And just like that, I've reached another set of notable milestones: my kid turned 3, and I've been at my current company for 10 years. I finished major projects both at work and at home. Life has been quiet but there are always things that need to be done. The struggles are constant but nonchalant.

Starting with the short term goal, I finally finished repairing my car. This had been a big project, which started in earnest at the end of December of last year. Through careful thought and planning, I feel that I was able to fix this car with as little cost as could be expected. I just had to steadily push this ball forward even if the progress seemed slow at times. I had to fix the subframe, radiator support, and replace the body panels, bumper, radiator fans, radiator, and airbag. The design of the car was such that made repairing it quite accessible, which I greatly appreciated. To my surprise, the AC system was entirely intact, which saved me a bunch of headache. So, the hardest part of the repair was just to figure out how to bend the damaged frame back into place. I was able to do so and straighten my mailbox both at the same time, so that was a nice bonus.

Work was a huge milestone - making it 10 years at my current company, which I never would've expected. Time really has just flown by. I really can't tell how much longer I will stay at this company. Earlier this year, I noticed as I was browsing through my chat contacts that the vast majority of them are no longer at the company. The ones who are still around are sometimes not who I would've expected. Skill and dumb luck, it would seem. Though, of late, I've accepted that it's all in the hands of the Lord.

A more short term milestone at work is that after one and a half years, the project I had been working on was finally successfully delivered. This project gathers numerous inputs to generate a prioritized list of things the company should build. It was my first Python project, and I never expected that by the end of it, I would be proficient in using Python.

On to the fun one, my kid has turned three, and in this past year, he has learned to run and jump. He has nonchalantly memorized numerous songs, just by listening to them constantly. He has started communicating real thoughts and has been able to convey his desires. He has improved his sense of danger and is much less clumsy now. He has progressed from watching himself (before he was one) to Cocomelon (before he was two) to Mickey Mouse (before he was two and a half) to play doh ASMR videos. Updates on him have been less frequent this year because upgrades to his functionality has been less revolutionary, but more frequent. Only with hindsight does his growth this past year become evident.