The End of an Unusual Year

End of the Year 2020

This is my final blog post for 2020.  It also happens to be the 624th post to this blog.  When I started a half a dozen years ago I hoped to eventually find and write about 365 different monuments, statues, memorials, and other interesting places and events in and around D.C. so that this blog would be a compilation of an entire year’s worth of attractions for people visiting the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia area).  Now I have reset my goal and look forward to reaching 730 posts and two years worth of places.

As this sixth year is coming to an end, I look back on what was a very unusual year.  Starting in March I was forced to work from home due to lockdowns implemented as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.  What was expected at that time to last approximately two weeks got extended.  And as it turned out I never went back.  I was still working from home when I retired in July from my job after 32 years at the FBI.  And as I understand it from a former co-worker, they are still working from home as this year comes to an end.

The pandemic which caused me to have to work from home also resulted in many other employees and the businesses where they work being ordered to close their doors or implement changes that significantly curtailed their operations.  Between the many retail businesses and restaurants that closed down, some of them for good, and their employees who were or are out of work, the daytime landscape of downtown D.C. became almost like a ghost town, an appearance which is usually relegated to the Friday after Thanksgiving and the week between Christmas and New Years Day.

Additional events that took place this year also added to the unusualness of 2020.  In May, the death of a man named George Floyd caused by police in Minneapolis gave rise to protests and violence throughout the summer across the country, including here in D.C.  And the presidential election in the fall, and the intense political divisiveness associated with it, resulted in rallies and protests from supporters on both sides of the political aisle.  Some of these events also turned violent.  All of this resulted in a city that changed for the worse, and one I barely recognize.

However, one of the positives for me from this past year was my daily bike rides and writing about them in this blog.  Despite being less active and publishing fewer posts, I enjoyed the rides and writing posts for this blog as much as ever.  And apparently some other people liked it as well.  There was a record number of readers in 2020 from a record number of countries throughout the world.  Based on statistics that my online hosting service provides, there have been a total of 226,309 views for this blog from individual readers in 168 different countries.

Those countries, listed in order of the highest to the lowest number of readers, are: the United States, Hong Kong SAR China, United Kingdom, Canada, India, France, Denmark, Germany, Australia, Italy, Brazil, Philippines, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Romania, Israel, Ireland, Switzerland, Russia, Japan, Mexico, Belgium, Sweden, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, South Africa, New Zealand, Croatia, Finland, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Hungary, Pakistan, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Taiwan, Columbia, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Norway, Nigeria, Argentina, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Tunisia, Greece, European Union, Portugal, Chile, Austria, Lebanon, Kenya, Peru, Slovakia, Serbia, Puerto Rico, Egypt, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bermuda, Luxembourg, Bahrain, Venezuela, China, Moldova, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Congo – Kinshasa, Ecuador, Slovenia, Guam, Cyprus, Honduras, Georgia, Albania, Nepal, Suriname, Macedonia, Dominican Republic, Armenia, U.S. Virgin Islands, Panama, Kuwait, Algeria, Bolivia, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Iceland, Jamaica, Jordan, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Estonia, Uruguay, Ghana, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Myanmar (Burma), Belarus, Palestinian Territories, American Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Belize, Aruba, Zambia, Afghanistan, Liberia, Jersey, Senegal, Kazakhstan, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, Angola, Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Brunei, Libya, Benin, Somalia, Gibraltar, Uzbekistan, Barbados, Kyrgyzstan, Gabon, Guyana, Cameroon, Guernsey, Yemen, Seychelles, Chad, Sudan, Laos, Mongolia, Malawi, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Faroe Islands, Rwanda, Åland Islands, Namibia, Timor-Leste, Montenegro, Curacao, Macau SAR China, Tanzania, Saint Vincent and Grenadines, Burkina Faso, Martinique, Monaco, Mauritius, Bhutan, and Saint Lucia.

Many people have described 2020 as a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.  They say it has been the worst year of their lives.  But it has not been that way for me.  I have been very fortunate.  And I know it.

I hope the coming year will be a good one for everyone.  Be well. And God bless us, everyone.