Posted by athompson on 12/31/2009 11:27 AM Life    00's, 2009

The end of a year and the end of a decade.

I won’t lie .. I am not sorry to see the back of this decade and I look forward to a much better one to come.

Here are some of the low-points… My father passed away. At the same time my airline contracts ended as a result of 9/11. I spent over a year unemployed. My beloved Subaru 2.5RS was written-off by a woman in a pick-up truck. Retirement savings took a beating. A love of flying and travel crushed because of “theatrical” security.

On the other hand… I found employment in Austin (although I have never exceeded 50% of my former earnings). We found a great house in the Austin area. Found some good cars to replace the Subaru. Renewed my love of photography. Discovered Formula 1 and WRC again.  Rekindled my annual pilgrimage to RIAT. Both kids graduated from college. Grand-daughter born! My mother made several trips over from England. I had the opportunity to travel back to meet my brothers’ families.

While some of the highs were very high, some of the lows were very low and longer lasting. A decade of extremes.

Toward the end of the decade, I had reached a conclusion that I needed to balance my work-/home-life. I have spent a lot of years to become an expert at what I do. This has benefitted past and future employers greatly. Yes, and me, too. But you reach a point where, unless you are defining the direction of your projects (or at least have some meaningful, respected input) it can be frustrating.

I decided that personal projects which I had put aside to concentrate on my “day job”, needed to be given the time and energy which they deserved.

I am generally a very positive, roll-with-the-punches kind of guy. This decade has made me appear to people to be the opposite. I may forgive those who caused this, but I will never forget.

Bottom line: this decade started out well, went sour, and got better. But, on average, it has been going downhill all the way. So, goodbye 2009.