The year (mostly) gone by — 2020

I spent a lot of time in 2020 … walking.

Almost every day it wasn’t raining or snowing or freezing cold, Suzi and I walked.

We walked right around our house, and on trails from our town to the New Hampshire border.

We walked on the beach and through forests. We spent Labor Day getting away from it all by walking around a historic estate.

And I wrote.

I wrote (and sometimes talked) about walking, but I also wrote about games I couldn’t go to and vacations I couldn’t take.

I wrote about funny, silly little things, and tried to answer big questions.

I wrote about things that happened years ago, and things right after they happened.

I wrote with other people, including taking part in a massive blogger Thanksgiving feast. 

I was invited to write about what I’d do once quarantine was over, a project that turned into a page of its own on this site.

Someone even invited me to write on their site.

I wrote for the reasons I’ve always enjoyed writing, but I realize now that in this awful year, both walking and writing were a way I tried to make sense of it all, even if I never really did.

MY TOP FIVE POSTS OF THE YEAR

Based on WordPress statistics (as of Dec. 26), these posts got the most views in 2020.

1. Getting out of the ‘vacation monastery’ — As part of a collaboration with my pal Renata of Buffalo Sauce Everywhere, I tried to find some aspect from travel that I can apply to normal life. I came up with an idea, but didn’t execute it very well.

2. The greatest story I’ve ever told — Shockingly, people liked the story of how I met my wife Suzi, even two years after I wrote it. 

3. Thirty questions — I took part in an exercise where people fired questions at you from a list of 30. Here are my answers to all of them.

4. Self-confidence in four words — How do you respond to criticism? How do you respond to praise? I got good advice at answering the latter, but still kind of suck at it.

5. The week gone by — Nov. 1 — A snowstorm that wasn’t much more than annoying, plus highlights of the previous seven days.

WHERE THE READERS CAME FROM

The top five countries for the blog, in terms of views:

1. United States

2. United Kingdom

3. Canada

4. India

5. Germany

On the other end, I had one blog view from each of the following countries: Serbia, Ecuador, Taiwan, Zimbabwe, Armenia, Turkey, Cote d’Ivioire, Jersey, Austria, Peru, Sri Lanka, Norway, Barbados, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mongolia, Hungary, Ghana and Saudi Arabia.

I’ll always wonder what post got that one person’s attention, and why they never came back.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE BLOGGERS

If this were a normal Sunday, right now you’d be reading a brief post by me, and then a recap of what I enjoyed reading most and my favorite tweets of the past seven days.

From what I can tell, people tend to like them.

While I try to have some variety, there are certain people who show up regularly. There’s a reason for that … they’re good, and I love reading their stuff.

Renata

Savannah

Becky

Austin

Paul

Vee

Pea Green

Zoe

Michelle

Alexia

Jackie

Lindsay

Jamie

And for all their great writing, there’s even more where that came from. The stuff I include in the recaps is basically my own weekly jealousy list.

SPEAKING OF THE RECAPS …

There’s something I’ve been curious about, so now I’m going to see if I can get an answer.

When the recap posts every Sunday, do you …

A. Read my post and my links?

B. Look for yourself and/or what I tagged of yours?

C. Read the links I post from other bloggers?

D. Read all of it?

Share your answer in the comments, along with any blogs or Twitter accounts you’ve followed from reading my Sunday posts.

Whether my own stuff or other folks’, I’m hoping to share more good stuff in 2021.

 

 

 

 

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