A Hodgepodge of Collecting

I'm sorry to be getting to the Hodgepodge a bit late today.  I was up early with all good intentions of answering the questions and getting it posted first thing, but Mom called and said she'd left my step-dad at home while she ran to an appointment for much needed cortisone injections.  She wanted me to go check on him because he thought he had a kidney stone, but was refusing to go to the ER despite severe pain and nausea.

I decided to work on the continuing education child abuse course that is now required by law while I was there.  John was in pretty bad shape, but refused to go to the ER until after Mom had been home for a while.  Me, I was stuck doing the course until I was done.  That was 4 very long hours.

Anyway, they are pretty sure John definitely has a kidney stone.  The last I heard from Mom they'd given him morphine for the pain, something for the nausea, and were taking him for a CT scan.  As for me, I finished the course, earned the continuing education credits and printed my certificate.  I'm glad to be done!

So, let's get on with the Hodgepodge.

1. Pokemon Go...your thoughts? Are you playing? Do you even know what it is? Until very recently I didn't have a clue what it was.  Everyone on Facebook is talking about it, but I hadn't seen a thing that explained it.  Now that I know what it is I have to say I haven't seen a single person playing it that I'm aware of.  I guess it sounds kind of fun, sort of like geocaching, but I can't get over all the reports of people (adults) being so focused on the game they walk right into traffic or something equally dumb.  And no, I don't have any plans to play.

2. What was something you collected as a child? I was one of those girls who lived, breathed, and dreamed horses so I collected a lot of figurines. Do you still have that collection? I don't, but you know, it might be packed away in my mom's attic. If you're a parent what's something your own children collected? My son collected bugs, fossils, and action figures (Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being the main ones) and my daughter collected Barbies and Pokemon cards and stuffed animals. Have you ever camped out, stood in a crazy long queue, or paid a ridiculous sum for a 'collectible'? No, but when my daughter was very young, McDonald's had a series of Happy Meal toys based on Snow White.  They were actually very nice and in our efforts to get them all I drove through every drive-thru I came across. (FYI, they will sell you the toy for a dollar or two without the meal.)

3. "Collect moments, not things"...tell us about a moment you've added to your collection this summer.  This past Saturday our son and his family were here and we went to a local restaurant for pizza.  We have to go in separate cars because of how many of us there are and when we got there our grandson decided he was going to teach Pappy how to break dance right there in the parking lot.  Funniest thing I've seen in ages!

4.  What's something collecting dust in your home right now?  The collection of bells my daughter got when my mother-in-law died.  She doesn't really like them or care about them other than the connection to her grandmother....and she moved out and left them here.  I would love to be rid of them, but will probably leave them alone for now since she can't hang the display shelf on the wall of her apartment.  Any plans to do something about it? I guess I should just be glad she only got 1/5 of the collection as it was divided between all the granddaughters. 

5. A favorite song relating to time? Cindy Lauper, Time After Time

6. What's been your most frightening or your most interesting encounter with wildlife?  Geez, I lived in a wildlife preserve for several years growing up and my dad was a deputy in the PA Game Commission for over 30 years...I've had a lot of encounters with wildlife and I'd consider all of them interesting, but I guess the most frightening was running into a very large rattlesnake on our front porch when I was about 10 years old.  I kind of have a snake phobia, anyway, so that was pretty much my worst nightmare.

7.  On July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong set his foot down on the moon. If you could travel to the moon would you go? Why or why not? There was a time when I would have jumped at the chance, no thought necessary, but these days I might still go but not until I'd considered all the facts and risks.

8. Insert your own random thought here.  I just finished reading Honor Redeemed by Christine Johnson.  It is the second book in her Keys of Promise series.  I don't, in general, like historical romances but I gave this one a chance and I'm pleased to say it was well written and held my attention.

Prosperity Jones is a young woman left alone in the world after her mother passes away.  She has precious few options for the future as a woman in the mid-1800s.  There is no family money and her fiance, David, is a world away from New England in exotic Key West.  

Taking a huge chance, Prosperity uses what money she has to book passage to Key West.  She knows David is an honorable man and will marry her now rather than waiting until his service with the army is over as they had originally planned.  Unbeknownst to Prosperity, events have taken place in David's life that will prevent him from honoring his commitment to her.   This is a fact she discovers only after arriving in Key West.

Now without money or a fiance, Prosperity is stuck.  As luck would have it, she meets a kindly doctor who takes her under his wing and helps her to gain a position at the hospital.  She admires him and looks to him for knowledge of the healing arts and cherishes his friendship.  He offers more than friendship, but Prosperity is torn.

The book is about Prosperity and David's struggles to forgive others and themselves and come to terms with the hands that life has dealt them.  The Christian themes run deeper than in many other Christian works of fiction I've read, but avoid being "preachy."

The characters could have used a little more fleshing out....I didn't really feel like I knew them or cared about them, but it was an interesting story line and a completely satisfactory summer read.  I'd recommend it to anyone.