Jessica's Rose Garden

[davina61]

Cant see the photos here , it says content not available in your area. So what is blocking them?

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Cant see the photos here , it says content not available in your area. So what is blocking them?

I'm using IMGUR as a host, maybe it isn't available everywhere? If someone has a possible solution, please let me know.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[davina61]

I tried to upload to imgar and that didnt work the other day

[Lori Dee ✅]

I tried to upload to imgar and that didnt work the other day

Imgur access in the United Kingdom
From September 30, 2025, access to Imgur from the United Kingdom is no longer available. UK users will not be able to log in, view content, or upload images. Imgur content embedded on third-party sites will not display for UK users.

https://help.imgur.com/hc/en-us/articles/41592665292443-Imgur-access-in-the-United-Kingdom 🔗

@Northern Star Girl
We need to look at this issue.

[Northern Star Girl ✅]

  @Jessica_Rose    @davina61    @Lori Dee

Please check out the following list of Photo Hosting sites similar to IMGUR
                            ⬇ You can take your pick. ⬇
Click LINK--->  https://geekflare.com/hosting/best-image-hosting-sites/ 🔗

Danielle [Northern Star Girl]
      The Forum Administrator

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Thanks @Northern Star Girl ! I'll check them out this weekend to see which one would work best for me.

I had a busy afternoon yesterday. First, I visited my dentist to get a permanent crown. It's weird having work like that done without getting numbed up first. It was completely painless, and only a little uncomfortable at times. After my dentist visit, I went to a car dealer to have one of my cars serviced. In Arkansas, I had to set up service appointments for this car nearly three weeks in advance. Here, I was able to schedule the appointment yesterday morning! The service department was also really nice. Since the car technically had not received its 10,000 miles service (it has 14,000 miles), that's what they selected -- because that also made it 'free'. Oil change, new cabin air filter, and several other items, along with a car wash.

I decided to do a little more astrophotography this morning. This is a section from a photo of the constellation 'Orion'. The 'belt' is on the left, the faint Flame Nebula is next to the lowest star on Orion's Belt. On the right side of the photo is the faint Running Man Nebula, which is just to the left of the Orion Nebula (far right). I used a Canon R5II, a Canon RF85mm f1.2 lens, and the exposure was f1.2, 1 sec, iso 8000.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[Sarah B ✅]

Hi Everyone

Imgur has stopped allowing access to users in the UK.  This is because of pressure from regulators.  The UK Information Commissioner's Office started an investigation.  They looked at how Imgur handles data for children and how it checks ages.  To avoid potential penalties, Imgur decided to block UK visitors.  UK users now see a message saying content is not available in their region.  This happens even for images embedded on other websites.

This is part of wider changes under the UK Online Safety Act.  The law requires services hosting adult content to have strong age checks for UK users.  Some companies have responded by limiting access or blocking the UK market.  The ICO says that blocking a country is a business decision.  It does not remove any previous violations.  The investigation into Imgur started in March 2025.  The ICO can still take action if it finds violations.

Currently, UK users have no official way to view Imgur.  The simplest method is to use a VPN or Tor set to an exit outside the UK.  This makes Imgur load normally.  Users can switch their IP address to a location outside the UK.  Some exit IPs are blocked or flagged, but others work.  Since Imgur has no setting to remove the block, users can upload images to another website.  Doing this allows UK users to see the images.  Creating a complete copy on another site provides a solution for UK viewers.

Long story short use a VPN (I use ProtonVPN) Davina.  This is the best way to get around these geo location restrictions that occur around the world.

In which case Jessica can still use Imgur for her photos.

Best Wishes Always
Sarah B
Global Moderator
@Jessica_Rose @davina61 @Northern Star Girl @Lori Dee

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Susan and I are still trying to find places for everything. Our house in Arkansas had an incredible about of storage. Walk-in closets for every bedroom, a large laundry room with lots of cabinets, a big pantry, and a large bonus room we used for storage. Our new home is much larger, but it seems to have half of the storage space! We allowed things to accumulate in our old house because we had the space to store it, now we're struggling. We already donated a dozen bags of clothing, and five more bags are ready to go. We were able to clear out the exercise room enough to start using it. I haven't exercised in at least two months, and I really need to get back into the habit.

We received two offers on our Arkansas house a few weeks ago. Both offers were contingent upon the prospective buyer to sell their existing homes. We accepted one of the offers, but now we must wait for their house to sell.

After many phone calls, I finally got my primary care physician in Arkansas to transfer my estradiol prescription to a pharmacy near our new house. I was able to pick up another vial last week.

I now have a recurring appointment with my electrologist in Colorado Springs. Starting this week, I'll be seeing her every other Thursday afternoon for one hour.

The previous owner of our new house visited last weekend to winterize the outdoor water systems, a drip irrigation system and a small waterfall. He is really friendly, and he gave me a hug when the work was done!

I decided to start replacing the interior lights, all of them are incandescent. There are at least two dozen standard bulbs, and over 120 floodlights in the ceiling. Switching them all to LEDs should reduce our electric bill.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[Maid Marion]

My electric bill went down a lot by switching to LEDs.

LEDs have different color temperatures.  Warm light versus daylight.  There are lighting systems that let you choose.  Something to think about before buying new bulbs.

[Lori Dee ✅]

With all of that work moving boxes, unpacking, organizing, bagging up donations, moving the office, remodeling the closet, changing light bulbs, what do you need an exercise room for?

😄

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

My electric bill went down a lot by switching to LEDs.

LEDs have different color temperatures.  Warm light versus daylight.  There are lighting systems that let you choose.  Something to think about before buying new bulbs.

