I opened the door to see if it was still raining, and there was a cup of bubble tea left on the top step with a plastic bag around it to protect it from the weather. A receipt was stapled to the bag with exactly zero pieces of helpful information. No name of the intended recipient. No address. Just the order details (bubble tea), the driver, and the cost ($10! For tea!).

Someone out there wanted a bubble tea badly enough to order it for delivery. And that person did not receive their bubble tea unless DoorDash sent them a new one.

It sat outside in the rain for five hours until Josh came home and disposed of it. I left it there in case someone roamed the neighbourhood, seeking their lost tea.

Have you ever received someone else’s order?

Once upon a time, I bookmarked a museum I wanted to visit in the area. At least, I thought I did. I haven’t been able to find the bookmark in any browser folder, but I have fallen down a rabbit hole of things I once believed I needed to be able to find again.

Recipes, Facebook profiles, websites with airline seat maps, and random board games I remembered from childhood. It’s like pawing through a massive junk drawer of information.

60% of the time, I wonder why I thought the link was important. 40% of the time, I am so happy to see the site again and remember the search that brought me there.

I’ve left all of the bookmarks in place so I can enjoy them again months from now when I can’t remember another thing and go searching for it.

P.S. Does anyone remember the small museum that I once mentioned? Not Planet Word. Something with historical artifacts. I vaguely remember that the museum was so small that only 12 people could enter at a time, and you needed a reservation to visit.

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

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Sometimes when the ChickieNob and I are doing one of our virtual walks, we’ll “pass” a person on a bench, and I’ll say, “I hope we see him the next time we’re in [insert city here].” As if once on a bench means always on a bench.

I was thinking about this because we’ll be near a city beach and planned to sit outside and read for a few hours. It occurred to me that we’d either have to bring a beach blanket or… get sandy? I went on Google street view, and THEY HAVE BENCHES! Thank you, city planners, who thought about how people would want to sit down and look at the water.

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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.

I didn’t realize how much socializing we did over food until after we received our first two COVID vaccines. Before that point, we weren’t socializing with anyone, or if we did see people, it was standing on opposite ends of a driveway or masked and sitting on a porch.

But after the vaccines, many people returned to eating indoors. And by this point, most people have returned to eating indoors. We have not.

We’ve stepped closer to our old life by dining outdoors this spring/summer. This works until it doesn’t work. We make plans, and then rain cancels them because we’re not moving indoors. Or the air quality is terrible. Or it’s just too hot to enjoy the meal. When it works, it feels like old times. Like things are normal. When it doesn’t, it makes me feel apologetic for being careful.

A case in point: Cup of Jo recently posted a list of things to do with your friends that aren’t dinner. I opened it eagerly to see what else I could do to socialize beyond walks. Two of the thirteen options were… essentially dinner. And the others had a food component (pizza and a movie). There were interesting suggestions in the comments, but my point is how much socializing contains eating indoors; the only thing you can’t do inside if you’re still masking.

I found the submarine coverage super upsetting this week, so much so that I couldn’t read the stories. When an alert would come up on the phone, I would delete it without reading it. ChickieNob wondered if it was because it was being sensationalized as they were counting down the hours of air left in the sub. Something was upsetting about that — to feel time running out vs. processing an event after the fact.

Because we were getting updates about a disaster in the making vs. hearing about it afterward when nothing more could be done. Until we learned that wasn’t the case completely.

Or maybe it’s because when air was running out, it sounded like such a lonely way to die. Like floating out into space. Being in this world but unfindable. My heart goes out to their families.

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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.

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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:

• “Change in Feeling” (Infertile Phoenix)
• “#MicroblogMondays: Neighbourly Reminder” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “The Right Pillow for the Right Time” (Finding a Different Path)
• “Broken Record” (Stirrup Queens) — thank you, Jess!

Okay, now my choices this week.

A Blank New Page writes about the feelings that come over us and what triggers them. She explains: “I try to see the moment and the good in it, I try to see the exceedingly beautiful moments of not being a mother and yes, they exist, out of question. But there is also the wistful feeling, there are the moments when I feel small, sad, just want to surrender to the wave, because yes, I miss my unborn kids. I miss family life and I miss being more than two.” She captures a moment of being happy to be part of something and sad, too. Bittersweet indeed.

Lastly, if you want to see a masterclass in making someone else feel awesome, read this letter on Grumpy Rumblings. A sample: “You are so good at seeing problems as problems to be solved and not as people who suck. And you’re good at helping others to see things that way too.” People want to be seen and known. This opening letter is pretty much perfection.

The roundup to the Roundup: Upset by the submarine coverage. 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 16 – 23) 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.