! I do a market update for my customers and the info comes from a variety of places. This time a lot's coming from this thread.

To know how to plan and how to market you need to know what the people are thinking.

Javelin wrote: ... was a full-time student at Washington State University....

You went to WSU? I knew you were from the PNW, but not that you went to school so few miles from where I did a long time ago.

Manage to improve your education from across the border? I knew a Wazzu FB player who did one of the specialty engineering courses I took in Moscow.

2010- good. 15 year wedding anniversary, and ran a lot. got injured, but am still smaller than I was 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago.

WSU Vancouver for me. Never been to Pullman. Great school though!

Other things that happened in 2010: I lost 25 Lbs (and kept 15 of it off ), traveled to New York City (where I missed meeting Wally ), Washington DC, and Victoria, BC.

My 2010 was great. I worked full time at an OK job, then changed to a great job at a good company in a better part of the state for me. I started grad school in the spring, took a summer course, worked myself to the bone, took the fall off. Got the MR2 dead reliable, and almost fast even. Health is good. Still with the same lovely lady. Rescued a 4 month old puppy mut from the the pound, she's great.

I forgot a lot that I had done in 2010 I started school and participated in my first motorsports event ever, a school bracket drag tourney
won two rounds somehow lol, feel I could have done a lot better with different tires (still have the stock E36 M3 tires on) and my driving time was rubbish but apparently there are a lot of people who can't drive at my school lol towards the end I got down to .1 and .2 reaction times, and had a lot of fun racing a slow car lol (10.5 1/8th mile in a kia ftw!)
also discovered grm and the challenge, and the challenge has ignited in me a drive to participate I haven't had before got married to my lady of 4 years now
filed taxes for the first time ($1k in back taxes is no fun)
broke my ankle, broke my shoulder, broke my hand, lost some meat in my arm, got a concussion
altogether a fantastic year, hoping 2011 will be even better

2010 had it's ups and downs, I doubt 2011 will be any flatter.

Happy New Year!

The year 2010 ad was a good year at casa de fat guy for the most part. My brother and his wife had a baby girl, and my sister and her husband have one on the way. I finally got the raise that comes with my promotion, that I got three years ago, and I can pick decent work so I am home most weekends.

The only downsides are that I seem to have found the weight everyone else lost, and the wife's job is up in the air while the state "streamlines". Either she will be doing the work of a forth former co-worker, or someone else will be figuring out how to do her job as well.

Hopefully in 2011 I will able to work my self back down to being just obese, and my brother will get the job as court officer that he is currently working on. He and his wife graduated school just in time to not get jobs so he his packing out ice cream and using his masters in teaching to keep the freezer doors clean.

The year started with a wreck (me and girlfriend got rear-ended in her car) and ended with a wreck and a new car. School has tryed to kill me but I have also had lots of fun. 2011 means the end of school and hopefully a proposal and the $2011 challenge.

The car related pluses of 2010:

Kept all my car crap in the divorce.

11th at LeMons Spring South.

Got most of the bugs worked out of the Jensenator, it's 95% ready for 2011. Toyman won the SCR-SCCA E Mod championship for 2010 (in my old car, I might add) but look out big boy.

The Trooper kept on plugging in its usual low key ultra reliable let's just get the job done way. Yeah, it's boring as hell to drive but sometimes that's really nice.

As usual, the JH5 never failed to put a grin on my chops when I got a chance to drive it.

The SSCOD (Super Secret Crapbox Car Of Doom) is coming along nicely after being stalled for a short time.

Jensenman wrote: The car related pluses of 2010: Kept all my car crap in the divorce.

If you were able to keep it in a divorce is it really worth keeping?

Yup. She tried- unsuccessfully.