2010: The year of the Oil Spill. This Lost Sole became a source of a lot of attention for the One Shoe Diaries. It helped get over 30,000 hits in one weekend when I got featured on CNN.com because of this photo.
It started with Nora’s first New Year which just became a series of firsts for us and Nora. Nora’s first words, her first steps, her first Birthday, our first trip to Disney as a family and so on. Experiencing life as a dad is so much more enjoyable than I thought it could be. Watching Nora grow is a wonderful thing, and now I understand the addictiveness of raising a child.
We also moved into a new place and met some great new people. We did have our bike and lawn mover stolen from the new place, but we still love the location. It has been great to be within easy biking distance of downtown Pensacola.
Unfortunately with all of those highs came some pretty tragic lows. 2010 was the year the world lost one of the great people in the world, Jessie Pauline Conner, a.k.a. Nanny. Losing her makes it tough to say that 2010 was a good year :( We miss her dearly, and there is not a day that goes by without thinking of her.
We also lost a good friend of ours, Bob Quarles, whose life was tragically snuffed out at the age of 41. He left behind 2 incredible children and is missed by hundreds of friends and family. He touched more lives than he would ever have imagined.
2010 was also the year of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Not only did the oil drape a physical dark cover over the our beautiful Gulf of Mexico waters, it shrouded the entire Gulf Coast in a psychological shadow of fear and despair. We were surrounded by the realities of our friends and neighbors losing their lives from the economic impact, and we are still seeing it to this day.
But out of that disaster, The One Shoe Diaries got national attention when I became an official iReporter for CNN.com. All the positive feedback I got about the One Shoe Diaries inspired me to plan a cross country road trip for 2012, which is still on track to happen.
Several relationships started and ended this past year, and one saw its demise that directly affected us. Seeing our good friend go through it has been heart breaking. But a few of my good friends had cupid shine on them. Kevin got married, Sean got engaged, and Scooter by god had a Christmas Miracle happen and met a great girl down in Port Charlotte. Now if only Trish could be blessed with a good companion in 2011, because after hitting 40 this year, she sure is not getting any younger! *LOL* *LOL* :) (just kidding with you Trish, welcome to the club)
Luckily my business did see one of its best years somehow, and I have a bright outlook for 2011 to be even better. I am sure this year will also see its share of firsts for us and Nora. I can only hope better for this year for everyone. I hope our economy can stay on the upswing, and that maybe, just maybe, there will be a little less crime and violence in the world. I wish everyone a truly happy new year.
Here is a gallery of the Lost Soles discovered in 2010. 57 in total, averaging just slightly over 1 a week. I still find it so fascinating how many shoes get lost out there.
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- Nora at the beginning of 2010
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- 2010: The year of the Oil Spill. This Lost Sole became a source of a lot of attention for the One Shoe Diaries. It helped get over 30,000 hits in one weekend when I got featured on CNN.com because of this photo.
