While I don’t love the title of the piece — fear isn’t the reason I do what I do — the rest of this Washington Post piece hit close to home. We still mask indoors, unapologetically. It keeps us safe while giving us the ability to do the things we want to do. We went to two Bar Mitzvahs last month, hung out with friends and family, and traveled to the UK and Belgium last summer. We still try not to spend a ton of extra time indoors with people who are not masked, even though we’re masked. One-way masking isn’t as effective as two-way masking. But we obviously spend time indoors with unmasked people when we can’t help it for school, work, or the weather.

The only thing impacted is meals with other people. And restaurant visits and reading in coffeehouses. But really, meals with other people because we don’t eat indoors (or outdoors in crowded spaces). And that is the most common way people socialize. It certainly was our socializing activity of choice pre-COVID. Again, it’s still possible if everyone is willing to be flexible and creative.

For the most part, I don’t feel isolated. Very few people give us pushback about masking or our boundaries. For the most part, it’s like vegetarianism. Other people eat meat. I don’t. It clearly impacts time together in some regard because I’m not going to join in a crab feast or go to a steakhouse. Some people give us a hard time about vegetarianism, and we smile pleasantly and say we’re not going to compromise to make them happy. But for the most part, our meat-eating friends will suggest a place we both can find something on the menu to enjoy. They meet us halfway, and we meet them halfway. I mean, not literally now because we’re not eating in restaurants. It’s just an analogy. But you understand.

So we mask. And we avoid what feels unsafe to us. And, yeah, it can be a little isolating at times, and I wish we’d all go back to trying to keep each other safe. But I also know that most people have gone back to 2019 living. And I’m cool with that as long as they’re cool that we’re still in 2021 living. And we’re mostly okay with that.

I love lists like these. Namely, while they rarely tell me anything deeply profound, they make me look at my surroundings differently. A case in point:

“Where is the good knife?” If you’re looking for your good X, you have bad Xs. Throw those out.

We do. We have so many bad knives that I bypass to grab the “good knife.” Why don’t we get rid of the old bad knives, resharpen the ones that can be resharpened, and get new ones so we have multiple ones we like? Why do we hold on to dull knives that we don’t use?

And this one:

If you listen to successful people talk about their methods, remember that all the people who used the same methods and failed did not make videos about it.

What wisdom did you find on the Internet today?

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

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Josh picked up excellent Halloween candy to pass out tonight, and we managed not to eat all of it before today. (I cannot say the same about other years.) It has chocolate (Kit Kat and Hershey), peanut butter (Reese’s options), AND non-chocolate candy (Twizzlers). It also has Almond Joy, which no one in the world likes except me, so all the kids leave it behind, and I get them for myself.

What are you passing out?

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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 posts.

The Guardian recently had an article in the stories contained in cemeteries. Headstones hold clues — the short time between dates (what happened to them?) or the long time between dates (how did they feel outliving all of the relatives buried around them?). Inscriptions, headstone shape, flowers left behind: they’re all clues.

Are we losing something as so many move to be cremated? I will be. (Or, in any case, I will not be buried.) The people who scatter my ashes will remember the spot where they left them, and they may even tell the next generation. But future people will not know I existed in the way that I’m aware of all of the people who existed when I walk through a graveyard.

It’s not enough to get me to change my funeral plans. And I know there are many more ways to make an impact than a stone with your name on it. But it got me thinking about how it will be rare to see modern dates on headstones one day. Or how I sometimes go to cemeteries when we’re traveling to see a grave. How that is lost when we move from one tradition to another.

Since the invention of Reddit, I have been anti-Reddit. I mean, I’m not actually anti-Reddit because I have no problem with the site itself, but I’ve not been a visitor of Reddit. Not even for an AMA. I do not even know who is or isn’t an asshole.

But all of that changed recently.

I was searching for information online, and Reddit kept popping up as having the most useful, concrete advice. Other people were asking the same questions I was asking, and people answered their questions. I bookmarked Reddit boards. So I could find them again. And read them when new topics are added. Who am I? Am I still Melissa?

I don’t know where my anti-Reddit bias began, but I’m clearly over it.

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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:

• “It’s Okay To Like Your Childless Life As It Is” (Childless by Marriage)
• “An Unexpected Family Outing’s Facebook Post” (Yes, a Facebook post)

Okay, now my choices this week.

The Road Less Travelled has a post about making adult Halloween happen. It is definitely a holiday that can (and therefore, if you want to, should) be marked on multiple levels. And I am all for adults trick-or-treating.

Lastly, A Separate Life has a post about marking her birthday. At first, she wanted to do something big as she has done on other milestone birthdays, but after experiencing a milestone birthday out-of-sync timewise with loved ones, she went a different route: “I chose to celebrate with friends, with individual dinners and/or lunches (I still have one or two to plan). No gifts, no party, no fuss, just good company.” I love this. And happy birthday again.

The roundup to the Roundup: I’ve become enamored with Reddit boards. 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 October 21 – October 28) 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.