D was up late one Friday night, chatting on ICQ, when he got a message that there was a problem with the hard drive. So, he shut the computer down - but failed to tell me about it!

The next morning I went to check my email as I always do, and everything seemed fine. I left the room for a moment, and when I came back, the screen was blank, except for this ominous little folder icon with a blinking question mark.

Oh, oh.

I hit the reset button, and - nothing. The little power indicator light came on, and that was it. No reassuring chimes, no gentle whirring, no clickety clack of computer bits sorting themselves out (what is that clicking noise anyway?).

The screen was black. My computer is dead.

Now, of course I had INTENDED on backing up all my files one day real soon...

But now they are gone. All gone. A year and a half's worth of work and email, and, basically, my life, erased.

(Not to mention all my expensive software - much of which I downloaded, and failed to make copies of. Sometimes I think God put me here to be an object lesson on how NOT to live life!).

All this heaped upon a string of other minor inconveniences. The toilet stopping up and over-flowing; brown goo seeping through the floor (we had to call a plumber away from his Sunday night dinner to deal with that. What a pleasant dessert! But it is the only toilet in the house. Thank God for plumbers!). The muffler falling off the car... the door falling off the van (well, not entirely - but it was planning to!). Fillings falling out, teeth breaking... the usual stuff of life (as I am coming to see!).

Why God?!!!

Why my computer??!!

Surely you could have kept it up and running just fine. You could have easily warded off the little gremlins that got to it (can you picture tiny, tiny little angels in suits of armor fighting off microscopic trolls and gremlins) .

Why did you let this happen??!!

I was pretty bummed out about it. Okay... maybe 'despair' would more aptly describe how it hit me. It was like the final blow. It just seems like everything is going wrong - and God must just not like us very much.

But then, I got to thinking. That just isn't like the God I know.

The God I know is overflowing with love and mercy and goodness.

There has to be a good reason for my computer to die. Somehow, something wonderful is going to come of it.



All of which is to explain why I haven't posted much new the last couple of weeks. I just haven't had the heart to REDO the things I was working on.

So... I have awakened the gerbils in this old computer, and they are furiously spinning in that wheel, trying their best to get some SPEED going on this thing. It isn't working.

But, I'll do my best to keep putting new stuff up, and it will just have to do for a while.

I just wanted to let you know what was going on. Thanks for your patience!