869th Friday Blog Roundup

I am writing this inside a very cold house. At least, it’s cold to me, but I’m always cold, so take it with a grain of salt. The furnace stopped working, and we’re waiting for a team to come install the new furnace because our current one has passed on to furnace heaven. Or, at the very least, it is not worth fixing because it is almost 40 years old.

It could be worse. This could be January instead of November. We could live in a colder area. I bought long underwear last year so we could visit with my parents outside, and I’m currently wearing both the top and bottom under my clothes. (That may be a little dramatic, but I’m cold even when the heat is on.) I’m trying to console myself with the idea that it could be worse, but it doesn’t make it any warmer in the house.

The one silver lining is that everyone was certain that I had just turned on the heat wrong because I always turn on the heat incorrectly. But this time, it was actually the furnace and not me.

For the win!

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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:

• “Who Deserves My Kindness and My Time?” (The Next 15000 Days)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Infertile Phoenix unpacks some Halloween weekend wonders. She experiences two surprising things, and it leads her to this thought: “It’s moments like these (Halloween doesn’t hurt anymore? And my mother and I are talking frequently?) that remind me that I don’t know the future and that’s okay.” It’s great to have those reminders when things feel bleak. We don’t know the future, and we may end up feeling peace with a situation down the line.

Hopelessly Infertile and Surrounded by Fertiles has a post about how we use the word “friend.” Social media has changed the noun, making us label (and perhaps think about) people differently. She writes, “Today someone tried to make me feel bad because my problems aren’t as severe as other people’s. Since I wasn’t actually attempting to complain about my problems, I don’t feel actually feel bad.” As we change the meaning of the term “friend,” are we also changing how we behave as a friend?

Lastly, A Separate Life has a collection of thoughts, including finding a folder in her mother’s things with stories about her childhood and family. She writes, “It is a reminder of how important it can be to write down our memories, even if we think those around us might already know these things. Perspectives are always different, and they might have forgotten.” So true. Stories are precious. Record them.

The roundup to the Roundup: It is very cold in this house. 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 October 29 – November 5) 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.