Category — Friday Blog Roundup

Josh and I lean more towards brick-and-mortar shopping, but there are a few things we buy online, usually ordering more than we need at the moment, so we won’t have to place another order for a few months. Last week, we submitted two such orders from two different businesses, and both orders arrived with chunks missing from the sides of the products.

Before you ask, there were no marks on the shipping boxes. They arrived without a dent. But when I opened the two boxes, one item in each box had a U-shaped hole on the side. In one case, it was hair gel that was now coating everything else in the box. In the other case, it was guinea pig baby food, which was luckily dry but had spilled out of its packaging inside the box.

In both cases, the company sent a replacement. (Though the AI bot suggested that we send back the oozing hair gel until Josh requested to speak to a human that said, “Uh, no, please DON’T send that through the mail.)

I sense that this is our future. Instead of human hands placing items in the box or even a human looking into the box to make sure the robot hands didn’t puncture the items, we will now receive packages of oozing gel and spilled-out guinea pig baby food — all in the name of technology. And companies will find it cheaper to replace the wasted items instead of employing a human to make sure the machine can do what the machine promises to do.

Call me frustrated.

*******

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:

• “Gewappnet” (Elaine ohne Kind)

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ builds off Middle Girl’s idea that now is not the time for accomplishments. She explains: “There is so much I need to do, but at the moment, surviving with some sanity intact is about all I can manage. Remembering to breathe. Treading water. And that’s okay.” Accomplishments are relative.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled celebrated her 40th wedding anniversary. It’s an enormous accomplishment always — choosing one another year after year. Congratulations!

The roundup to the Roundup: I’m not ready for the robot overlords. 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 July 4 – 11) 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 am feeling like crap today from a shingles/pneumococcal vaccine combo (more on that when I can concentrate) — Freedom from preventable illness! Liberty from hospital stays! Happy 4th, everyone! — so I’ll keep this brief and remind you to check your vaccine schedule and see if you’re up to date.

*******

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.

Middle Girl captures life in a few brief sentences. She writes: “I am unable to report that I’ve worked on (or better yet, finished) the story of Janice* … On the flipside, I can report that I am still chug, chug, chugging along and still trying to tame my wild and woolly salt-and-pepper mane. Take gentle care, gentle folks.” It feels like poetry, and I agree with the first commenter on it not being a time for accomplishments.

Finally, A Half Baked Life returns with an update. Even though I just saw her in the face-to-face world, it made me smile to see her in my feed reader. It begins: “So my kid tells me I don’t post much any more. Which is true. But it also means he found my blog and read it, or at least part of it.” Gulp. But it’s all good. And you get a recipe, too.

The roundup to the Roundup: Stay healthy. 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 June 27 – July 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.

Many many (many many many) months ago, multiple branches from an enormous pine tree behind our house fell off and exploded in our backyard. The tree owner repaired the fence and patio. We have not yet figured out what we’re doing about replacing the plant that was killed in the fall.

We’ve been asking for years for the tree to be taken down because it looked ill and leaned over our house with each storm. If it fell altogether, it would land on the house. They finally agreed to take down the tree.

A crew showed up on Monday and climbed the tree, first taking off the limbs and chopping down the trunk as they climbed down. My stomach was in knots for them. But in a few hours, the tree was gone, leaving only wood dust in the backyard.

I’m sad about the tree but also relieved. This tree freaked me out for eleven years.

*******

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.

Finding a Different Path writes about balancing the safety of sticking to your comfort zone to the excitement of new adventures and how the outside world sometimes impacts those decisions — from the huge (world stress) to the personal (avoiding the “family friendly” spaces and all that they bring). As someone who thoroughly enjoys going back to places and loves the lack of stress that comes with knowing a place, I stand behind this 100%.

Lastly, The Next 15000 Days thought she lost a part of herself, but it was there all along. Sometimes you need to go out into the world to get that reminder that side of you was with you all along.

The roundup to the Roundup: Goodbye tree. 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 June 20 – 27) 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.

Every Saturday morning, a bookstore I love sends out an email with a link to notable books published that week. It’s how I choose books for the most part for my TBR. Due to a time difference, I can usually check their site on Friday nights near midnight and see that week’s list, and on particularly hard weeks, I let myself peek at the first six to eight books before I go to bed.

Last Friday was one of those Fridays. I opened the link, but it showed me the books from the week before. Drats. The booklist wouldn’t be up until morning. But the next morning, when I received the newsletter and followed the link, it took me to the previous week’s books. The page hadn’t been updated. I tried multiple devices. I tried clearing caches. I tried powering down my phone and turning it back on. I tried all of the things.

And then, I am embarrassed to admit, I wrote the helpline for the bookstore. Was it an emergency? Absolutely not. But was I panicking, hitting refresh over and over again as if it would summon the list? Yes, I was. I became that person who writes the helpline because she missed her book list.

Someone at the helpdesk wrote me back the next day, thanking me for alerting them to the issue with the page, and they wrote me back a few days after that to let me know the link was ready to go. Happy browsing.

All was well again in the world.

*******

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 captures a moving moment on Father’s Day. She was at a restaurant last weekend, sitting at the bar with her boyfriend, surrounded by other local people she knew. A cute child at a nearby table started interacting with one of her friends, who also was sitting at the bar. After the family left, her friend reminded her that it’s not only women who feel wistful when they look at the road not taken: “I’ve done a lot and I’ve seen a lot… [somewhat of a long pause] But I never had kids.” It’s a great reminder, beautifully written.

Lastly, Grumpy Rumbings has a bit of found poetry, capturing a relationship through messages. Loved this.

The roundup to the Roundup: Routine thwarted and fixed. 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 June 13 – 20) 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.

It’s Friday the 13th, and as always, I have the compulsion to point that out in the Roundup when the date aligns. It’s not as if you don’t have a calendar or that the date even means anything. But I got it out of my system. Carry on.

*******

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.

Scientist on the Roof muses about what it’s like to be an extrovert amongst introverts. I related to this: “Having conversations can be a lot of work (I have to talk! and ask questions! and then ask more questions! it’s exhausting!)” People often talk about it the other way around — being an introvert surrounded by extroverts — but I hadn’t thought about the opposite situation.

Lastly, Bereaved and Blessed answers a set of reflective questions, something she has done every five years. She explains, “When I turned 40 and 45 I wrote and shared reflection posts here on my blog, which turned 18 this year. I decided to do it again, as I appreciate being able to revisit what I was thinking, as well as feeling, back then and how far I have come since.” It’s a long posts, and I love this question at the end: “What is your heart telling you that you need right now?”

The roundup to the Roundup: Friday the 13th. 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 June 6 – 13) 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.