As I try to do most years, I break down the year in the form of significant digits. It’s an interesting way of remembering things throughout the year, and I kind of have fun playing around with it. 2020, of course, is 2020, and an exception to most normal things, given this once-in-a-century pandemic. This *was* the year I was hoping to play lots of musical gigs in both the band and solo contexts, but…yeah, we all know how that’s gone. I haven’t played in front of anyone but the cats in real-life since early March. In spite of that, I did accomplish some interesting stuff in that area, as well as in some other spaces as well, so we’ll see how it breaks down as I write this mostly stream-of-consciousness style, in no particular order, unless I decide to edit things further.

• 2: The number of hours I’ve spent in an actual office since mid-March. It’s all work-from-home now.
• 980ish: The number of miles I’ve put behind me on both feet and bicycle. Would’ve been way more if not not for…
• 1: The number of bicycles I’ve totally trashed on the trail.
• 93: The number of books I’ve have read this year.
• 15: How many of those books were traditional paper-and-ink and not kindle-based.
• 15: The number of pounds I seem to have added to my frame, in spite of the bike/hike miles
• 233: Number of *new* varieties of beer I’ve tasted this year (according to untappd). Probably the reason for the previous entry
• 6: Number of instances where I’d been seriously concerned about workplace shutdown because of politicians
• 8: Actual number of live gigs I played this year, in front of actual live people. Six of those took place in one weekend in January.
• 5: Number of online streaming gigs I played
• 63: Number of copies of World’s Okayest… sold, both physical and digital
• 2: The number of songs I released digitally this year
• 15: How many cents I’ve made from digital streaming of my music on the various services
• 3: The number of records appeared as a guest on this year
• 19: The number of songs I wrote this year
• 0: How many of those songs I’ve actually managed to record beyond crap demos
• 6: Number of times I’ve actually been out of the RVA metro this year
• 1: Number of Pegasus awards I was nominated for this year (as part of the Humdingers)
• 0: Number of Pegasus awards we won
• 5: Number of facemasks I’m currently cycling through
• I’ve lost count: Number of friends (that I know of) that have contracted COVID-19
• 0: Number who have died (thank the Maker!)
• ∞: Number of times I’ve mumbled obscenities behind my mask in the grocery store at folks ignoring protocol

There are probably more relevant numbers this year, but these are the ones that come to mind right now. It’s a representation of a year. Not the greatest year, of course, but it hasn’t exactly been that for any of us. Here’s to hoping that the coming one will be less interesting, huh?