Category — Friday Blog Roundup

No one is having a good time. It is the theme of my week — not good news followed by not good news — and based on my Facebook feed, it is the theme of everyone else’s week, too.

Our interconnectedness is never more apparent when everything goes wrong—for instance, COVID. One person does X (goes out while they’re sick), which impacts Y (gets sick because of the first person), who now cancels Z (because they’re sick), which throws A – W into chaos. You get it. Because you live it. So when bad news comes, you can usually trace it back through other bits of bad news.

Or sometimes it comes out of nowhere. Just a big bad news drop from left field. But more often than not, especially with little bad news (bad news with a lowercase b), it is connected to other bits of bad news.

Does it work the other way? Do good things lead to more good things for other people? Or is it only problems that spread from person to person?

*******

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:

• “Does It Make Us Stronger?” (No Kidding in NZ)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Grumpy Rumblings is also swimming through a sea of bad news. They post a long list of rejections, summing it up: “ It’s hard to have so much rejection without a single acceptance in between.” Amen. I include this because the ending gave me hope. Feel what you need to feel, and then take the next step. Onward.

Lastly, A Half-Baked Life has a story of a GrubHub driver that made me cry. Thankful for people in the world who do the small things that make the big differences.

The roundup to the Roundup: Sorry if you’re having a bad week, too. 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 February 10 – 17) 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.

UK Mother’s Day happens before US Mother’s Day, so my inbox already contains UK brands asking me if I’d like to opt out of Mother’s Day emails. I say this every year, always hoping that it will catch on in the US, too, but every year, UK brands are the only ones that send me a kind email, short and sweet.

Three sentences. No hand wringing. No trying to sell me anything else at the moment. Just a simple, “If you’d prefer not to receive any emails of this sort from us, opt-out by clicking here and we’ll take care of it.”

I love that. I appreciate that. And I wish it would catch on here, too.

*******

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.

*******

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:

• ” A Decade Later…” (A Few Pieces Missing From Normalcy – An Infertile Man’s Perspective)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Uterus Monologues has a book announcement. She writes, “Life, Almost is a book that contains pretty much everything that happened on the road to having a baby. It’s a book about miscarriage, yes, but it’s also about fertility, reproductive medicine, and pregnancy more broadly, especially the many gaps in our knowledge.” It’s really a lovely post about why we need miscarriage memoirs and to talk about loss. Congratulations on the book.

Lastly, Bereaved and Blessed talks about mid-life aches (which reminded me of Spalding Gray’s Bermuda Triangle of Health from age 50 – 53). She explains, “Next month I turn 48 and it seems this stage of middle age brings with it a host of seemingly random, and at times rare, medical challenges.” These two are unusual, and I didn’t know about the dangers of antihistamines.

The roundup to the Roundup: Thank you, UK brands, for your thoughtfulness. 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 February 3 – 10) 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.

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?

*******

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.

*******

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.

I wrote this yesterday afternoon and scheduled it because I will be at a meeting by the time you read it. Wearing real clothes. And shoes. It’s hard to be an adult.

We had to buy a new vacuum this week. We went with a Dyson again, especially since the last one is still somewhat kicking (more on that in a moment), and it’s from 2007. I like to write love letters to vacuums.

16 years is a good run, and the first Dyson still has some life left. So we dropped it off at the vacuum repair shop, and we’ll be able to get it back this weekend. It will be our backup vacuum for a bit as we make sure we like this one, and then we can give it away to someone through the help center in our town. I think of the repair money as cash keeping it out of a landfill. And it’s a damn fine vacuum, just with a few worn-out parts.

*******

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.

*******

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.

Dubliner in Deutschland looks back at a 101 things in 1001 days post derailed by COVID. It’s interesting to think about all the plans made on blogs in the first days of 2020 that we had no clue wouldn’t be able to happen a few weeks later. She looks through the list and reports back on what she was able to achieve from the list. I laughed at this one, remembering what my hair looked like that year: “My hair grew really long during the first year of the pandemic when I wasn’t able to get to a hairdresser but not sure that really counts as updating my style!”

Lastly, Finding a Different Path has a post about taking relaxing diversions and feeling stress from them. I feel this, too, with a lot of rituals. Except Wordle is still on this side of the stress relief line because it gives shape to the day. It’s part of my morning routine, and I always feel better vs. worse when I walk through the exercise, meditation, games, and writing I do upon waking. But that line is blurry, and it’s just as easy for me to step onto the other side of it and feel terrible if I don’t do something. Interesting read.

The roundup to the Roundup: New vacuums create clean floors. 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 20 – 27) 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.

Because we like to wait until every pop culture moment is a speck in the side view mirror, we only started Heartstopper (Netflix) this week. I keep calling it Heartbreaker. The ChickieNob is like, “STOP. HeartSTOPPER. He STOPS his heart.” Then I mutter, “stop, stop, stop,” to myself. An hour passes, and then I say, “So we’re going to watch Heartbreaker tonight?”

It is so wholesome that it makes my heart hurt. It’s like Schitt’s Creek. You want to hang out with these lovely, clever creatures who never say a curse word and get excited to play in the snow.

Really, it is the sweetest show I’ve seen in a while, and I adore the time we spend with the group.

*******

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.

*******

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.

The Barreness talks about visiting her friend. She writes: “There is something unique and beautiful about a friend that knows you, and has known you for decades. They spot when you are bull-shiting yourself, and when you are downplaying something.” So so so true. These friendships are so valuable. And maybe I related being in the same position as her friend. With hot flashes to boot.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ writes about how no two situations are alike, even if you have a factor that bonds you. She looks at the difference between her situation and her friend’s No Kidding situation, and she explains: “So our present, in terms of relationships with children, look very different, and a lot lonelier. As do our futures, despite the fact that we are all childless.” It’s not about better or worse but just an acknowledgment of the difference.

The roundup to the Roundup: Loving Heartstopper. 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 13 – 20) 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.