591st Friday Blog Roundup
Happy Tax Day. Actually, I’m sure you’re NOT happy about Tax Day, but hopefully your taxes are done and filed. So there’s that.
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Josh made me recycle Old Minty. Old Minty is… was… my laundry basket. I got him before I started college. I filled him with my dirty clothes and dragged him down to the basement laundry room. Old Minty followed me to grad school, where he helped me take my clothes to the sketchy laundromat. Old Minty was there for me at my first grown-up apartment, my first job, my second job, my engagement, my marriage. Old Minty gave rides to the twins around the living room.
And then Josh started saying things like, “Don’t you think we should replace the laundry basket?” And, “Don’t you think I should be able to carry clothes to the laundry room without getting my hands cut up by the jagged remains of your basket?” And, “Melissa, it doesn’t even look like a laundry basket anymore.”
I allowed myself to be swayed by his arguments that 23 years is a long life for a plastic laundry basket.
He placed Old Minty with the recycling pick up. He was taken away from me and churned into plastic bits. I bought a new basket. It has zero personality.
I miss Old Minty. I ask the other family members if they miss Old Minty, too, and they stare at me blankly while saying, “What?” Old Minty loyally served this family for decades, and now they’ve all forgotten about him and attached themselves to the new laundry basket. “Oh, new laundry basket, you’re so great because you don’t collapse under the weight of a few pairs of underwear.”
New laundry basket is NOT so great. He doesn’t even have a name. But Old Minty does… did.
I clearly have not mastered the Kondo method.
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Stop procrastinating. Go make your backups. Don’t have regrets.
Seriously. Stop what you’re doing for a moment. It will take you fifteen minutes, tops. But you will have peace of mind for days and days. It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.
As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.
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And now the blogs…
But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “Four Hours Out of the Cloud” (A Half Baked Life)
- “Who Tells Your Story” (Stirrup Queens) — thanks, Jess!
Okay, now my choices this week.
Bent Not Broken has a post about being stuck between two expectant grandmothers in an unexpected place — her own living room. She writes, “Two expectant grandmas. In my living room. Talking about their excitement about becoming grandmas. About planning and throwing baby showers. About buying things for their new grandbabies. I had no escape.” It’s about the pain of infertility still stinging, and also the ability to rebound faster from these moments as time goes on.
Bereaved and Blessed reveals the 9 words that she has used to define her year during each of her 9 years of blogging. I love the idea of setting one ahead of time, though I’m terrible at (1) figuring out my word and (2) sticking to it, but even more, I love the idea of looking back and summing up the year. Go wish her congratulations on almost a decade of blogging AND see the word that defines her 9th year.
Lastly, as much as blogging has made life easier, allowing us to pool our collective knowledge as well as give comfort from afar, Non Sequitur Chica points out the other side: that sometimes we worry needlessly based on what we’ve read on other people’s blogs. It’s a story about moving her daughter to her big girl bed, but it’s also a good reminder that YMMV (and all those acronyms the kids use these days).
The roundup to the Roundup: It’s Tax Day. I miss Old Minty. Your weekly backup nudge. And lots of great posts to read. So what did you find this week? Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between April 8th and April 15th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week? Read the original open thread post here.
12 comments
actually tax day is the 18th this year! We recently trashed our trusty old laundry basket, too, and I had…feelings about it that I never would’ve admitted until I read this, so I get it!
