Beer? Buses? Debates? Songs? Hodgepodge time!

I joined Joyce's weekly Hodgepodge recently, but this is her 99th set of questions.  (I will be very interested in seeing the 100th edition.  Perhaps all questions that have the number 100 in them?  Just a suggestion.)   Joyce mentioned the song "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" which we all know was a youthful pastime on long road trips, etc.   I'm wondering is it politically incorrect to teach the song to our youth these days? 

Here are the questions, and my answers.

1.  So, do you like beer?

The only time I really enjoy a nice, cold beer is on a hot day.  If I drink a beer I prefer a "light" beer or one with a slight flavor like lime.  I LOVE wine instead! I am a chardonnay person, but occasionally will have a good red with dinner.  No sweet wines please.  The drier the better. 

2. What's your least favorite repetitive task?

I have mentioned this before - it's going food shopping.  I consider it a necessary evil.  I'm not adventurous in the kitchen and therefore I do not linger in the grocery store. I go in with my usual list of basic needs that keep our household going, and I get in - and get out.  Every week - the same items...   boring.

3. When was the last time you rode a bus?  Where was it headed?

Wow.  It's been awhile.   I'm drawing a blank on a specific time.  I rode the bus on many field trips when my daughters were in school.  I often volunteered as a parent chaperone.   We were living in New Jersey then and we took the bus on band competition trips and then on to Dorney Park Amusement Park.  We also took buses on our county youth orchestra trips into NYC, and when we went to Europe.  Good times!  I've always enjoyed bus trips because you are with others, can sightsee, but don't have the stress of driving.

4. What song from your childhood or from your children's childhood could make a parent's nerves stand on end?

When my older daughter was a toddler I took her to Gymboree fun/exercise classes.  She loved Gymbo, the clown, and as any good, loving mother would do, I got the video tape AND audio tape of the Gymboree songs.  I think if I heard that music even now, some 20 years later, I might cringe.  The other song (which I mentioned in an earlier blog):  "It's a Small World"....over and over....   and over.

5. The US presidential election cycle is drawing to a close (can I get an AMEN?) and the 3rd and final debate was held last night...what was the last thing you 'debated about'?

I don't consider myself a debater.  I have my beliefs but I have a hard time verbalizing why I believe the way I do.  Sometimes it's a gut feeling instead.  Or, it's my religious faith telling me what is right vs. wrong.    And, I think I have learned over the years that debating is a lost art and it's nearly impossible to change anyone's mind anyway. 

6. Can a person make too much money?  How much is too much?

So, Joyce, did this question come from sitting in the pew on Sunday?  I know this past Sunday's Bible lessons at my church dealt with stewardship and "happy giving".   It's that time of year when we approve the budget for the new year and the congregation pledges to meet the needs.   You ask "can a person make too much money?"   I suppose the answer is no...the big question is WHAT does a person DO with the money earned.  I know athletes and top CEO's, and Hollywood types and musicians make incredible money.  But, so does Bill Gates - and look what he does with his earnings.  I forget the exact saying, but for one who is given alot, one is expected to give back alot.  If a person remembers all things come from God and that we are stewards of His world, then the act of giving is a gift of thanks back to God. 

7. Pop - soda - coke - something else....   what's it called where you live? 

I have lived in various geographical areas in the US and most places have called a soft drink a soda.  Except, that is, my birthplace: Ohio.   I haven't lived there since I was a kid but I have most of my family members there, so when I visit I hear them say pop.  It sounds strange to me.  I've been away from there too long.

8. My random thought.

I have lived long enough to stop at times and think..."mere coincidence"?   Or instead, is it a "sign from God"?   There's a great country music song out now called "Cowboys and Angels" by Dustin Lynch and it has a line about something being an "accident or grand design?"  What do you think?  I find as I age, and grow in my faith, that life is NOT an accident.  That often things happen for a reason.  Big and small.  We don't know WHY when it happens but it gets clearer looking back.  Hindsight is 20/20.  

PS:  2 young men (ages 18 and 17) left a party in NC over a week ago and on a whim decided to drive down here to the SC beach to see the sunrise - but they never arrived.  Since then, each day, their frantic parents and families, friends, and the police, and volunteers, have exhaustively searched the roads.  So far there has been NO sign of them or their car.  No skid marks on the road, nothing unusual has been found anywhere.  They have just disappeared.  Both boys were good kids and those who know them do not suspect that they purposely are in hiding.  Foul play is not suspected either.   Did the driver fall asleep and run off the road into a river?  Or under a heavily forested area?  Even helicopters have searched.   I pray each day that they are found to end the anquish of not knowing.  I pray for young lives perhaps gone, and families who will miss them forever.   Amen.