For those playing along from home and wondering how our flu shot/bivavlent COVID-19 booster played out…

I had the first appointment, so I asked the guy what he recommended — one shot in each arm or both shots in one arm. After hemming and hawing (he really didn’t want to give his opinion on one option over the other), he informed me that I didn’t have a thin arm. I had “a lot to work with” so it was fine to do both in one arm. Okay then.

So I had both in one arm, one after the other.

My arm immediately felt sore as I walked back to my car. I was fine all afternoon and walked with the ChickieNob before dinner. I started feeling a little achy in the later evening, and we went to bed early. I did not sleep well that night, and I took Tylenol around 4 am. I was achy and cranky the next day, running a low fever. I didn’t want to do anything, but I prepared for that by downloading a thriller. Josh and the Wolvog ran errands, so they had sore arms but felt fine. I took Tylenol again before bed, and woke up the day after feeling completely fine. I cleaned the house and got work done.

Your mileage may vary, but getting them both in one arm worked for me, as did stacking vaccines so I only ruined one weekend.

One of the only nice things that has come out of COVID is that for a brief period of time, the world became more inclusive. Instead of expecting all people to be able to read and hold paper books (and get to the library, etc), libraries increased their e-book license purchases, making library books more accessible to a larger portion of the population. Now there were paper books for the paper book crowd, and e-books for the non-paper book crowd.

Meetings and events went online, making it possible or easier for more people to attend and participate — not just people who did not want to risk COVID, but people with a lack of transportation options, people who were caregivers at home, people with health issues. Not every place could adjust and accommodate, but the places that could and did found themselves reaching new people or old people in different ways. Offering in-person and online options made it possible for people to choose the location that fit their needs.

In the last few months, many of those accommodations are going away, especially providing a Zoom option. I understand that the impulse is to get people to return to the building, and I’m sure for some people, it does force them to return if they still want to participate. But who do they lose in the push to get things back to the way they were? The people who are still unwilling to risk COVID as well as all of the ones who had barriers to begin with. It is hard to know an inclusive option exists and people aren’t using it anymore.

Just something I’m thinking about this weekend.

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

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What if you could talk to the books in the bookstore and have them spill their wisdom? Wouldn’t that make a great basis for a story? Google (I think it’s Google) set up a way to search books just like that. You ask the books a question in the search bar, and it returns quotes from books that are part of Google Books. Isn’t that brilliant?

I asked it: “What should I do with my empty nest?”

And it returned this nugget: “You know how to create. Build a new nest. In the south.” Zero chance of that, but see what answers the books give your questions.

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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.

The rabbi at our shul gave a fascinating d’var Torah on Kol Nidre, and one part of it felt applicable to infertility. He spoke about how when we meet someone new, they only know about the choices we’ve chosen. They see all of the decisions that have brought us to this point, and that’s really all they see.

But as they spend time with you, moving forward, they start to see all of the discarded choices, too. The ones you make from that point forward. At least, the big ones; the ones they know about because you make 35,000 decisions daily.

I liked the idea that people who have known me a long time also know some of my otherwises and roads-not-taken that also shape who I am. I am just as much my ghost child’s mother as I am the twins’ mother. People meeting me now don’t know about that choice that shapes who I am, but Josh certainly does. People who have known me a long time do. You do.

And when you see me, you see what is here (the twins) and what is not here (the ghost child, who became a road not taken) at the same time.

He quoted someone (and I wish I had written it down), pointing out that when you’re looking at a portrait, the background is also part of the painting. It exists, too, even if it isn’t the focus, the thing we see. We all have background, empty space behind us, filled with all of our unchosen roads.

We went to Yom Kippur services online again. It was lovely and safe. At the end of Kol Nidre, we turned off the service and I played our favourite version of “Adon Olam.” I don’t know why it took me until this week to think of this, but I have the recording. I might as well use it and make myself happy.

The next day, after we recited the “Unetanneh Tokef,” the rabbi started singing Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire” up on the bimah. It took my brain about three or four seconds to catch up because it was pretty much the last thing I expected to hear in synagogue. Suddenly the service was in English and 100% more Leonard Cohen-y. But it was a nice moment of everyday life and holiday colliding. When I went online at night, a bunch of people in various parts of the U.S. posted that their shul did this, too, which makes me wonder if there’s a rabbi listserv out there.

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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:

• “Odds & Ends and Midweek Meltdowns” (The Road Less Travelled)
• “Lemon Juice Gets in Your Eyes!” (It’s Inconceivable)

Okay, now my choices this week.

Family Building with a Twist states in a very honest post, “I should probably delete all of this. It’s a vulnerable moment for me, and I dislike that.” Don’t worry; she changes her mind by the end of the paragraph. Which is a good thing because it’s a record of the ups and downs of a season. She’s getting through it, even though it’s hard.

Lastly, Bereaved and Blessed writes about her child turning 19. One of the amazing things about long-time bloggers is getting to see their kids grow up. She writes: “I appreciate it may not help a lot knowing what a wonderful person your mom thinks you are and I also believe that one of these days more of your peers will see in you all the amazing things that I do.” It got me feeling weepy. Happy birthday!

The roundup to the Roundup: Leonard Cohen when you least expect him. 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 September 30 – October 7) 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.