GIMP can't write thumbnails due to permission problem

[insert_name_here]

I deleted all of the contents of the my .thumbnails folder (due to some poorly-organized torrenting, I couldn't log into X, and had to find something of significant size to delete from the recovery console). Now, GIMP can't make thumbnails, and so when I open gimp, I get an error message:

Failed to open '/home/merrillj/.thumbnails/normal/gimp-thumb-3610-c672ef4f' for writing: Permission denied

How might I fix this?

[jack@tortuga]

Give write permission to the owner of the .thumbnails and all lower directories/files.

chmod -R u+w /home/merrillj/.thumbnails

Make sure you're running Gimp as yourself ( I assume 'merrillj'. )

[insert_name_here]

that worked, thank you