Oooh, this is freaky. I have my equivalent “Old Minty” (although I’ve never named him/her). I don’t remember if it was the first one we had but I’m sure I brought it from our apartment, which makes it at least 26 years old. And yes, it’s cracked around the rim, which makes it hard to carry. I got new laundry baskets that sit in the bedroom closet for our dirty clothes, but I keep the old one down in the basement by the washing machine, and I throw used towels & dishcloths in it until I have enough to do a load. I was looking at it the other day & thinking, “We probably should have given this to the junk removal guys or put this out with the trash” — this week was the last trash day before we move (we get recycling pickup every week, garbage every other week) — and it made me feel sad. I’m sure dh hasn’t given it a second thought and would get annoyed with me not throwing it out already, if he paid any attention to these things. 😉
My mother has a laundry basket that is even older — I’m not sure HOW old, but I’m guessing at least 40 years old. She keeps some of our old toys in it and brings it out when she has little visitors who would enjoy them. 🙂
Tax day here in Canada is April 30th, so we get a little extra time. 😉
Thanks for featuring me. 🙂 What does YMMV mean? I’ve definitely never seen that one before.
I LOVE the 9 words idea. How cool.
Condolences about Old Minty. We name inanimate objects around here, and give them personalities. Maybe it’s a writer thing, as both my brother and I write. But cars, homes, computers, you name it, they sometimes get names. (It seems to depend on time/place/life conditions at the time.)
Was Old Minty green? I picture it as a sort of Crest shade of green. I’m sorry for your loss.
If you were to give the new guy a nickname, what would it be? (I mean, besides New Boring.)
we had a new tea thermos, put eyes on it and called it the Pinguin, PingPing in toddler speak. Sadly the glass interior wasn’t toddler proof for more than 3 months… We miss it.
Can’t you bribe the ChickieNob into naming New Minty?
If all else fails I suggest Oliver.
Oh, Old Minty made me laugh. I mean, not the loss of Old Minty, but the whole not mastering the Kondo method and having jagged edges of an old laundry basket (and I could visualize it perfectly, the old ones totally became sharps hazards after a while and I am AMAZED it lasted 23 years). Maybe there’s a neat colorful retro basket at Target or something that would at least have some personality. I have an ergonomic one that is lovely but not worthy of a name…yet.
I am so thankful taxes are done for us here, we just have to go over the figures that are sent to us. If we agree, we do nothing. If we disagree, we send our corrected figures back. 🙂 Mine haven’t arrived yet this year (in the next few days, I’m sure) but the rest of the family’s has.
We have a white, tall, round basket with a lid. It has been with us… almost 17 or so years, as I am sure I bought it in the beginning of living here. (Hubby just used a huge cardboard box!) It has survived well, except for the lid in the last few years, which has become a source of entertainment and a toy for the kids. Why are laundry baskets (lids) so much fun to sit in/on?
ACTION ALERT: Mel would you consider writing about this;
The National Coalition for Maternal Mental Health is calling for all hands on deck to get 100 Congressional signers in the next couple of weeks to pass H.R 3235 / S. 2311), Bringing Postpartum Depression Out of the Shadows Act. Please take 5 minutes to submit a letter to your Congressman and Senator urging them to sign on in support of this legislation. A draft letter is included below and can be submitted online at: http://actioncenter.marchofdimes.org/app/onestep-write-a-letter?10&engagementId=169033
Thanks for the mention!
This post over at Ever Upward really hit me in the feels: https://everupward.org/2016/04/18/what-infertility-did-to-me/
Justine is working on a project called #MoreThan1in8 where she is asking people to share how they are surviving and thriving after infertility in an effort to break the silence. I’m not sure what she has planned, but whatever it is is going to be rolled out next week for NAIW, and I’m sure it will be awesome.
Aww! Thanks for the shout out, Mel! xoxo
And I guess shouldn’t be surprised that you have a sentimental attachment to a laundry basket or that you named it. I am proud of you for letting “Old Minty” go and love learning more things like this about you. 😉
P.S. How interesting that LoriBeth can relate. 🙂
And I love Lori’s questions for you!
My laundry baskets are very plain and boring. I do have one that a good friend gave me, when she was moving out of state last year. So I do love that using one, because it is shaped differently than our others (squarish more than rectangle) and reminds me of her.
One more thing… I would love for my 2016-17 word to be Consistency, however I am not sure that I will pull it off. It is certainly a goal. 😉