743rd Friday Blog Roundup
We have a neighbour, and every day, she walks her enormous dog. We’re around the same age, so I’ve tried over the years to befriend her, but we’re still in the “hello” stage of acquaintanceship. She always smiles at me when she walks past, but her body language clearly states that she doesn’t want to slow down and chat. It’s not unfriendly; I just haven’t been able to get a conversation going.
Josh noticed that she hasn’t been walking the dog. She still walks past the house mid-day, but there’s no leash. The dog, if still alive, has to be in its mid-teens, so it follows that the dog may not be alive anymore. Hence the missing dog on the walk.
I want to say something, to let her know that we noticed and express our condolences if condolences need to be expressed. But there’s something weird about starting a first conversation like that. We’ve been neighbours for many years, and we’ve only spoken hello to each other and had one other conversation about the dog. I don’t even know her name. I’m just really sad not to see the dog with her anymore.
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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 in order 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. In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:
- “She was the ‘queen of the mommy bloggers.’ Then her life fell apart.” (Vox) — thanks, Lori!
Okay, now my choices this week.
Different Shores has a post about not being a mother in your 40s, and how it differs from not being a mother before this point. It’s such an interesting post about being an outlier. She writes, “Now I’m over 40, I’m fairly sure that none of my family or old friends gives a rat’s whether I’m upset or otherwise about not having kids. As I see it now, the only option is to try to own it, or be miserable.” There’s a lot of food for thought.
Anabegins has a post about all the things she’s doing to bring the vacation spirit into her life because she doesn’t have time for a vacation. And I just love this. I too have switched to reading mind candy for the moment. Letting things slide. Sometimes you need to do what you need to do to get by.
Dubliner in Deutschland has a post about keeping up with the news and how it gets under your skin. She explains, “I don’t often write about tragic events in the news on this blog, and sometimes it feels a bit insensitive or shallow to be talking about my day to day life as if I don’t care about what’s happening. The thing is I do care about it all, a lot.” She captures that need to keep informed, and balances it with the emotional reality of hearing bad news.
Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a post about International Bereaved Mothers Day and why she kept her “literal and cyber mouth shut.” It is for a thoughtful, selfless reason, but it’s also because the world makes it so hard to speak about loss.
The roundup to the Roundup: Sad about the dog. 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 May 3rd and 10th) 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.
7 comments
You should say something about the dog – I’m sure she would appreciate the sentiment.
Oh gosh. That makes me so sad. If I were her, and even if we hadn’t spoken before, I would want to be noticed and given an opening to process with someone. You being a sort-of-stranger may actually be a bonus.
As a long-time dog owner and dog lover, I would appreciate it if someone asked about my dog under the circumstances you’ve described. FWIW.
Thanks for the shoutout! 🙂
I think next time you see this woman, you should ask her about the dog, and tell her how much you’ve enjoyed watching them together over the years. I’m sure she’d appreciate it.
For Second Helpings: this post from Mrs. Spit, and especially this line: “It turns out that it is easier for the world to countenance a daughter whose Mother has died than a Mother whose child has died.”
http://mrsspit.ca/?p=6266
That’s a hard one. I’m that type of neighbor (not very neighborly). It might be uncomfortable for her to be sort of confronted on the street about something very sad. And you don’t know for sure the status of the dog. I think if you knew for sure, going to her house or dropping a card in her mailbox would be better.
I’m so glad you included Loribeth’s post and Different Shores, as I came in to flag them both.
Do you know where the dog owner lives? I was thinking that dropping in a card might be a good idea too. Her walks must be terribly lonely now.
Thanks so much for the mention! It sounds like it could be tricky to suddenly start a conversation with her. We have neighbours who I’d like to befriend but whenever we see them, they generally just say a friendly greeting but then go on about their business and don’t seem to want to stop and chat.