We went out to visit the kids last weekend. Winter always carries the fear that the weather will cancel the trip, but we ended up with sun and warm enough weather. You could go for a walk in the afternoon without freezing.

My cousin ended up in a town about an hour and a half away on the same weekend, and we decided to drive at each other. I picked a town I had never seen before but knew the name, and the kids informed me after everything was set that I might be a little nervous during the drive because at least five minutes of it was along a very twisty mountain road with a very steep drop.

I am not good on mountain roads.

I am very not good on mountain roads.

Waze took us on a very odd route going to the town, and I commented that I hoped it would send us back another way because I didn’t want to ride through the small towns and woodland when it was getting dark. But it took us the route the kids knew going home.

It was as awful as I feared. Back and forth. A sheer drop down a mountain with only a short, ice-covered barrier. Signs warning that steep roads were ahead. I spent a good ten minutes screaming obscenities while Josh guided us down the mountain.

And then… the sublime. We ended up driving for ten minutes through a valley, the road twisting alongside a stream. No buildings in sight, just miles of ice-covered trees and snowy ground and a grey road ribboning underneath enormous mountains.

I would have missed those ten minutes in the valley if I had never endured the first ten terrifying minutes of getting there.

Every afternoon or evening, I walk indoors and watch 20 minutes of The Crown. I’ve been doing this since the beginning of the pandemic, though it hasn’t always been The Crown on a continual loop. I’ve watched muted first-person walking videos on YouTube and listened to audiobooks. I’ve watched documentaries. But for the most part, it has been either all six seasons of The Crown, sometimes interspersed with the single season of One Day.

I am in the final episode of the final season of The Crown, and it’s time to make a decision. Do I jump back to the beginning and watch a young Elizabeth age over the next few months? Or do I pause and mentally jump back to college with the start of One Day? I’m going to have to make a decision this afternoon.

I don’t know what I’ll pick. I guess it will become a walk-time decision.

Is there anything you continuously rewatch?

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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 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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ has a post about managing your boundaries and energy, something I am terrible at doing and often feel frustrated with myself over. These words made me feel less alone: “But it’s really hard when there are several active crisis rings in my life, and I’m at a different place in each of them. As are my family and friends. There are no rules or maps for navigating that. And no extra spoon/energy allocations for any of us.” I’m sending a hug but also a big thank you for voicing this.

Lastly, the Barreness talks about feelings around a complicated situation. What happens after a death when you were estranged from the person? When that person stands for things you find abhorrent? She writes: “Short term: We give. We continue to give and give as that is what makes sense to us. Kindness and love.” It’s a hard situation, and as she says, they are muddling through.

The roundup to the Roundup: The joy of rewatching something. 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 February 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.

I know Kindle Unlimited exists, but it often doesn’t have the books I want. I also know the library exists, but it has long wait times. So why doesn’t a Netflix, Hulu, and HBO for books exist?

As in, each publisher has a streaming service that allows you to access their entire catalog on demand, plus any other publisher that has allowed their books to stream on that service. (I could see a small press benefiting from being on multiple streaming services.) They charge $7.99 per month. Cancel at any time.

You could have a Simon & Schuster subscription, a Random House subscription, and a HarperCollins subscription, all at the same time, in the same way you may have Netflix and Hulu at the same time and still use your library for Kanopy and Hoopla. It’s not a replacement, but an enhancement.

I kept taking The Satsuma Complex on and off my to-read list. I couldn’t decide whether or not I liked Bob Mortimer’s comedy or whether I wanted to read a comedic book at all.

But I saw Bob on Last One Laughing, and while he didn’t make me laugh like Joe Wilkinson or Richard Ayoade, I found myself still thinking about a piece he did during the show, and I decided to give the book a try.

I liked it, I didn’t like it, my reaction was literally a replica of how I felt about putting it on and taking it off my to-read. Until. I was suddenly really enjoying it and looking forward to listening to the next chapter, and I realized that Bob Mortimer’s comedy is a slow-burn for me. Which was a very happy discovery.

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On the topic of needing moments of lightness, when I’m down, I still watch Where the Hell is Matt?

It has had 53 million views by this point, which is kind of incredible. But there is something that happens about 2/3rd of the way through the video (another slow burn!) where I suddenly feel hopeful, despite all happening in the world.

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

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I had a thought while I was making dinner: That everything I purchase, everything I bring into my home, is pre-trash.

It may be trash within the same day. I bought the box of pasta, I made the box of pasta, I ate the box of pasta, and I threw out the box of pasta. Or it may become trash years down the road, such as worn-out socks.

But every item is just pre-trash, which makes me pause somewhat as I think about purchasing something. I tend to keep paper books unless someone wants to take them. So it’s worth buying a book because it will likely outlive me. But something that I’m not going to use (or use up)? Probably not worth bringing it into my home only to throw it out later.

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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 connected to businesses or sponsored posts.