930th Friday Blog Roundup
The Substack (Loribeth is so right! Substacks are blogs in disguise.) Notes from Three Pines is hosting an ongoing Inspector Gamache read-along. It kicks off on February 22, so you have time to read the first book (Still Life). I will jump in because my old book club closed down, and I’m looking for a more structured community beyond Goodreads. But not too structured because I don’t want to leave my house.
Does anyone else want to join along? And then go on a road trip to the greater Montreal area?
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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:
- “Who Gets To Grieve?” (Stirrup Queens) – thanks, Jess!
Okay, now my choices this week.
The Road Less Travelled has a really sweet blog post complete with drawn portrait. The artist is her great-nephew. She writes: “I asked him if the two lines coming out of the bottom of my head were legs and/or feet. ‘Socks!’ he corrected me.” Go over and see the proud auntie’s new portrait.
Lastly, Infertile Phoenix finally has an answer to a friendship that went on hold and is now back. It’s a story of two paths to living without children that diverged and came back together. I appreciated the nuance she brought to understanding both sides — the decision not to pursue parenthood and the grief over not having children. She writes about the woman’s mother: “I understand my friend’s complete annoyance and even anger, but I also completely empathize with her mom. Her mom is feeling a deep, deep pain that nobody can help her with. It got me thinking about the disenfranchised grief and the ambiguous loss involved with grandchildlessness.” It’s a profound post.
The roundup to the Roundup: Come read Louise Penny books with me. 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 27 – February 3) 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.
5 comments
Packing my bag for Montreal (and Quebec City if we have time)! I love your posts about travel, and I know you would be such a fun friend to travel with.
I was going to say that – to me substacks seem very much like blogs.
Thanks for the mention! I am game for Montreal (and maybe the read-along too, albeit I need another book club like a hole in the head, lol). Despite my (relative) proximity — it’s only about a six-hour drive from here, and I think some of the nonstop trains can get there in 4 — I’ve only been there once, overnight on business (followed by six hours in Quebec City before flying home again). This was about 30 years ago, and I spent most of my time either in a hotel room or board room. My mom & I were going to take the train there for a few days when she came to visit me about 20+ years ago — the train tickets were bought and hotel room booked, I’d researched stuff for us to do — but we had to cancel. I was suffering horrible anxiety attacks, post-infertility treatment, just before she got there and I did not want to be in a strange city and not feeling well. 🙁
I enjoyed reading the update from:
https://afewpiecemissingfromnormalcy.wordpress.com/2023/01/30/a-decade-later/
Oh, wouldn’t I love to join you on a road trip to Montreal! And yes to the read-along, if I can remember to do it! (Please remind us. lol) I’ve read a couple of the books, but want to read more. I love the sense of place (of the village) in the books, and having been to Montreal once (albeit in the spring), I like to imagine its streets etc.