Laptop hard drive went out

Leaves leaves everywhere! My wife and I mowed our yard last weekend and this weekend we can't even see our yard. We had lots of wind and rain and now everything is covered with leaves. The weather now is pretty nice but guess what....... Yepp, more rain on the way and even a chance of freezing rain next week. I guess winter is on its way. I haven't been getting to work full time lately because of the weather but I have been enjoying myself immensely. I have been getting to spend more time here with my lovely wife and we have had a lot of fun. First we sleep very late in the morning and by then our chickens are half starved so first thing when we get up we go out to feed them and our little dog. When we open the door to our chicken house the chickens just come piling out lol. They eat all the time! Then we have been playing Shaiya online a lot, until my computer broke. The hard-drive went out of our laptop last week and I ordered one but its now on back-order so I don't know when it will come. Its the second time a hard-drive has went out of that laptop in 8 months. When I called the company to see if they would warranty it the representative told me it wasn't a hard-drive problem but was soft-ware instead and I would have to pay $60 per 30 minutes for them to help me. He barely spoke English and it made me mad. I told him that the laptop wasn't worth that much money lol. Its a Gateway and its the last Gateway I will ever own. It has been nothing but trouble. I read on the net later that they are notorious for hard drives failing. Anyway I will just fix it myself. A better than original hard drive only cost $10 more than the rep was going to charge me for 30 minutes of bullcrap. I'm sure after he had gotten my money he would have miraculously discovered that it was the hard drive after all and they they would have tried to charge me 3 times as much to replace it, plus the fee to "discover" what I already knew. I get aggravated when a company won't stand by their products so no more Gateway for me. Its a gateway to a piece of crap computer lol. Ok I've complained enough about that. I will post again when I get it fixed. The silly rep told me replacing the hard drive wouldn't fix it because it was a software problem. Welllllll I have news for him. Software is installed where??? In the hard drive of course! What a nut, but I promised to stop griping didn't I? Ok I will now lol. Everyone have a wonderful week. More rain coming here so I'm going to take a walk now with my wife. Vaya con dios....

Beans, beans, good for your heart...

I forget the rest of that line. Probably just as well. Anyway my wife is from the Philippines and when I brought her here last March I made some chili. She liked the chili but didn't like the beans much. Last weekend I decided that she should taste beans cooked in the good ol' Southern way so I took some dried pinto beans, cut up some bacon into small pieces, and cooked that for several hours, slow. Then we made some biscuits and that evening she decided that she did like beans after all. Lol, we just didn't sleep with our head under the sheets that night. Anyway for those of you who like simple cooking, the bean/bacon combo is very tasty. If you prefer beef just cut up some beef into small pieces and slow cook with the beans for a few hours. Beans get better and better the longer you cook them. Also large amounts of beans cook better than small amounts. I have no idea why, but its a fact. Ok onward and upward to more complicated and yummy food. My wife prepares a lot of food from her country and I have become an addict! I love it. She cooks sinigang, kilawin tangigue, apredada, and many others. I have nearly forsaken American food but sometimes I also cook for her so she can have the experience of some of of our good Southern USA food. For those of you that are not knowledgeable of the Southern USA, we are known here for hospitality and good cooking. Some of the food here is simple but you would never know that by tasting it. Some is of course pretty complicated but I am not a good enough cook to venture into that. We have decided that if all goes well we will eat one of our chickens this weekend. Its going to be hard to do, but thats what we have them for and we can't continue to feed them for nothing. Brooster the Rooster's days are numbered. I told him a few days ago that he better enjoy his time because it is limited lol. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, still lots of rain here and so dreary. I have been off work a lot lately because of the bad weather but I think that is probably about over. I did enjoy the time off but bills have to be paid, so hi ho hi ho, its off to work I go tomorrow. Anyway its Friday!

The End of the World, is Armageddon near?

