Back in Maryland. Sylken Sea at our dock on the Pocomoke River. About to start another boat project. Stand by!
Death of an Impala
While on a recent safari at Lion Sands Ivory Lodge in Sabi Sands Game Reserve, South Africa, we watched an African rock python swallow an impala. The opportunity to watch a python swallow its prey is rare and ours was even more so, in that the typical prey for the python is much smaller animals…
Blog Images Temporary (hopefully) Broken
This blog operates using the Google Blogger (aka Blogspot) service. Most of the images in the blog are stored using either Google Blogger storage or, more recently, the Google Drive cloud storage service (I do have links to my Microsoft Onedrive cloud storage, in some cases).
On January 10, 2024, Google implemented some sort of change to its Google Drive service that “broke” links to the image files being used as thumbnails in my (and many others) blog. It seems to impact blog posts going back to Spring 2018 when image storage was shifted to Google Drive.
The text in the posts render properly but the image placeholder is blank except for the image file name. Left clicking on the image placeholder will bring up the full size image. Right clicking brings up a context menu with multiple choices including “Open Image in New Tab” (or something similar depending on your browser). This choice will bring up the smaller thumbnail image. I only mention this to say that problem is with how Google Drive handles the web page’s HTML code’s request for the thumbnail image as the source for the full size image hyperlink.
I am hoping that the issue will be resolved soon. In the meantime, all the blog images are accessible but you just have to click on the image placeholder to see them.
Blog Images Temporary (hopefully) Broken
This blog operates using the Google Blogger (aka Blogspot) service. Most of the images in the blog are stored using either Google Blogger storage or, more recently, the Google Drive cloud storage service (I do have links to my Microsoft Onedrive cloud storage, in some cases).
On January 10, 2024, Google implemented some sort of change to its Google Drive service that “broke” links to the image files being used as thumbnails in my (and many others) blog. It seems to impact blog posts going back to Spring 2018 when image storage was shifted to Google Drive.
The text in the posts render properly but the image placeholder is blank except for the image file name. Left clicking on the image placeholder will bring up the full size image. Right clicking brings up a context menu with multiple choices including “Open Image in New Tab” (or something similar depending on your browser). This choice will bring up the smaller thumbnail image. I only mention this to say that problem is with how Google Drive handles the web page’s HTML code’s request for the thumbnail image as the source for the full size image hyperlink.
I am hoping that the issue will be resolved soon. In the meantime, all the blog images are accessible but you just have to click on the image placeholder to see them.
Spitfire the Wonder Cat
This morning Spitfire the Wonder Cat died on route to the vet. He’s been working through kidney problems for five years and heart problems for eight months but neither slowed him down much. He lived for 20 years, 5 months, 28 days and his personality never faltered. He always had lots to say, loved following…
2023 Summary
In addition to more adventuring in the Pacific Northwest, this year we continued the “filling in the gaps” tour and visited several places that we either didn’t get to, or couldn’t reach, on our around-the world trip on Dirona. And we’re happy to report that Spitfire the wonder cat reached his 20th birthday this year,…
Happy New Year 2024
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” -Ralph Waldo EmersonHappy New Year from the crew of The Pearl. As another new year begins we take time to reflect on our past years of adventures. We’ve been blessed to make wonderful…
Happy New Year 2024
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” -Ralph Waldo EmersonHappy New Year from the crew of The Pearl. As another new year begins we take time to reflect on our past years of adventures. We’ve been blessed to make wonderful…
Looking Back at 2023
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler
January was a month filled with family and friends. It seems tough to get together when we first get back to Texas, because of the holiday. We found lots of time to catch up with old and new friends in January, plus we took a trip to South Padre Island.
In February we took our first trip since Covid…we went back to Puerto Rico. We spent two weeks in the sun exploring new places and a few favorites.
March was windy…as usual but I had fun catching up with girl friends. Some from over forty years ago.
In April we started our migration north. We took a different route this year. Our first stop was in Iowa to see a rock painting friend at her beautiful Cabinland. Then we spent three days in Chicago.
In May we launched The Pearl and caught up with Kyle and his family. It felt nice to be back in New York.
In June we were back in full swing on the lake. We rented a nice home with Kyle, we played on the little runabout and we picnicked at wineries.
In July we celebrated our anniversary in Lake George and enjoyed visiting Clayton again. We love the 1000 Islands area. We also did a little hiking and waterfall chasing.
August brought another long weekend with Kyle’s family, more hiking, more wineries and boating.
The highlight of our summer is having each of our PA grands come one at a time for a visit. Those visits are filled with laughter, boating, crafting and lots of their favorite foods.
In September we took a little getaway for Stan’s birthday and explored a few things around our area we hadn’t seen. Then we spent a week in Washington DC with family. We had a great time seeing the museums and monuments through the eyes of the kids.
Summer may have been over, but in October we were very busy exploring western New York and Central Pennsylvania…and taking in the beautiful changing of seasons.
In November we started our way south to enjoy time with family in Texas.
December was a pretty month in Texas. We had great weather and lots of family festivities to enjoy.
Looking Back at 2023
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler
January was a month filled with family and friends. It seems tough to get together when we first get back to Texas, because of the holiday. We found lots of time to catch up with old and new friends in January, plus we took a trip to South Padre Island.