Light bulbs used to be separated only by type and wattage. Now we have to choose between type, incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, LED, color balance, and even 'smart' bulbs! I put some 'daylight' (5000k) bulbs in our storage area. They are bright, but the light is harsh. I plan to use 'soft white' (2700k) bulbs in the rest of the house. The existing bulbs are 65W, so changing to bulbs which produce the same amount of light using only 8W should make a noticeable difference. Several areas in our house have dimmer switches, so I need to use bulbs which are dimmable.

I also put in two motion sensing switches, one in our new closet and the other in the basement storage area. The switch in the closet is now in an awkward location, so using a motion sensor is much more convenient. The basement storage area doesn't have any windows, and it is more likely that my hands will be full when I'm going there. Having the lights turn on automatically is really helpful. Our circuit breaker panel is labeled well, so I can easily turn off the power to the area before I replace any switches.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

With all of that work moving boxes, unpacking, organizing, bagging up donations, moving the office, remodeling the closet, changing light bulbs, what do you need an exercise room for?

😄

The last few years have been a bit chaotic. Having a regularly scheduled event under my control, like exercise, helps me stay calm, centered, and reduces anxiety. It also keeps me from feeling guilty when I have dessert, or some cookies.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[Lori Dee ✅]

helps me stay calm, centered, and reduces anxiety.

That's no fun. But I'll buy the dessert/cookies excuse. 😄

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

My parents had three grandfather clocks. None of them had been wound in years. My mom passed away in Feb 2020, and my dad passed away in Dec 2024. Before he passed, my dad gave one of the clocks to a neighbor. Susan and I have the other two. We moved both of them to our house in Arkansas several months ago, but we didn't reinstall the weights and pendulums. Now that we are back in Colorado, I decided it was time to resurrect them.

I installed the pendulum and weights in the smaller clock last week, but it is stubborn and doesn't want to get back to work. I reassembled the larger clock last night. It was purchased on 14 Feb 1982, so it was probably a Valentines Day gift for my mom. I gave the pendulum a gentle push, and the clock started ticking. As the hands reached the quarter hour, the chimes came to life for the first time in decades. It brings back some nice memories.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

I've had a few rough days this week. I was really tired on Tuesday, so I went to bed around 8:30pm. At 11:00pm, the house alarm went off. The display showed code '6F', which meant nothing to me. I got a flashlight and a firearm and began turning on lights throughout the house as I cleared each room. I even turned on the outdoor lights. All the windows and doors were secure. I reset the alarm and researched the code. It was actually 'bF', which is a 'backup failure'. A backup failure can be caused by a communication issue. I suspect the previous owners canceled monitoring of the system, and the vendor terminated communications. Why they had to do this at 11:00pm is an answer I'll never know.

I tried to get back to sleep, but I was awake until at least 2:00am. Every little noise had me on edge. At 4:00am, I received a text alert from work about a potential issue. I logged on to check it out. The problem was simply a process which ran a few minutes longer than usual. Now that I was awake again, I couldn't get back to sleep. It was a long day.

Today, I had three appointments in Colorado Springs. My dentist was concerned about a shadow on an x-ray and recommended retreatment of an old root canal. I had another appointment immediately after to prep the tooth for a new crown. After that, I had an appointment with Kris for a little electrolysis. The root canal was much more uncomfortable than I expected. Keeping my mouth open for so long made my jaw exceptionally sore, which reminded me of the jaw surgery I had several years ago. It was by far the most painful of all my surgeries. It is not a fond memory. My eyes began to water, and I almost broke down during the crown prep. They wanted to use a device to hold my jaws open. The dentist tried several times to insert the device, but it just made the situation worse. She finally realized that I was in distress and stopped trying to squeeze the device into my mouth. The dentist was able to complete the work, but I felt broken.

By the time I got to my electrolysis appointment, I would have paid Kris just to hug me for a while. She could tell something was wrong, and she commented that she had never seen me look so distressed. She suggested we skip the electrolysis, but I insisted that I would be OK. We only had a one hour session, and just being with her helped. My jaw was still very sore when I got home. Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[Pema]

I'm sorry, Jessica. I hope you'll sleep well tonight and have a much less challenging day tomorrow.

[Lori Dee ✅]

Sorry to hear that, Jess.

Better that they didn't use the device. Also, not fond memories. I think it was compounded by the stress of not sleeping. It is easy to hit that breaking point without enough rest.

Sleep well tonight. Tomorrow is a new day.

[davina61]

Well I am sending you a cyber BIG HUG. It always makes my jaw hurt as my mouth does not open that far unlike my daughter, the dentist said she had a flip top mouth!!!

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Thanks @Pema , @Lori Dee and @davina61 .

I'm feeling a lot better today, but the tooth is still extremely sensitive. At one point, the dentist was pushing down hard on the gum tissue near the tooth. Since the tooth has now had two root canal procedures, I suspect the pain is from from my gums. However, that knowledge still doesn't make it feel any better. I have an appointment to get the new crown on 11 Nov.

Earlier in the week, I replaced all of the indoor incandescent lights on the main floor with LEDs. There is one bank of four lights that do not reach full brightness. The lights can be turned on from two different switches, and they are dim no matter which switch I use. I'm hoping it's simply a loose connection at one of the light switches.

Love always -- Jessica Rose

[Lori Dee ✅]

There is one bank of four lights that do not reach full brightness. The lights can be turned on from two different switches, and they are dim no matter which switch I use. I'm hoping it's simply a loose connection at one of the light switches.

Is that bank on a dimmer? I don't think a loose connection will do that. I have a voltmeter, and we can check the light socket and make sure the right voltage is getting there.