We are back up and running…Another fiasco, no fault of our own, or our web people…Tiny, today, a refreshing diversion…

Tiny worked with me during his photoshoot to ensure his poses appeal to most of our readers.

Yes, I could go on and on with the frustration of the past several days when our site wasn’t visible to our readers. It reminded me of when, three weeks ago, my error in posting new photos prevented the photos from displaying. It took several days to figure out what I was doing wrong…using a third-party app to upload the latest photos. Who knew?

Our web people worked with me via WhatsApp for hours on end, attempting to figure out the problem. As soon as they said, “No third-party photo apps,” a light bulb went off in my head. I had to load photos from a “local” source, not an app. This confused me because this was the first time I was uploading photos using this Chromebook I’d purchased in India.

Tiny, using his snout like a vacuum cleaner to find every pellet.

If any of you use a Chromebook with its hard-to-figure-out cloud, you’ll understand what I mean. Otherwise, no point in going into that here and now. All the photos I added in that hotel was taken from past posts and copied and pasted. It wasn’t the same process once we started taking new photos. Now, I have designed a simple-to-use process that gets me through each day’s post with new photos.

But that wasn’t all. When three or four days ago, I noticed difficulty in preparing a post, mentioning some apparent WiFi issue, it proved to be much more than that. It was a hosting issue on the servers at Hostinger.com, a substantial hosting site with an excellent reputation, from whence the problems seemed to arise.

Tiny posed on his knees for this appealing shot. Good job, Tiny! Although the following few images of Tiny look similar, you’ll notice the subtle differences as he adjusted for the shots.

Now that we’re back up, I sent them an email asking how and why this happened and how it can be prevented in the future. From my perspective over the past several days, everything we wrote for over eight years was gone, gone, gone. We’ve heard of this happening to websites. It’s no wonder I didn’t sleep much for the past three nights, worrying and worrying, awakening almost every hour.

Last night was no exception, when on top of that, “load shedding” started up again and for over four hours, from 2100 (9:00 pm to 2300 hours (11:00 pm) and again this morning from 5:00 am to 7:00 am. The power will be out for at least seven hours today, again from 1300 hours to 1530 hours (1:00 pm to 3:30 pm) and again tonight from 2100 hours to 2330 hours (9:00 pm to 11:30 pm). This schedule will be repeated over the next several weeks.

Tiny tucked his legs under for yet another good pose. He certainly knows how to highlight those big warts on either side of his head and those monstrosities on his face.

I have to plan to work out on the treadmill based on when we have power and cooking using the stove. As always, we’ll figure it out. Fortunately, Danie had set us two fans to use during load shedding, powered by the inverter in the second bedroom. This is our saving grace on those tortuously hot nights.

As for today, otherwise, all is well. Later today, our friend Alan is visiting for sundowners and snacks, mainly cheese and biltong (South African jerky, the best!). He eats a low-carb diet as we do, making visits easy with so few food options. When we invite other friends over, without special diets, we will add some items we eat and others more befitting their standard diets.

Last night was busy in the garden. Our new favorite warthog, Tiny, came to visit, staying for a few hours. Although we’ve diligently looked for our favorite warthog Little from 2018/2019, we’ve yet to see him. Sadly, several warthogs were culled in Marloth Park last year, and we fear he may have been among them. Instead of moping over Little, we decided to find a new favorite, and we have… our boy Tiny, the biggest warthog we’ve ever seen.

Tiny raised a bit on his knees for another angle. He’s had some modeling experience in his past. See that post here.

Yesterday, when he came up onto the veranda with his muddy feet, we were reminded of Little who was so bossy, he insisted on coming into the house. We laughed so hard then and still laugh hard about it now. We never thought they would be another Little. But now, Tiny, has become the warthog that stares into my eyes when I talk to him, comes when I call him when I see him nearby, and can’t seem to get enough human interaction. It’s astounding.

Surely, in time, as we come to more fully “know” our regular visitors, many stories of special interactions will follow. We’ve been busy interacting with the wildlife and,d in many cases, giving them names when we observe they are regulars who come by for treats and the familiarity that ensues over time.

Have a fantastic day! We’re thrilled to be back among you!

Photo from one year ago today, February 6, 2020:

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