822nd Friday Blog Roundup
I am rounding into the end of my ninth month at home and starting my tenth month in a few days. At this point, staying home and not planning life feels more normal than going out to a restaurant or meeting up with friends.
I haven’t seen my friends in nine months.
I spend most of my time in neutral—it is what it is—but veer sometimes towards sad (“I haven’t seen my friends in nine months”) and sometimes towards angry. I spent a lot of this week feeling angry. Angry that people traveled and entered houses for Thanksgiving break despite hearing all the same warnings that I heard from the CDC. Angry that the numbers are steadily rising in our state. Angry because it is abundantly clear that we’re not all in this together, despite all the promises of that last spring.
Like Barreness below, I am a rule follower because I believe there is a point to the rules. They are there to help us avoid situations such as our hospitals being 90% to capacity.
But now we’re here. I really fear the numbers in the next few weeks.
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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:
- “On Thankfulness and Grief” (My Path to Mommyhood)
Okay, now my choices this week.
The Barreness has a post that matches my mood. She writes of a mediocre Thanksgiving meal, “Why is this different? We have been cooking from home since MARCH. Making food and trying recipes for months… Why do we think that Thanksgiving is different?” As someone who has been going through new cookbooks at a quick clip, trying to make dinner as exciting as going to a restaurant, this spoke to me. I too am tired of being a rule follower, but I don’t think the answer is to not be a rule follower. And I love the good news at the end of the post.
Infertilityhonesty writes about the life she has now, and how is differs from what she thought it would be when she made her decision. She writes, “At the time I couldn’t, in actuality, see into the future but yet there was this supposed new life dangling in the corners of my blacked out soul.” Instead, the metaphor of the eucalyptus tree in the post gets closer to the truth. And I love, love, love the closing conversation with her inner monologue which includes: “That doesn’t exactly sound like nowhere to me. As a matter of fact, that might sound like everywhere.”
Lastly, Citizen of the Month looks back on an internet project that points to a very different blogosphere. Having watched every year and knowing many of the people in the old videos, the whole thing made me nostalgic and wistful and really really really glad that I got to live through this great part of the internet.
The roundup to the Roundup: Sometimes I’m angry. 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 November 27 – Dec 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.
7 comments
Oh Mel I am with you. Us front liners are so exhausted, too. And unfortunately we have been predicting this…everything as it unfolded in March down to now, with this upward trend that is going to blow up right before and after the holidays coming up. Schools should not have been opened at the start of flu season, county sports should have not resumed, people should not be out traveling around. It’s not just here, it’s the entire country…the bars refusing to close or abide by rules, the clubs, etc. This isn’t an infringement on anyone’s rights, this is a Globa Pandemic and some people are too selfish and short sided to see that.
It’s the book of revelations, it’s the end of days…it doesn’t matter what god you believe in, I believe it comes down to who has faith and who is a good decent person and has tried there very best to make a difference on this world. It’s a lesson, not any different than the floods and the arc…
Sending you a lot of love. This is hard.❤️
Yes, I get it. I have seen a few friends outdoors, from a distance, a handful of times, but for the most part, it’s been the same people (my husband and sons) and the same four walls for almost nine months. I’m over it.
And like you, I think the next 2-3 months are going to be even worse. Case numbers continue to rise daily in my area (and we aren’t even a “hot spot” by U.S. standards). My BFF is a registered nurse at a local hospital, and she told me that they had FIVE patients die in the ICU during a single 12-hour shift due to COVID-19. As you can imagine, the ICU nurses are beyond burned out, after dealing with this for the better part of nine months.
UGH
It’s weird. Yesterday DH asked me if I was happy. This is not a normal question for him, but he’d been reading something about it. My response was a bit like yours – a kind of neutral. Because it does feel as if the entire world is “on hold.”
I understand the anger. I think it would be abnormal if you didn’t feel anger from time to time.
Sending hugs from another rule follower.
PS. I liked Sarah’s post at Infertility Honesty about realising that, post-infertility, just living and surviving is an achievement. https://infertilityhonesty.com/2020/12/02/twilight/ And in fact, I’d say that’s an achievement in 2020 for pretty much everyone.
Yes to this: “Angry because it is abundantly clear that we’re not all in this together, despite all the promises of that last spring.” That is so frustrating. To know that so much of this is preventable if everyone just follows the same rules. That yes we’re tired of this, but IT WILL NEVER END if people just keep doing whatever they want to do, safety be damned. I can only imagine the exhaustion (physical, emotional) of the ICU staff right now. It’s so sad to me that people just cannot put others first.
I fear the numbers, too.
As we tick through the seasons, it’s beginning to round out a whole year (we’ve had spring, summer, and fall; and a few snowstorms that make it also feel like winter).
Only a few family members haven’t yet had a quarantined birthday. It’s a long time. I’m one who prefers definitive measures for a short time over half-measures indefinitely.
Love this one on an expanded view of nurturing/mothering, from Loribeth. https://theroadlesstravelledlb.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-tribute-to-mrs-patmore.html