Arcane error msg

[JUNIPER]

After using GnuCash with little unexpected happening, last night I 
opened it and made a few entries. Upon closing GnuCash windows I noticed 
an error saying:

"GnuCash could not obtain the lock for /home/steve/finance. That 
database may be in use by another user, in which case you should not 
open the database. What would you like to do?
    Quit?              Open Anyway?                 Create New File?"

I quit, then reopened and found the small changes I had made not 
present. I made them again, saved and closed. Same arcane msg appeared. 
This time I "Opened Anyway", made the changes again and saved again. 
Just opened and closed again, msg didn't reappear. Hmmm???

SteveJ