Well we made it another year. It was still a tough year for some but I feel like it wasn’t nearly as awful as 2020. 2020 still remains the year we all would like to forget. Granted, 2021 still presented it’s challenges, primarily in the form of the pandemic (still) and the cicada invasion.
To get the shot or not to get the shot was the theme. I’m not going to get into the politics of it. If you did it, I think that’s great; if you didn’t, that’s your choice and I still respect you for it. While I’m confident in my immune system to beat it, should I get it, I’m still choosing to take precautions. However, if you didn’t get it, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you, because I do.
2021 is also the year of the 17 year cicada brood. I have never seen, or heard, anything quite like this. I cannot believe how many cicadas there were. I almost swallowed one while I was out running.
Why in the world would I want to review 2020?? Without a doubt it has been the worst year for everyone. God willing none of us will ever experience another year like 2020. It has been a cruel year for all. We’ve all experienced grief, fear, anxiety, denial, selfishness; but we’ve also experienced hope, perseverance, kindness, and heroism. While we praised the heroic efforts of some we spurned the foolish and parochial choices of the “I won’t live in fear” crowd.
My 2019 Reading Challenge was 15 books. The past couple of years I struggled to meet a 15 book reading challenge. My theory that I will be reading the Harry Dresden books this year will help. It was an absolute success! In fact I came within 30% of 16 books. I’m still setting my goal to 15 books again this year since I might choose a couple of longer books to read.
So where does that leave us? I really wish I had read “Before the Storm” before the Battle for Azeroth expansion launched. “Night Train to Rigel” is the first book in Timothy Zahn’s 
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
2019 was the final year of the decade, which means we are entering the second decade of the new millennium (and 20 years since the “dreaded” Y2K scare). It’s still hard to tell if all of us still like each other. Political differences continue to divide us and it’s depressing, infuriating and scary. I don’t do politics on this blog so, in the words of Forrest Gump, that’s all I have to say about that. 2019 was an OK year, depending on your perspective. These perspectives is what I am going to get into for my 2019 Year In Review.
Tardar Sauce, aka 
The 2018 Reading Challenge was 12 books. Since I barely missed 15 books from 2017, I actually started the year at 15 again thinking I could easily complete it. Half way through the year I was nearly 4 books behind so I reduced it down to 12 books.
Picking the best read for 2018 is difficult. These are 9 excellent books to choose from so its hard to pick just one! I want to go with Timothy Zahn, the man, the myth the legend. However, picking Timothy Zahn won’t work because 1) I read two of his books and I can’t pick just one; and 2) it’s Timothy frakking Zahn! It also wouldn’t be fair to pick Ready Player One because I re-read that one and I’d prefer to pick something that I hadn’t read before.
It is now 18 years after the dreaded Y2K scare. I wonder if there is anyone still hiding in their bunkers. While the Y2K date issue was a valid bug in most software, it would never have caused the catastrophe the fear-mongers were predicting. Be that as it may, 2018 is over and another year is in the books. Most of us are still here but its hard to tell if any of us still like each other. Lots of people still have a hard time seeing past party boundaries and misguided political correctness. I’m going to cover a lot of the usual retrospective topics, I might throw in a couple of new items. So with that said, time for the 2018 Year in Review.
