A lovely evening with friends in the bush…Technology issues…

We had such a great evening last night with Linda and Ken at our home for dinner. With no time constraints, a meal I mainly prepared ahead of time, the four of us sat out on the veranda well into the evening. The weather was pleasant, warm, and not at all uncomfortable. The bugs seemed to be repelled by the repellent candles and coils Tom placed in key spots on the veranda before they arrived.

We didn’t see a lot of wildlife while they were here, but enough to entertain us when peering out into the garden. A tiny frog, noisy as could be, made us laugh as they enjoyed the new birdbath, now filled with water from the rain. Since it’s close to the house for our easy viewing, few birds will stop by, if any. But, we’re undoubtedly enjoying the wildlife, stopping for a drink of fresh water.

As I write, Bennie, Hennie, and Lennie are resting in the garden within three meters of us. We’re assuming they’re related based on their similar characteristics, with tiny tusks and good-sized warts. Periodically, one will groom another, a common practice among warthog family/friend groups.

A female they seemed to know stopped by to join them in the past few days. She could also be a family member. Warthogs generally give birth to four or fewer piglets based on the fact they have four teats. It’s incredible how nature takes care of itself.

Last night, I didn’t get much sleep. In the past several days, I have been bitten by something that left me itching all over again, all night long. My arms and legs were covered in red, swollen, itchy bites that were itching more and more throughout the night. I’d taken an antihistamine that provided no relief and used every anti-itch cream I had on hand, trying to get some relief.

As a result, I didn’t sleep more than four hours, according to my Fitbit. I managed to use Crazy Glue to glue the parts to my Fitbit together to keep the band together until my new one arrives sometime in the future in the package we’re ordering from the US in the next few days, once the night trail cam arrives at our mailing service in the next few days.

I am not my spunky self today. Last night, I only drank two small glasses of my low-alcohol wine, and by 6:00 pm (1800 hours), I switched over to iced tea for the remainder of the evening, so that didn’t keep me awake. Hopefully, this afternoon a short nap will revive me a little.

You know how easily one glass too many at a social function can impede a good night’s sleep for red wine enthusiasts. I’m always very mindful of this for that very reason and with consideration of long-term health. A good night’s sleep is vital to how one feels the following day and the overall well-being of the future.

The past few days, I noticed my phone was acting up. We purchased two pricey Google Pixel 4XL phones in December 2019 before leaving the US for India the following month. So far, we’ve been thrilled with the performance of our phones until about three days ago, I began having trouble opening some of my apps, but not all of them. This was frustrating.

This morning, after the fitful night’s sleep, during which I couldn’t play one of my favorite games to lull me back to sleep, I knew I had to do something. I had no choice after trying many options but to do an entire factory reset. Since I didn’t have an old phone from which to copy all the files, I am now, as I write here, stopping every few minutes from downloading yet another app to restore my phone to its original apps and settings.

I took a photo of all of my apps to refer to when downloading many of my favorites, knowing I could have taken screenshots. But, as cumbersome as Chromebook is, I preferred to take the photos instead of downloading screenshots to my drive. I still miss the convenience and ease of Windows 8 with easy access to folders on the desktop.

Those days are long gone based on new operating systems available in the marketplace today. More and more plans will go to using a drive/cloud for storage instead of locally stored files on our system, which I always preferred, being responsible for saving my data as I preferred. Oh well.

By the end of today, tired as I am, I’ll have everything set up on my phone as I prefer and can put this minor inconvenience behind me. For the remainder of today, a nap, and maybe watch another episode of “Fear of the Walking Dead,” which I’m streaming during the day when Tom is busy with Ancestry.com and Facebook, his two favorite pastimes. Of course, at night, when we’re done sitting on the veranda and well after dinner, we always watch an episode or two of a streamed show together, of a favorite show we’re binge-watching.  For today, that’s all the energy I have.

Have a fantastic day, dear readers!

Photo from one year ago today, March 23, 2020:

The two dining cars on the train, The Maharajas Express, were tastefully appointed with the most refined dinnerware and table settings. For more photos, please click here.