870th Friday Blog Roundup

Remember how I told you less than one year ago that we got a new toaster, and I didn’t want to learn how to use it? Well, I managed to only use it a handful of times. One of those times was last week. It was the day that the bread caught fire.

I got off a call, started to help a co-worker with a task, and hopped up to make myself some toast while I waited for a response. I sat down and started to work again for about two minutes, when I sniffed the air. It smelled like smoke. And then I looked over my shoulder and the toaster was filled with flames.

FILLED WITH FLAMES.

FLAMING BREAD.

All four pieces were on fire. And I didn’t know what to do. I opened the door to the toaster. That was not a good idea. I slammed the door to the toaster closed and unplugged it from the wall. The fire continued. Every fire alarm went off. The twins ran in and opened the windows and doors. Smoke filled the kitchen and traveled through the house, making everything smell like ash. I finally grabbed flour to throw on the fire (this, I read afterward, would have been a bad idea), but the fire went out on its own, deprived of oxygen. I stood there and stared at the burnt toaster with its burnt toast.

The saddest part was that I wasn’t even that into the idea of toast. It just seemed like a simple thing to make.

I’ve long suspected that there was something wrong about the toaster. It made a weird clicking sound whenever someone used it. So I guess the lesson here is to trust your instincts and not trust new toasters.

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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 My Way” (A New Blank Page)

Okay, now my choices this week.

InfertileHonesty answers the question: How long will IT take? (I really loved her title.) This is brilliant: “Once I crossed the seven year mark though, the truth began to shimmer – anything that doesn’t feel right and doesn’t seem to be working for me – Well, it’s because it isn’t right and it isn’t working for me. Period. That’s all and that’s it.” You’ll have to read the whole post to understand how she reached that point and what happened next. And totally excited by her end note.

Finding a Different Path has been in a funk and is trying to get out. She hit an enormous cry moment (though the arm injury looked painful!), but came out of it with deep knowledge of how to become unstuck as well as this brilliant thought: “Remember how good your body is at making you stop completely when you don’t.” Very true.

Lastly, No Kidding in NZ talks about family trees, and how sometimes the interesting paths of those trees aren’t straight up and down but instead diagonal or side to side. It was an interesting reminder to stop always thinking in straight lines.

The roundup to the Roundup: Scary toaster fire. 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 5 – 12) 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.