“98 Bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer, you take one down, you pass it around, 97 bottles of beer on the wall. 97 Bottles of beer on the wall, 97 bottles of beer, you take one down, you pass it around, 96 bottles of beer on the wall, 96 Bottles of beer, 96 bottles of beer, you take one down, you pass it around, 95 bottles of beer, 95 Bottles of beer on the wall…”

Any of you sing this song as a kid on a long car-ride? We did. In fact I think my parents would start us in on this song. Oddly, I never really noticed it to be about a lot of beer drinking. I just paid more attention to the count down. We always started the song with 100, and I cannot remember if we sang it all the way down to “No more bottles of beer on the wall.” It probably depended on if our singing became irritating, then my parents would switch up the roadtrip game to “First one to speak is the monkey of the week.” The car full of six people would go silent. Until finally one goofball kid could not stand it any longer and would burst out laughing. “You’re the monkey!”

Where were we? Oh yeah, “64 Bottles of beer on the wall, 64 bottles of beer…”  This song is in my head tonight as I contemplate the fact that in 98 days my baby boy is leaving for college. NINETY-EIGHT DAYS. Not that I want to start a countdown, especially not one that repeats as it gets closer. Instead I want to savor each moment with him in the house, get him ready for his dorm room, feed him all his favorite meals, and just enjoy these 98 days before he leaves.

“98 Days before he leaves for school, 98 days before he leaves, he’ll be ready to go, we’ll miss him so, now its 97 days to go. 97 Days before he leaves for school, 97 days before he leaves, he’ll be ready to go, we’ll miss him so, now its 96 days to go…”

I think I’m liking the beer drinking song better. So are PapaBear, Koda and Summer.