890th Friday Blog Roundup

I spent the night before getting my progressives feeling like I made an enormous mistake. I imagined I would put them on, the world would be blurry, and I would promptly vomit in the store. Okay, perhaps not vomit, but not be able to function.

I walked into the store with my stomach in knots.

But they weren’t as bad as I feared. They also weren’t as good as I hoped. I was getting accustomed to a new prescription and the progressives at the same time, which possibly made it harder than it would have been if I had spread out the transition process. The world was blurry on the edges, and I felt seasick every time I moved my head. But when my eyes were pointing forward, I could see far. And when I looked down, I could read my watch — something that hasn’t happened with my glasses on in years.

I decided to wear my progressives from 9 to 5. Then I would switch into my distance glasses. If we went out, I would wear distance glasses. I gave myself the first hour of the day in my old distance frames, and the rest of the day (except for when I was wearing progressives) in the new distance frames.

The result is that three weeks in, I’m feeling okay with the progressives. I can keep them on to read brief things, though I still like to take them off to read books. Headaches from the new distance prescription have mostly stopped. I can see the world again. I probably should re-read this in the future the next time I’m dreading something.

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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.

Cup of Jo has an essay from a person who was born after her parents experienced two children born still. I’m accustomed to hearing about loss from the parent’s perspective, and it was interesting to hear how a child (now an adult) processes the space that exists between her older sister and herself. She writes: “The babies: this is what we called them. The babies. We — our eventual family of four — knew them as one, though they hadn’t come as one. They were never going to grow up to be anything other than the babies, the big brother and sister I never had.” It is such a powerful piece about loss and families and how we take care of each other and hold memories.

A Separate Life has a most excellent rant about the portrayal of women over a certain age. Think granny. And not even spry granny. She writes: “Over and over again, we see this on our screens; the grandparents of young children are almost always portrayed as extremely elderly. Yet the reality is that most young children have active grandparents in their 50s (give or take a decade).” It creates a weird phenomenon where 60-year-old women are aged up to portray 80-year-olds.

Lastly, Infertile Phoenix gets through a hard month and can breathe easier in April. She writes about something I rarely see discussed: how do you know when you need help? She explains: “There were a couple of times where I wondered if I needed to bring in some more support. I am not afraid to ask for help, but I’m not always aware of when I reach that point. I informally assessed my life but determined I was still functioning. So I just continued to feel and process.” Food for thought.

The roundup to the Roundup: Adjusting to new glasses. 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 1 – April 8) 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.