830th Friday Blog Roundup

We have joined the double masking club. We don’t do it all the time (and I rarely do it at all because I’m not really of the leave-the-house set), but Josh uses two masks if he needs to enter the grocery store or donate blood. Somewhere he will be inside for an extended period of time. The paper mask sits tight against his face, and the cloth mask goes over it. It’s a hot look.

So I felt pretty damn good when Dr. Fauci gave double masking two thumbs up. (One thumb for each mask.)

While I rarely leave the house, I do have three favourite masks, and it has turned me into a little squirrel about hoarding the best masks. Once they’re dry, I grab them off the drying rack and hide them in my room so no one else can take them. The twins always ask, “How do you always get the soft grey one?” Quick fingers, dear children, quick fingers.

This is 2021.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• “#Microblog Monday 334: Not All Rest Is the Same” (Stirrup Queens) —thanks, Phoenix!
• “My Old Life” (Infertile Phoenix)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Kveller has a beautiful piece about finding community with other infertile people. She writes: “It’s funny how when you’re going through something so very personal and challenging, you seek out people going through the same personal and challenging things. Misery — and infertility — love company … In many ways, these “cycle sisters” became my lifeline. I could talk to them about feelings I had that not even my best friends could understand.” The medium changes every few years: bulletin boards, blogs, Instagram. But the experience is similar: you find people who understand.

I have this post by Infertile Phoenix about her “old” life for this week. She writes, “In my old life I accommodated everyone. I did what was easiest for them. I did not value my own unique life and what it looked like and required. I ignored where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. I assumed it was just easier for everyone if we went with their plans, their schedule, their expectations. Ex-husband, friends, and family alike.” Even better, she explains how she built her new life. I love this post.

No Kidding in NZ is cleaning out her in-laws’ house and wondering what will happen to her own things in the future. She writes: “We are about to engage a real estate agent, and put the house on the market. What then, I wonder? Will we feel empty, and need new projects? Will we feel ridiculously free? Or perhaps we will turn inwards, and begin some more ‘death cleaning,’ this time with our own belongings?” It probably will be a little of all of the above, as she says. You can’t have something take over a large chunk of your life and emerge exactly the same on the other side.

Lastly, not IF but Grumpy Rumblings writes about their hand sanitizer addiction. Let’s just say that I understood. Deeply. 2021 is looking a lot like 2020.

The roundup to the Roundup: Double maskers unite! 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 Jan 22 – 29) 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.