878th Friday Blog Roundup

Our week has been dominated by the idea of toilet rats. I blame Lifehacker for introducing us to this concept. (And you can blame me for passing on the favour.)

Lifehacker asked: “How Often Do Snakes, Rats, and Spiders Really Crawl Up Your Toilet Pipes?” Um… how often, indeed? It turns out not often, but the article sent me on a Googling spree about toilet rat guards. A word of caution; do not repeat my mistake. ChickieNob and I have not been able to get the drawing of the swimming rat out of our heads. The Wolvog smartly avoided the web page.

But now that I knew that rat guards existed, how could I continue to live without this flap to keep rats out of my toilet? I mean, if we ended up with a toilet rat, wouldn’t it kind of be our fault for not installing this? Josh refused to call the plumber and ask about toilet rats. Or toilet snakes.

But in a twist of fate, we ended up needing to CALL THE PLUMBER THIS WEEK. Which means he will soon be in my home, fixing a pipe. And I will be hissing at Josh to just. please. ask. him. about. rat. guards. and. the. frequency. of. toilet. rats.

Why does Josh have to ask instead of me? Because I don’t want the plumber to think I’m bananapants. It’s fine if he thinks less of Josh.

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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 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. To read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

Pages, Stages, and Rages is back as is The Evolving Engineer (old blogger, new name). The best part about a feed reader is that when people brush off their blog and start writing again, you know instantly. Welcome back.

Hopelessly Infertile and Surrounded by Fertiles tells the story of hate mitzvahs. Mitzvot are commandments — things you must do — so hate mitzvahs would be doing the right thing but complaining through it. Or seething with rage. That sort of thing. She asks: “I wonder if there’s really a such thing as a hate mitzvah. Like do you need to do a mitzvah from a pure and loving place or is it sufficient that you’re doing the mitzvah.” It’s an interesting idea — do you have to have loving, happy intentions if you’re doing something good for that thing to be… good? Like attending someone’s baby shower (good deed) when you really don’t want to be there and feel enraged (hate mitzvah)?

By the Brooke points out the pitfalls of light internet memes like the 10-year challenge. She explains, “Ten years ago, I still clawing my way out of deep, dark, despairing grief. Ten years ago I skipped Christmas because the death of my baby also killed any desire I had to celebrate anything.” It’s a beautiful post about what we don’t see in photographs.

Lastly, Finding a Different Path and I came to the same realization recently when the twins did their first at-home COVID test. They look like… pregnancy tests. I also cracked up over her wondering if “the first snot of the day yields stronger results.”

The roundup to the Roundup: Toilet rats. 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 January 7 – 14) 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.