I don't like to be a prophet of doom but have you noticed how many natural disasters our world has been experiencing? Not long ago I barely knew what a psunami was. Now they are common and we hear of them often. So many earthquakes, wildfires, new illnesses added to the ones we already had, wars and rumors of wars, typhoons, hurricanes, tornadoes, you name it. The Bible discusses the last days of the sinful world and says that there will be many more calamities such as the things we have been experiencing. Of course some scientists put all of this down to global warming, but that doesn't explain earthquakes and some of the other things we have seen lately. Yes I know, there have always been earthquakes and wildfires, illnesses and psunami's, and all the other events we are seeing, but if you check back in recorded history you will find that there have been many more such happenings in the last 50 years than in all of recorded history put together. I know, I know, we have better communications now than then but I am talking about major earthquakes etc that would leave a lot of damage and get noticed. I don't mean tiny trembles that are only noticeable on seismographs. Suppose some of the illnesses we have now had been loosed on the world a few hundred years ago.... Yes I am a believer in God and of the Bible, although not all so called Bibles are Gods word. So what can we do? Well, we can't stop the events that are unfolding because they have to happen. Also we shouldn't want to stop them because it is the beginning of a new and much nicer world where the good people that are left will all be safe and have enough of everything. To answer the question forming in your mind, yes the Bible does state that most good people will remain here on the earth, most won't go to Heaven. I personally don't want too. I want to remain here in the new perfect world that will form. Also to answer another question, no I don't believe in a burning hell. That belief comes from mythology and from mis-understandings and mis-translations of the Bible. Think about that one for a minute. Everlasting torture would make God guilty of more sin and suffering than Satan. Pretty blunt I know, but think about it. Sin is basically anything that causes suffering and/or death. Satan is responsible for a huge but measurable amount of it. Measurable because it has a beginning and someday an end. However if God tortured sinful people forever there would be a beginning, but no end. I personally know that God is a loving God and wants to put this earth back to the perfect and sinless condition that he made it originally. The wages of sin are death". Death, not everlasting life in torture as most believe. "The meek shall inherit the earth". Yep that is what it says, and most of us have heard that verse a thousand time but didn't let it sink in. If we are good most of us will remain here forever, or be resurrected to eternal life here. Psalms chapter 37, verse 29. You can read for yourself. It says (sometimes worded slightly different in different translations) "The earth will stand forever and the righteous will remain forever upon it". Also read the whole chapter and you will find that it talks more about this. Armageddon is not just a word or something we are taught to scare us into being good. Its an actual event that is now unfolding. How long will it be? Nobody knows but from all of the evidence it is likely to happen within the next few years. Will you be ready? Will I and my wife? I sincerely hope so. Keep your eyes and ears open and consider what I have written here as you watch the news in weeks and years to come. Hopefully I have planted a seed in your mind. You don't have to be convinced now, just watch and listen. Can you feel something different in the air these last few years? I can. Think of how much safer the world felt just a few years ago. Now there seems to be a sense of danger and urgency in the air all the time. Sometimes I wonder if its just me, but then I look around and I realize that everyone or nearly everyone feels it. We are part of this earth and everything is in a delicate balance. When that balance is affected we all know it. Much smarter people than I have a firm belief in God. When you rationalize everything out its easy to see that all this didn't "just happen". I have a friend that is not a believer and he told me once that the earth was like his house, he didn't have to see it built to know how it happened. I clamped my mouth and didn't reply that his house didn't just come to be all on its on, or through evolution. There wasn't a big bang up the street one day that caused all the boards and nails to come together in just the right order. A house has only a few thousand parts. This earth has billions and to think that they all just fell into place automatically is foolishness beyond belief. Einstein was a devout believer in God and actually refused to publish one theory because he was afraid that it would destroy the belief in God for many people. There are many publications of the Bible and after doing some research I realized that the well meaning translators of some of these have probably done more harm than good. To name one and risk making many people angry with me, is the King James Version. OK here I go making you mad. Its called the King James Version because that is exactly what it is. Its King James version, 'of the Bible'. It has nearly 4000 added verses, some that KJ himself, or his translators made up on the spot to get across their own beliefs. Some came from other sources over a period of many years and nobody seems to know where they originated. Also in KJ version Gods name was omitted nearly 7000 times. At least one religion is based primarily on verses that shouldn't even exist. If you want to read the Bible, and you should, then get a real Bible and not one that was translated according to pre-formed beliefs. Life is good and someday it will be perfect for many. I would like to be one of that number. Is Armageddon near? From all the evidence my opinion is YES! I hope to meet you in the New World someday......

Meatloaf and mis-understandings

Fall is officially here and the leaves are rapidly changing colors now. It has been raining so much that my work is not steady now. I'm trying to be disappointed about it but so far I haven't been able to convince myself. Its nice to stay home with my wife for a few days and rest. We had a mis-understanding last weekend. We are from different cultures and countries so its easy to mis-understand. She thought I said one thing when I had really said another. By the time we figured out what was going on we were both mad and hurt. My advice to everyone is to always talk about everything with your partner. Be honest and forthright even if its not what they want to hear. My wife and I have a wonderful close relationship and when one of us mis-understands it causes a lot of pain for both of us. The chickens are eating us out of house and home! They eat at least 100 pounds of food per week now and I don't know if we will ever be able to get our money back from them lol. No matter though, we love having them and taking care of them. We built our dog a new house and a new pen right beside the chicken pen. Our dog has a huge voice even though its a small dog and it wakes us sometimes barking. Now she has Brooster the Rooster living beside her and Brooster loves to crow loudly. I told my wife that now the dog is getting paid back for barking so much lol. Brooster has no mercy and crows any and all times of the day. I made meatloaf for my wife today, since I am not working anyway. Its the second time I have fixed it for her and she loves it. We had sandwiches made from meatloaf and Miracle Whip. Food is like most things in life, the more simple the better...... Have a nice day everyone.