790th Friday Blog Roundup

I just realized that I’m approaching 800 (really 700 — remember, the misnumbering) Roundups. I started them a week or two into blogging, and I’ve done them every week for the last (almost) 14 years. So… yeah… the math makes sense. I’m just… surprised somehow.

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Four years ago, I had an amazing fake chicken sandwich at a nearby vegan restaurant. They change their menu every three months, so I went back and got it three or four more times before it disappeared. I thought they’d bring it back the next year, but every time the menu flipped over, the fake chicken sandwich was nowhere to be seen.

I wrote them emails, left them Facebook comments, and made mention of the fake chicken sandwich whenever I went there for a meal. And they would smile and nod and say, “Sure, sure, we’ll let the chef know that you’re taking your desire for a fake chicken sandwich to an unhealthy mental space.” (Or, “Thanks for the feedback. We’ll let the chef know.” Maybe I just imagined the judgment when I mentioned it for the 47th time.)

Guess what the restaurant brought back this week?

Guess who probably will not be able to get it from said restaurant because we’re not doing carry out right now? (Everyone’s comfort zone is different, and we’ve gotten takeaway Italian ice. But my gut tells me this particular meal isn’t worth the risk.)

The small consolation is they did a different sauce so it won’t be exactly the same. But still.

Four years.

P.S. I am more amused than upset by the timing. It feels like a fitting addition to this time period.

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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:

• “Oppressed by Advice… All Over Again” (Gateway Women)
• “Day in the Life – Coronapocalypse Week 3” (Torthúil)
• “No Kidding 2020 Project: Day 10 – Balance” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ has a post about painful reminders during the pandemic. While people expect Christmas or Mother’s Day to be hard, no one could predict the onslaught of parenting posts popping up due to COVID-19. She writes such important words: “It’s one of the lessons I learned best during infertility and when recovering from it. That it’s okay to be vulnerable. It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to feel sad.” Yes.

Life Without Baby has a post about mourning (and healing). She writes about Poet Edward Hirsch’s 78-page elegy to his son. She tells us, “He writes that mourning is like carrying a bag of cement up a mountain at night. There is no clear path to follow, but when you look around you, you see everyone carrying their own bags of cement.” Again, she gives excellent advice on the worth of feeling what you are feeling.

Lastly, An Unexpected Family Outing has a post about grieving a loss when people are focused on the pandemic. She writes, “Because right now, the world is in crisis and it feels insensitive to shift my attention away it all. I almost feel petty for wanting to talk about how much I miss my daughter who died. It feels inappropriate for me to grieve anything but the chaos of the world around me.” Except that our lives are more than this moment. And as John Green says, “pain demands to be felt.”

The roundup to the Roundup: I’ve written a lot of Roundups. I am never getting a fake chicken sandwich. 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 10 – April 17) 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.