Greetings and Happy New Year! It’s been a while since I checked in- over three months in fact. I would like to say I have gotten a lot done with my cars since then, but that’s pretty far from the case. To be honest, I can’t really remember the last time I spent an evening in the garage with my tools out tackling specific projects. Once the coupe was somewhat complete and in a running state, I sort of abandoned any kind of work in the garage and got swept away by life’s priorities.

There’s no disputing that 2020 was a difficult year for just about everyone. However, it was also a really great year for me in a lot of ways. While we were all impacted by things like being laid off from jobs, kids having to attend virtual school, and generally feeling tethered to our homes, I did experience some exciting life changes like starting a new job and getting my coupe on the road. Despite all of the difficulties that 2020 brought my way, I don’t think I could really say it was any worse than any other year in my life- and for that I feel extremely thankful. It was definitely different in ways I could have ever imagined, but many good things came my way as well.

With a new year comes new ambitions. While nothing has truly changed aside from the date, and many of the same challenges from last year will continue into the new one, it can still be a great opportunity to make changes in your life and set some goals for the months ahead. One of my somewhat lofty goals for myself this year is to attempt to post something here once a week- even if it’s fairly quick and lacking major changes to my cars. Goals like this can easily promote burnout and pressure you into creating sub-par content since your heart isn’t really in it, but I am excited to give it a try. I’ve done this in the past and failed, but I still feel it would be a cool goal to realize.

Here are a couple quick photos of how my garage sits currently. You may notice a few subtle changes since my last post, but for the most part things are very much like they were last September. However, I plan to dive into the details around a couple small things that I have been working on in the weeks ahead- the idea being to complete a new blog post around lunchtime every Friday. I finally upgraded my tired old iPhone 7 to a 12 this week, so hopefully photo quality will improve a bit going forward. I was definitely due for an upgrade!

The stage of life I find myself in currently is just crazy. Between trying to accomplish working from home (my office returned to full-time virtual work in November due to a new order from the governor of Michigan,) getting a third and first grader to school every morning (my kids are still attending in person for the time being thankfully,) and having a third kiddo at home, my wife and I are completely exhausted by the time we get to sit down each night. This doesn’t always lend itself to finding time to spend in the garage.

My mindset about the cars has shifted a bit in the last six months, and I don’t really find myself contemplating selling them nearly as often as I used to – or much at all, really. I’ve transitioned a bit to understanding that some stages of life are busier than others, and I’ll simply get to them when the time is right. Of course, finding a new job with a bit more security has certainly helped that mindset. With the prices of S13s and their associated parts skyrocketing in the last year, it only makes sense to simply let the cars sit and address them when I can. That being said, I am definitely excited for the weather to break as I have every intention of registering and street driving both of these cars as much as I possibly can this season.

In any case, thanks a lot to everyone that stops by to read this or reaches out to me via email or Instagram to share their own passion and motivation. Messages like that really make me feel great and motivate me to get things moving again in my own garage. If you’ve reached out and I still owe you a response, I hope to get to that sometime this weekend. I’m planning to get organized and come up with a rough plan moving forward for the remainder of the winter season to hopefully have these cars in decent shape when the weather finally breaks in April or May.

If you’re into podcasts or want to catch a rare glimpse of me actually showing my face online, check out Jimmy’s podcast next Wednesday. He’ll be sharing more details around timing on his Instagram next week (@jyw0rld). Looking forward to getting back in the swing of things and chatting about S13s with him and anyone that happens to tune in!

Happy New Year y’all! Don’t hesitate to drop me a line if you have questions or if there is anything I can help with- or even just to chat! Have an excellent weekend.

Damon