552nd Friday Blog Roundup

Tomorrow is the 4th of July in the US.  We’re going to two firework displays this weekend.  That feels incredibly indulgent: two firework displays?  What can I say?  Washingtonians love their fireworks.  What are you doing this weekend?

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Truman took his last dose of medication about a week ago.  He seemed mostly better.  He (mostly) wasn’t wheezing, and he (mostly) stopped sneezing.  But not entirely.  So I decided to change his bedding after an exhaustive Google search informed me that guinea pigs can grow allergic to their bedding.

I went to the organic pet store because I figured they would have the most all-natural, allergen-free bedding.  And I was correct; they had all-natural, dye-free bedding.  I had to commit to an enormous bag which technically cost less than his normal bedding when you looked at it handful for handful.  I mean, once you got over the fact that you had to purchase a difficult-to-store, expensive truckload of bedding.

I filled his cage and put him back inside.  He gingerly walked over it as if he wasn’t quite sure the surface would hold his weight.  And then he promptly began EATING THE BEDDING.  Like shoving his face down into the bedding and pulling up mouthfuls of it with delight.

I quickly Googled “guinea pig eats bedding help” while he chomp chomp chomped behind me, and I learned that (1) this was a common situation, (2) bedding was delicious to guinea pigs, and (3) that it wouldn’t kill him as long as he didn’t eat too much.  Too much?  What was “too much?”  No one would say.

He has mostly calmed down about the sea of delicious bedding and now only nibbles it from time to time.

Oh, and he’s still sneezing.  So much for allergies.  Back to square one.

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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:

• “This is My House” (The Bloggess)
• “If We are Childless, What is Our Legacy?” (No Kidding in NZ)
• “The Spoon Theory” (But You Don’t Look Sick)
• “The One About How We Try Not to Fudge Up Our Children” (TheBlessedBarrenness)
• “Forward Momentum” (An Unwanted Path)
• “…This One Word…” (Business Insider)
• “Identity” (Serenity in Chaos)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Mali put it for last week, but I had bookmarked it for this week because it was a Friday post.  Serenity in Chaos has a post about being on the fringe of society and yet still always finding like-situationed people.  It’s a really interesting post about fitting in or not fitting in, being the same as the majority or being different.  I love the new label she finds for herself by the end.

Pages, Stages, and Rages writes about ideas that stick in our head (whether we want them to or not) after a trauma.  She discusses her own work flinches and then segues into her daughter’s ongoing relationship to separation stemming from her adoption.  I love the weaving of the Princess Bride through the post.

Lastly, the Road Less Travelled has a post about watching other people’s children age while her daughter, Katie, does not.   I think people mostly think about this in terms of babyhood, but she writes about next year’s graduation class.  How her daughter should be walking across the stage.  It’s a moving post about how the heart never lets go.

The roundup to the Roundup: 4th of July.  Truman’s delicious bedding.  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 June 26th and July 3rd) 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.