Nearly Two Years Of Listening To The World On Delay

I've mentioned before that I like to listen to podcasts.  I listen to them mostly when I'm doing chores around the house.  I usually keep up with the new episodes but when I hiked the Appalachian Trail the episodes piled up (I don't like listening to music/podcasts when I hike in nature since I want to hear the forest around me but many hikers listened to podcasts as they hiked the trail).

When I got home I looked at my podcast list and saw I had over one hundred twenty hours worth of podcasts.  I had a choice.  I could delete the episodes and start listening with the current episodes or I could listen to the accumulated episodes and catch up to the present.  I decided to listen to them all.

I found the best time to listen for me was before I went to bed.  This was also the time when I usually read.  Reading was put on indefinite hold while I tried to catch up.  It would take more than a hundred and twenty hours since new episodes where being downloaded every week.  From October 2019 through last week I worked my way through All the episodes only taking a short break in 2020 to read the "Testaments", the only book I read in 2020.

Last week I finally caught up to the present.  It was strange reliving the nearly two years of the pandemic on a delay.  It was interesting to see the optimism early on when people figured we would beat this quickly.  Few people anticipated just how stupid of a timeline we live in.

So today I reupped my library card.  I am reading again.  I've enjoyed all the podcast episodes I've listened to and have enjoyed the experience but I have missed reading a good book.  Old friends ... I'm back ... take me away to places of wonder.