I am getting my COVID and flu shot together this weekend (along with a blood draw!) because I like to maximize my medical center visits. I’m prepared to not feel great for 24 hours, but that’s what Ted Lasso episodes are for.

Go get your shots.

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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.

And now the blogs…

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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 Road Less Travelled has a link to the truly bizarre CNN piece for World Childless Week. Not the interview itself, but the graphics that run during the voice overs. You can imagine the conversation—Bill: “I don’t know what to show visually for childless women.” Mary: “Hey Bill, just show normal women going about life, looking normal.” Bill: “Nah, I’ll put a bunch of pregnant bellies and babies. That’s how people will know we’re talking about childless women.” Go watch.

Lastly, also rounding out World Childless Week, No Kidding in NZ states 10 things she learned through childlessness. I really love this: “That I would learn many things from adversity; some good, some bad, all useful.” Go read the whole list.

The roundup to the Roundup: Vaccinations… check! 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 18 – September 25) 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.

Speaking of food, the last location of Armand’s, a 50+-year-old DC-area pizza place, closed while we were away this summer. My parents went and stood in the long line to buy a few pizzas and froze them for us.

We were waiting for a special day to eat our slices — they would be the last slices I would ever eat! — and no day felt perfect enough. But before the kids went back to school, I heated them up because the idea of losing power in a future storm (happens here often) and having to throw out the last slices of pizza broke my heart.

It is a weird thought to eat something and know it is your last time eating something you took for granted would always be there.

I’ve been a picky eater my whole life, and while I’d like to think that I’ve become a little more adventurous over the years, the reality is that I rarely add a new ingredient. New recipes, sure, but they are made up of ingredients I’ve eaten in other ways.

I’ve been brie-curious for a few years. I’m not the best with cheese, in general, but every once in a while, I think about trying brie but ultimately back out.

Josh and I were out to lunch at one of our favourite cafes attached to a bookshop, with tables overlooking the river. I ordered a tofu sandwich with peanut sauce, and Josh ordered a brie sandwich with apricot jam. I heard myself ask, “Can I try a bite?”

I was as stunned as Josh was. But I went through with it. And it was fine. I’m committed to trying a whole sandwich at some point. Get myself familiar with the taste.

If I push myself, I can’t do it. If I wait to feel comfortable, I may wait years, but it usually goes smoothly. I wish there was a way to speed up that second timeline, but it is what it is.

And now I can eat brie tucked into things. I may be a few steps away from eating it on a cracker where I can see it.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I was today years old when I learned that the word “hello” became a standard greeting due to the telephone and the fact that you could be speaking to someone in a different time zone. So if you said good morning, and it was their afternoon, it would be strange. So Edison encouraged people to use hello.

But now, with caller ID for phones or the fact that most people text, saying hello is kind of pointless. You’re not asking who is there because you know who is there. So you just jump straight into the conversation (e.g., “What’s up?”).

I still say hello. But how long will that last?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.

One of the best parts of blogging is the chance to see the inner workings of a decision or situation. I feel like I need to qualify that by saying normal, run-of-the-mill blogging, the sort that feels like a person sitting across from you and sharing their day-to-day world. Like a friend would. Meaning, you don’t expect your friends to be aspirational or waste your time with lies. I’m currently reading The Castle by Jon Ronson, and there is so much about making content for an algorithm vs. just sharing what is on their mind.

But I digress.

Kottke had a blog post I really like because, from the outside, other people’s choices look easy. He sold his car, put his stuff in storage, and hopped on a plane to figure out where he wants to live next. If he had stopped there, I would have thought, “Wow, that is super brave. I would be terrified to do something like that.”

But that is blogging: The ability to continue the story and say, “I’m not going to lie… I’m a little terrified. Sitting on the plane to Narita, I looked out the window thinking ‘what have I done?’ But I’m also excited.” The story continues, and he is terrified. And he’s doing it anyway.

I’m really grateful that blogs exist.