The people at the Apple store determined that the my new laptop is defective so I have to ship it back to Apple.
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This Day in Castle History
Why am I surprised?
This morning, I told my wife and son that I had a present for them! I brought in the box that held my new computer so that they could have the pleasure of opening it.
They were excited to open it. I was excited when I plugged it in and turned it on.
The new computer asked if I wanted to transfer information from another computer. Keep in mind that I have been working for three days to get everything ready. The new computer took inventory of the files on my old computer and said that it would take 1 hour and 37 minutes to transfer. I thought, “That’s great!”
I checked the status after 45 minutes and it said “LESS THAN A MINUTE REMAINING.” “This is SO cool!”
I sat if front of the computer in anticipation…
Well, the first part went faster than expected. It’s allright if the last minute is slower…
An hour later, it still said “Less than a minuter remaining”…
Three hours later…
I rebooted both computers and tried again…
Same thing! #@%%$#
Tomorrow, I am going to have to take my new MacBook Pro to the Apple store!
Posted in Goals, Technology Comments Off on Why am I surprised?
The harsh realities of life
My son came home like an excited kid who had just lost his puppy dog. When I asked him what about his internal conflict, he told me the following…
Today, as he filled out a job application, the boss told his secretary to give him a job and then turned to my son and said “We’ll have to trim the hair.”
My son has very curly hair. He has been growing it for 5 months. Needless to say, he had one of the bigger afros you will see on a white boy. His goal was to get corn rows and then keep growing it until the next wrestling season in November.
I finally grew weary watching him wallow in this great loss that he was about to incur and told him that he didn’t have to cut his hair.
“You have no reason to be sad. If you don’t want to cut your hair, then don’t. Tell your future boss to take a hike. However, if you want to buy that Mini Cooper that you have been dreaming of, then cut your hair. Either way, you are doing what you WANT to do! What is there to be sad about?”
“All of life is about choices. To get or achieve “this”, you almost always have to give up “that”. It works that way in most things. If you choose wisely and work hard, you sometimes might be able to have both.”
Today’s First Victory
The birds woke me up at 4:00 this morning. I felt like I had been drugged. That hadn’t change much by 5:30 when I drug myself out of bed and put on my shoes to go run. I gradually woke up as I ran.
My time was a little slow. In the past, I would have beaten myself up for not making progress, especially considering my last run!
I don’t know if it is due to age or having a better grasp on reality or perhaps both, but here is how I look at now:
1. I woke up. That is something to be thankful for.
2. I actually put my shoes on and ran this morning when I clearly did not feel like it!
3. I ran 3.8 miles! At my age, that is great!
4. I’m not training for some competition. I’m not trying to impress anyone. I’m just trying to preserve my health and I did that this morning!What a great way to start the day!
She’s Come Home, sort of
I haven’t written anything about our second daughter for a reason. She moved out of our home on her 18th birthday at the end of 2006 and the parting was not all that sweet.
We had home schooled her through the first year of high school. Although I was initially against it, she persuaded us to let her go to high school. She wanted to spearhead the high school outreach at Granada Hills High near our home.
She did great for the first semester. However, she eventually acquired new friends who pulled her in directions that we did not agree with. As you might expect, that led to more than a little conflict.
She left the Los Angeles area last October with some “friends” who quickly turned on her and deserted her within months of their arrival in the Detroit area. During this time, my wife and I decided that it would be best to let her call us if she wanted to talk.
You can imagine my surprise when she called me today to actually ask my advice on something!
She then proceeded to tell me a story that was almost too good to be true.
She was participating in an exercise for a class that she was taking when the Spirit of God unexpectedly came upon her. Instantly, she found herself weeping and crying in front of the whole class. She couldn’t stop. She wept continuously for the next three hours, through the remainder of the class, all during the drive home and then at home! She knew that her running from God had ended!
While I know that she still has many difficult choices ahead of her, God answered many people’s prayers! He did what we couldn’t do! He touched her heart! She said that she had always felt like her relationship with God wasn’t real, that it wasn’t fully hers. Now it is. Thank God!
And to top it off, we will get to see her next weekend at a wedding in Nashville! She will be flying in to attend her childhood friend’s wedding!
Not quite ready
My wife and son cannot believe that I am not going to open the box that holds my new computer yet!
“What? You’re not going to open it? Why? How can you just let it sit there?”
The way I look at it, I want to make sure that everything is organized on my existing computer so that when I turn the new one on and transfer the information, I can start USING it! I don’t want to LOOK at it. I want to USE it!
Posted in Technology Comments Off on Not quite ready
Mission Accomplished
I pulled into Kansas City at 10:00 last night…
In the last 6 days, I have driven 2900 miles to complete a 1600 mile trip with gas at its highest price in the history of these United States. I have more gas receipts than I know what to do with!
2000 of those miles were driven in an uncomfortable, 13 MPG pickup truck with a radio that works whenever it feels like it, has no A/C and steering so loose that you feel like a skipper at the helm of a boat.
I have avoided citations for driving said truck while uninsured in 4 states.
I have been spared a major accident in New Mexico.
I have missed tornadoes in Kansas on two different nights.
I have had, not one, but two cell phones die on me.
I have changed time zones 7 times in the last 6 days.
I have slept in my truck in Newberry Springs, CA and Flagstaff, AZ and Pratt, KS.
I have spent $290 to sleep 5 nights in 4 different hotels in 3 different cities.
I have spent $488 to fix a car that I am towing and $83 on a truck that I tried to sell.
Needless to say…I AM TIRED
No pretending
I had been driving for 6 1/2 hours when I reached Pratt, KS and was starting to nod a little. I began looking for a place to pull off to the side of the road to sleep that was large enough for me to get both of my vehicles off and back onto the highway. A little side road would not do.
I drove for several miles until I found a pullout on the side of the road that was paved and rectangular. Rather curious It was right next to a 5 acre grove of trees that were destroyed by a tornado earlier this week! How do I know this?
Well, as I walked around an uprooted pine tree with a 3′ diameter trunk and 6′ diameter root ball, I noticed that all of the needles were still green and fresh! This happened this week!
I am so glad that I was stopped from driving on Monday and Thursday. If everything had worked out according to my original plan, I would have been driving through Pratt at approximately 7:30-8:00 on Monday night when this tornado touched down. (note the 5th paragraph)
For more thoughts on the topic of God’s protection, please go to my Bible blog.
There’s No Place Like Home
I know how Dorothy felt…
I am actually in KANSAS!!! Yahooo!
You know, with all of the driving I have done, you would think that I would have at least seen a sign pointing to the Yellow Brick Road by now…
On the road again
I woke up at 7:10 (Pacific time), hurriedly showered, ate a good breakfast at Denny’s and got to Quality Tire and Lube (or is it Lube and Tire) at 8:10.
Hmmm, that’s strange…The sign says that they open at 8.
Well, maybe the guys are coming in late. It’s a small town…
I don’t want to get the guys in trouble with the boss…
At 8:38, I no longer cared if they got into trouble. I called one of the after hours numbers.
“Are you guys opening today”
“Yes.”
“What time?”
“8:00.”
But my watch says that it’s…6:38! You are kidding me! This is New Mexico! They are only one hour ahead of my Pacific time watch! What the heck was I thinking? I could have enjoyed my breakfast. “I’m sorry.”
At 8:00 (Mountain time!) they opened and within 3 minutes, three vehicles and a delivery truck showed up! They put a new tire on my truck for $83 in 1/2 hour!
By the way, the owner looked at the tire that he removed and said it had about 100 miles left on it before it blew! I’m glad that I resisted the temptation to drive to the next town just so I could make some progress!!!