880th Friday Blog Roundup

It has been a hard week. The twins returned to school. We returned to our normal schedules. But nothing felt normal.

It reminds me of COVID coverage — we know about the cases where people remain home and the cases where people die, and we reduce the issue to life or death. You are either alive, and that means you are fine, or you are dead, and that means you are not fine. And the news moves on to the next story.

But the reality is that 11% of adults and 10% of kids end up with long COVID. And the other 89 – 90% sometimes end up with lingering symptoms for weeks that are not counted as long COVID. My point: There is a range of ways how life continues after COVID or a school shooting that goes beyond the binary of fine and not fine.

I found myself unreasonably annoyed by mistakes in the coverage. It made me wonder how many articles I’ve read and thought I had a grasp on the situation, and the reality for the people in this situation was completely different.

It is impossible to bring it up — I mean, how do you drop the topic in someone’s lap when they call you to catch up, not knowing what’s going on? So I found myself not saying anything at all because I didn’t know how to find the words. At the same time, I was surprised by the lack of conversation and outreach from people who knew about the shooting.

I found I could not participate in the various meetings and events they set up for parents afterward. Josh watched them for both of us and reported that their old middle school principal — possibly one of the best humans in the world and definitely one of the top five educators in the world — attended to help the kids through the week. It made me (and the twins) feel so much better to know that he was involved.

But mostly I mentally checked out when I was not at work. I worried about the kids. I came up with zero answers on how to move forward out of the feelings. I wondered if maybe it was a good thing to stay behind and keep thinking about this. We should never normalize violence.

Thank you to everyone who reached out with a comment or email. It meant a lot, and I’m sorry that I didn’t have the energy to respond properly.

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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.

It’s Inconceivable has a post about self-isolating when you don’t have extended family nearby. She writes, “When you’re CNBC and don’t have any extended family around to help you have to prepare for all eventualities.” She goes through her story, but I also love this point: “The Gateway Women forums were a great source of comfort as well during all of this because there are many women there who get what it’s like to not have the family connections where people can step in and step up to help out.” Community matters — online community, too. Go read her whole story.

No Kidding in NZ also talks about widening her support network in light of COVID. She writes: “I felt very alone. My friends with grown kids in the city would probably call on them, or one of their many friends they made through their kids. Their priority would be their kids, their work, and not some lonely old couple out in the suburbs.” Except in thinking about this, she realized she does have people she can call for help. It’s an important mental exercise everyone should do.

Lastly, Scientist on the Roof made me smile thinking about my old Home Economics class. I sewed shorts, but I did not line up the pattern properly on the seams. They looked hideous. And cooking was nerve-wracking for a vegetarian. Thank you for this trip down memory lane, and I loved hearing about Home Ec in the USSR vs. Home Ec today.

The roundup to the Roundup: The aftermath. 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 21 – 28) 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.