While we’ve encountered the lack of stamps on and off for the past few years, I just learned that the EU is phasing out passport stamps for travelers on November 10. This is a bummer because of the two ways I used my stamps.

One, trying to remember the dates we had been somewhere. This seems the most obvious use: Open the book, look at the stamp, and check the date.

Two, there is a point on every trip — usually early on — when I silently freak out and think I cannot possibly be this far away from home. When that happens, I usually flip through the passport book and note all of the other times I’ve freaked out but made it through this stage of the trip and been fine. From now on, especially once my passport renews, I’ll flip through blank pages and think… nothing. Because I will not see a visible reminder of where I was the last time I freaked out.

I’m sad they’re going away. Not everywhere, of course, but in many places, and I fear it’s the path forward for the future.

I read the most lovely, well-written, deeply honest personal essay about infertility recently, so I am setting it here in case you missed it, too.

It’s about stating where she is right now. She explains:

An actress friend of mine went public about her fertility issues ONLY AFTER becoming pregnant. Usually, when someone addresses infertility, there is a baby at the end of the struggle; a happy ending. But my story is different. My story is about not getting that proverbial ‘happy ending’ and navigating defeats without being defeated. Honoring that loss is part of life.

Go read it in full because the title is perfect.

Last year, we visited the kids four times: drop-off, mid-fall, mid-spring, and pack-up. It worked well, and we decided to do this again. Except this time, it worked better with my work schedule to go at the end of September. It wasn’t ideal — drop off at the beginning of September and visit at the end of September. It left us with a big gaping calendar hole between the end of September and Thanksgiving.

But what could we do? It also needed to work with work.

We had perfect weather for our trip. We went to an orchard and ate apple cider donuts. We helped them fill out their mail-in ballots over coffee. We went on a Trader Joe’s run, ate sushi, and visited a landmark that I thought I had never seen and then realized that I had been there years ago. Mostly, we just sat around and talked, and the Wolvog taught me how to play Balatro. It was a fantastic weekend.

But I ended up having the emptiness of drop-off twice. The first time when we actually dropped them off for the year and I had to return to the quiet house, and the second time when we returned from the visit last weekend to the long stretch until Thanksgiving.

We all agreed that we should push the visit to October next year to break things up, but it doesn’t change this year, dealing with the same emotions a second time.

P.S. No Microblog Monday tomorrow. See you on Tuesday.

This weekend begins apple season. Apple season is a tradition with Beorn, where we get fancy apples on Fridays and then share them with Beorn on Saturday mornings while we read. He runs around and loops back occasionally for a chunk of apple, and I like to think that his wheeks are sharing his thoughts on my TBR list.

A local farm has two walls of apples so you can mix and match. Everything along one wall is one price per pound, and everything along the other wall is a different price per pound. So we never think of writing down the types of apples we like. We just play roulette with the apples, trying a bunch of different types each weekend.

Happy apple season.

*******

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.

Infertile Phoenix writes about the concept of “getting over” childlessness. She explains: “Once you’re a mom, you’re a mom. It doesn’t change. Why do I feel like some people want me to ‘get over’ my childlessness? It’s a part of me. It’s who I am.” Not having kids impacts life just as much as having kids.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a recurring post that I wish I had started many years ago, too, because her archive is wonderful. She recaps how life is right now; what is happening, what she is reading, how she spends her time. They’re all labeled with Right Now if you want to peruse history.

The roundup to the Roundup: Happy apple season. 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 September 27 – October 4) 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 loved The Atlantic’s ode to the Apple Note, mostly because I use the notes app in the same way:

Unlike Evernote or Notion, it’s not necessarily organized for the user’s future self. It is essentially built-in scratch paper on a phone, and it reveals a person’s digital subconscious.

I have a few notes organized around a theme, such as ideas for future meals. Whenever we’re meal planning, I’ll return to that note and see if I’m still in the mood for whatever idea bubbled up in my head while we were watching television. But most notes are just running snippets of quotes from books or funny things the kids said or random things I suddenly remember and want to capture.

Whenever a note gets ridiculously long, I’ll start another one. So, looking back at old notes takes me back to a stage in my life in the same way that looking back at open tabs in Safari also reveals what I was thinking about years ago. I have tabs that have been open since 2017. Maybe earlier.