A few weeks ago, I tagged along with Josh when we went on a work trip and visited with Justine. We got falafel and walked around her workplace and hung out at her house. It was fantastic, but when I got home, I texted her that I realized we hadn’t taken a picture.

Photos or it didn’t happen?

We realized that we’d both be on the same road around the same time the next week. We shared our locations on Find My Friend and left it to chance. If it worked out, we’d both pull off the road and give each other a hug.

When we started driving, she was already 14 miles north, but we were farther east, so within the first hour, we ended up 2 miles ahead of her. I remembered a Trader Joe’s we once used when the kids were little for an impromptu picnic on the road, and told her to pull off at the exit.

We met up in the parking lot. Josh watched us jump up and down in excitement at our cleverness (come on, that was a lot of luck to make that happen) and we got coffee and got back on the road.

But we took a picture this time of our shit-eating grins.

We just got back from visiting the kids, so I’m in that downward emotional slump that comes after a good trip. I keep reminding myself that it only hurts this much because we enjoyed ourselves this much. That this is the inverse — the price we pay for laughing that much and hugging that much.

We went up three mountains, got apples at a farm stand, visited a town I always wanted to see and never made time to do, explored a free Barbie exhibit, hiked to a brook that looked more like a river due to the rain, browsed books, ate ice cream three times, watched Taskmaster, and took hundreds of photos.

And then the long drive home, pick up the guinea pig, and unpack. Big sigh.

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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.

All & Sundry talks about the dissolution of a marriage. It is a weird term to use with a marriage because all of the artifacts and memories of the marriage remain; they don’t disappear into the ether. She has found a lot of peace in the afterward, and she writes: “There is nothing left but acceptance, and the love that helps build anew.” Amen to that.

Finding a Different Path had an anniversary surprise trip, which sounds and looks idyllic (with the exception of the grandparenting war). Click over for beautiful autumnal photos.

Jewish IVF is on her final embryo. She writes: “Whether it sticks or not, this transfer will mark the end of an era for us.” She is in a place of peace, hopeful but accepting of whatever comes.

Lastly, I echo Scientist on the Roof in wanting a break from adulting. Everything here sounds good: “I would like to eat snacks, read something for fun, and take naps. I would really like someone else to take care of meals and all kid-related activities. I would like the house to be magically tidy and organized (and pretty, too) without any effort from me.” I don’t think it’s too much to ask at all.

The roundup to the Roundup: The greater the trip, the harder the landing. 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 10 – 17) 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.

As I say every month, I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Jessica Lahey. She has a recurring monthly date where she reviews all the books she reads that month. Book reviews are important for authors, and I want to get better at doing this.

So. I’m going to review them here and also online, but I’m going to do it a little differently. I’m only going to review the stuff I really liked. I don’t see a reason to spend my time writing about something I didn’t love; it’s just using up more of my energy. So only positive reviews.

These are the books I liked (or mostly liked) from September.

Could Should Might Don’t: How We Think About the Future (Nick Foster): I read this because I wanted to become more comfortable with thoughts about the future, and the book ultimately achieves that, giving you ways of seeing though messaging and balancing your thoughts. I admittedly skimmed sometimes, but would highly recommend to anyone who thinks a lot about the future. I’ve been talking about it a lot the past month.

The Subtle Knife (Philip Pullman): Part of my re-read of His Dark Materials before the release of the final book at the end of October. No matter how many times I read it, it is just as beautiful and thought-provoking as the first time. I love being with Lyra and Will.

Displeasure Island (Alice Bell): Solid follow-up to last year’s Grave Expectations. The characters are still great. It was a light-hearted read during a time when I needed a light-hearted read.

The Killer Question (Janice Hallett): Janice Hallett is a treasure. Every book is brilliant. Even if you guess something, I guarantee that you will not guess everything. She has trick after trick after trick, and makes you laugh over and over again. Thank you for such an enjoyable experience.

The Wasp Trap (Mark Edwards): I’m so happy that I finally got to read a Mark Edwards book – they are hard to get in the U.S. – and it was a solid thriller. Good characters, great pacing, interesting situation. Well done.

The Amber Spyglass (Philip Pullman): As much as I’m disappointed that the ending doesn’t change with the re-read, it is the only ending that makes sense. It breaks your heart. But life does. Luckily, I still have two novellas and a novel left in my re-read of His Dark Materials before the final book is released.

What did you read last month?

There is a six-word line on page 281 in Ian McEwan’s book, What We Can Know, that I can’t stop thinking about:

“Nearly all of life is forgotten.”

You lived yesterday, and you can probably reconstruct a handful of moments here and there from memory. You know you were at work (maybe), and you know what sorts of things happen at work, but really remembering what you were doing minute to minute in your day is impossible. You’ve forgotten nearly all of your day.

If you jump back a few days, a few weeks, a few months, you’ve forgotten more and more and more. You take a trip, and you remember the highlights of the trip. You may even be able to answer specific questions about your time at a site if someone prompts you with questions, but overall, you’ve lived it and you’ve forgotten it.

I spend so much time worrying that I’m forgetting things, writing down lists so nothing falls through the cracks, bullet-journalling my existence. And along the way, I didn’t notice that I was forgetting anyway.

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

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Clues by Sam is one of those games that you can pick up and play for a moment when you’re in between things. It’s a logic puzzle where you have a board of 20 people, and you have to figure out which ones are innocent and which ones are criminals based on the clues revealed in the game. So, for instance, the first clue could be, “There are no innocents between Larry and Hilda.” You look and see that Adam is between Larry and Hilda, so you can mark him as a criminal.

It gets progressively more difficult during the week, but it’s hard to get stuck because you can always get hints.

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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.