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So, overall, how was 2017, compared to 2016.

2016, for me was a nightmare, stuck in a job in Domicilliary Care, working for a company that was on the fiddle & on the rocks, struggling to make ends meet.

Then in August, 2016, I got me a job working for Utilita, where I really landed on my feet. After a few weeks I had been promoted to "First Contact" (specialising in Legacy & Quantum Meters). Within a couple of months I had managed to save enough for a down payment on Finance of my Toyota Yearis Hybrid car of my dreams. Bought on 41 month terms I used my Christmas Bonus this year to clear the Outstanding Balance, after only 14 months.

As well as being a job that pays well, it's a company that really looks after its staff, and is a company I genuinely believe in. Colleagues are more like family than anything else, and have really brought me out of myself. Anyone who knows me at all will know the issues I have with facing Social Situations, due to having Borderline Aspergers, yet with my colleagues to support me I first managed to attend our Senior's 'send off do', when he was promoted to Team Leader, but with the down side of being T/L of a different department. Then, I made the really big step of attending the Christmas Party. The Send Off was a challenge enough, with only about 10 there. The Christmas Party, however was a much bigger thing, well in excess of 1,200 (we took on the St Mary's Stadium in Southampton, and even then it was crowded). If you had told me this time last year that I would manage this I would have laughed in your face.

My Musical Arrangements have continued to sell and, in my opinion, steadily improve.

I guess the one down side of this year was a few months back when my youngest Cousin, Christopher, passed away whilst working in Chicago, when he fell into a diabetic coma & couldn't be recussitated.

On the whole, though, I feel that 2017 has been nothing but upward for me. The interesting thing is, though, that despite the despicable state of things in the country as a whole, the same seems to be true of everyone I know. I can't help feeling it's much like the mentality of the Blitz when, in times of real need, people join together.

Glad that you have had such a good year.

We have basically had a good one, as well, though a few operational setbacks.

The Wife and I have faced a couple of medical adventures, but we survived and are moving on. Family has been difficult. A nephew died under questionable circumstances.

I failed to get laid off from my job, and so must plan and actual retirement.

We have a number or Stormtrumpers in the family, which makes family gatherings a bit stressful. So many topics off the table just to avoid triggering pro-T responses.

My nephews and I have developed a signalling system to alert each other when the topic drift threatens to take the conversation into difficult waters. This Thanksgiving, we were successful in avoiding any shipwrecks.

Our road trip was postponed due to storm damage on our land yacht, and repairs took far longer than we liked, leaving us marooned in the high country for the winter.

All in all, though, we are getting along with our health and our wits intact.

As Oat Willie often declared, "Onward through the Fog!"

Well since time is a continueim....ill be happy not to write 2017 in documents anymore. Dont know why everyone is siddenly upset, they thought it prefectly fine last year. Maybe the new year makes people a bit stroppy and anal.

Bloody killjoys!

It was an interesting year for me. I set out to experiment with a few changes to the way I had been doing things. For work, I would alway bid on the contracts that were pushing the envelope - the very complicated and very challenging projects. I decided that for 2017 I would snap up the much smaller projects that I could so from anywhere I happened to be. It was more fun than I expected it to be and I actually enjoyed a lot of these. Plus, it didn't matter if I was in a campground or a Starbucks overlooking the beach. As long as I had a laptop and a phone or two, I had everything I needed.

Health could have used some improvement. Nothing major, but a lot of little things from left field. For example, I had never even heard of arthritis of the big toe joint and had no idea it could cause of foot to swell enough that my shoes didn't fit.

All in all, it was a reasonably good year.

Wandrin;1516786 wrote: It was an interesting year for me. I set out to experiment with a few changes to the way I had been doing things. For work, I would alway bid on the contracts that were pushing the envelope - the very complicated and very challenging projects. I decided that for 2017 I would snap up the much smaller projects that I could so from anywhere I happened to be. It was more fun than I expected it to be and I actually enjoyed a lot of these. Plus, it didn't matter if I was in a campground or a Starbucks overlooking the beach. As long as I had a laptop and a phone or two, I had everything I needed.

Health could have used some improvement. Nothing major, but a lot of little things from left field. For example, I had never even heard of arthritis of the big toe joint and had no idea it could cause of foot to swell enough that my shoes didn't fit.

All in all, it was a reasonably good year.


That sounds more like gout

LarsMac;1516791 wrote: That sounds more like gout


The xrays and tests show that it is severe arthritis although many of the symptoms are the same.

Gout's a form of the old arther....but from what i hear YOU REALLY TRULLY KNOW when youvr got gout.

Id like to answer the thread question....but the last time i answered it the individual did.t like what i had to say.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

ups and downs.

Financial struggle thanks to the husbands company making everyone take a very large wage cut. Then add the debt we took on thanks to the step son going delinquent on his car loan (insert me rolling eyes and uttering "I told you not to cosign with the boy" under my breath)

Add property tax, and a hike in our cost of living in general here in the deep west (again insert random unseemly utterings and eye rolls)

But on the plus,

We saw one of our kids Marry. And one of our kids give birth to 2 healthy twin boys.

My parents are still doing well at their age

And I have still managed to hold on to my job.

So the plus's win for me