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Category — Microblog Mondays

#Microblog Monday 295: Empty Spaces

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

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The Daily Mail has a series of photos with a slider. If you move the slider in one direction, you see how the British town looks during tourist season. If you move the slider in the opposite direction, you see how it looks today, during the pandemic.

Of course, it’s not just the UK. This is the scene everywhere. But the pictures are eerie, and I can’t stop toggling the slider back and forth, watching the people disappear and then pop back up again.

A hotel called us last week and canceled our birdwatching trip. They offered to move the reservation, but we have no clue when to set a new trip. And it’s not as if the birds will stick around and wait for the tourists to return.

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.


April 20, 2020   9 Comments

#Microblog Monday 294: Brands

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

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Josh is doing grocery shopping for a few people every two weeks. We have been telling people to give us all their acceptable alternatives because things are often sold-out or missing from the shelves.

One thing this has taught me is how little brand matters at the end of the day. I mean, yes, there are times when something isn’t kosher, so we can’t get it, or it contains an extra ingredient that makes it unusable. But for the most part, while I went in with strong brand preferences, I am walking out of it not caring anymore.

Or not caring as much anymore.

I’m just grateful for my brand-I’ve-never-heard-of cooking spray and generic toilet paper.

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.


April 13, 2020   12 Comments

#Microblog Monday 293: Shhhhhhhhh

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

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I love quiet. Before COVID-19, I spent six hours of my day in near silence. There was the hum of the refrigerator and an occasional meeting, but in between, there was just the click of the keyboard or my own breathing.

When I first heard about sound-canceling headphones, I thought they actually blocked out sound. Like all sound. That would be amazing. But then I tried a pair on and I could still hear everything. It sounded dull and faraway, but that just made the sounds more annoying because now my brain was trying to figure out what I was hearing vs. knowing what I was hearing and trying to ignore it.

I am balancing out missing quiet with being thankful everyone is sheltering in place so I can turn off worrying about them. But… like I wouldn’t mind a silent hour now and then.

Do you like background noise, or do you like to relax or work in silence?

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.


April 6, 2020   13 Comments

#Microblog Monday 292: Don’t Be That Person on April Fool’s Day

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

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Every year, I hope beyond hope that people will not post phony pregnancy announcements for April Fool’s Day, and every year, I am disappointed by humanity.

But this year, really, please, skip April Fool’s Day. Not just pregnancy posts—skip COVID-19 posts. Skip posting anything that may be misconstrued. When in doubt, don’t post.

I have to spend time on the Internet on Wednesday due to my job or I’d stay offline. So please, humanity, don’t let me down this year.

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.


March 30, 2020   8 Comments

#Microblog Monday 291: Delivery, Ethics, and Covid-19

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

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I am eternally grateful to everyone who has continued to do their job through this crisis––for example, health care workers, but also grocery store employees, farmers, delivery workers, and cleaning staff. The people who are keeping the day-to-day going; making sure we have food and disinfected spaces and health care.

But I have been thinking of the ethics of it. And other people are clearly thinking about it, too. Wired magazine asked last week: “People are being encouraged to stay home to avoid exposure to the coronavirus. Should they ask others to bring them food?” Are we being kind when we ensure people have work to do? Or are we being cruel when we ask other people to take risks we’re not taking?

There is clearly no easy answer.

I will say that I truly love our Italian ice place. (Priorities, people!) They put out a call on Facebook and gave people a day or two to place orders for paid pickup (over the phone). Then they brought the pickup orders to our town so people could nip out, grab their bag, and go. It was a fantastic solution where we all met in the middle to disseminate dessert by making the transactions between people as brief as possible. Not perfect but an interesting solution.

Are you ordering out right now?

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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 that are connected to businesses or are sponsored post.


March 23, 2020   12 Comments

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