575th Friday Blog Roundup

A police officer in our town was killed in the line of duty and his funeral was this week.  They shut down the roads for a few hours to accommodate the hundreds of people who had to move between the church and the cemetery.  I drove the route to meet a friend a little before the shut down, but people were already gathering by the side of the road to visually support the family, holding American flags.  Two schools lined the route, children with their hands over their heart as the cars drove by.

I didn’t personally know this police officer, but you couldn’t help but cry seeing the people waiting to pay their respects.  Here was an individual who was killed trying to make the roads safer; who was attempting to take someone off the road who had the potential to kill other citizens.  How can you say “thank you” for something like that?  You can’t.  You can only line the route with your hand over you heart.

I sat with my friend inside the closure and watched the cars go by for an hour and a half and sent good thoughts to his family.

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Thank you for all of your good wishes about the book.  While I love each book I write for different reasons, this one is extra special to me because it’s a passion project.  It’s something that 9-year-old Melissa would have found unfathomable, the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.  I sort of wish I could go back to grade school and blow that girl’s mind.  I not only taught myself how to create interactive fiction — my favourite hobby and a huge part of my life — but I got to write a book about it.  That little girl playing Zork would have never believed it.

I hold it up to the kids and their friends as a “You never know what will happen.  Sometimes the most inconceivable plans come true, even when you start them without knowing how to even take the first step” moment.

And by the way, Infertile Girl got all 15 points first (as far as I know) with just a little nudge.  Go Infertile Girl!

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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:

• “The Lonely Island” (Breathe Gently)
• “Selling Hope” (So I Was Minding My Own Business)

Okay, now my choices this week.

In Quest of a Binky Moongee has a heartbreaking and very truthful post after this last loss that should be passed along to everyone who cavalierly says, “Well, you can always do IVF.”  My heart broke when I got to this item in the list of Sadness is… “seeing that Christmas cards of friends’ children have replaced Kevin’s photo in the prime spot of the fridge.”  Sending a hug, even though she knows that in the future that she will be okay.

Wild and Precious Life has a post as she nears the one year anniversary of her loss.  She doesn’t know how she will get through the month (and please go leave her advice in her comment section), especially since it is scattered with so many difficult dates.  It is about seeing the memories racing toward you on the calendar, and having no ability to stop them or side step them.

Lastly, Anabegins has a post about happiness; what it is, how you know when you have it, and whether we should be so focused on trying to obtain it.  What I love about this post is that it’s permission to approach happiness as you wish to approach happiness.  That you can be happy overall while still dealing with the annoyances of life or even sadness.  I like this non-black-and-white view of happiness.

The roundup to the Roundup: Honouring the dead.  Thank you for the book cheers.  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 December 11th and 18th) 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.