The driver of the blue route in the afternoon has a tendency to leave the radio set to the local classic hits station, so when I start it up in the morning, I get whatever classic hit they're playing at that time. I hadn't listened to the classic station for several years, but was pretty sure that they played stuff that my parents used to listen to. Well, lately the station has been playing songs that are squarely from my teens and I'm starting to feel old.

This morning, they were blasting Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. This song was huge during my late teens and was also used as the theme music for the American Football show on Channel 4 back in England.

One of our family traditions is to take a walk on New Year's Day in our local state park, Governor Dodge State Park, which is just a few minutes north of Dodgeville. The weather cooperated and provided us nearly 3 inches of snow the night before so that our walk was delightfully wintry with lots of fresh snow. While cold, the air was almost completely still, so after bundling up, we were cozy and warm.

I've been driving a school bus for more than two months and it's time to share a little more wisdom with the Interwebs.

First, there is much more to school busing than most people suspect. I'm learning things as fast as I can, but it's a big topic. Secondly, it's much more fun than I expected. Our crew of drivers are very diverse and lots of fun to work with. Sometimes we get a little goofy on the radios when we think the boss and the schools aren't listening.

I still have a regular morning route (Blue) and have been filling in for other drivers in the afternoons. I've learned about half a dozen afternoon routes (Blue, Black, Red, Green, Pink, Gold and Purple) so that I can fill in for others when they're either taking time off or driving trips.

Mozart Heroes are one of my "go to" sources of writing music as their work is generally uptempo and without lyrics. Also, guitar and cello are my two favorite instruments.

I find that Thunderstruck by AC/DC is a great comparative track. Different musicians will bring out different aspects of it and each of the many covers I've heard of it are very creative and imaginative.

When the subject of speaking in tongues comes up, some people will tell you that tongues are no more and that they were just something that was only for the time of the early church. This sounds plausible on first hearing, especially in some parts of the world where there are very few people who speak in tongues. Where I live, in the upper Midwest of the United States, very few people have heard of speaking in tongues and even fewer actually do it. No matter how true it sounds, there are many tens (likely hundreds) of millions of Pentecostals in the world who speak in tongues. This is a significant amount of observable evidence that cannot easily be dismissed. Further, the scripture that the assertion is based upon is easily shown to have been taken out of context.

The scripture that everyone quotes is 1 Corinthians 13:8. Now, as everyone also knows, this is the love chapter. Lots of reference to love here. And that's fine, love is an important topic. Yet, what all of these 'everyone' manage to miss is that the love chapter is part of the three chapters where Paul explains about the gifts of the Spirit. This means that the love chapter is not just about love, but about the importance of using the gifts of the Spirit in love, else they become meaningless. Love is the strongest force in the universe and is primary amongst all others. Hence, even though the gifts of the Spirit are awesome and powerful, they pale in comparison to the power of love.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

1 Corinthians 13:8