bierkergaard

I met my mother and youngest brother at Maggiano's Little Italy at the King of Prussia Mall for dinner last week. Mom was in from Florida and although I live up here in Anabaptist land, I can get to King of Prussia in just over an hour down the Turnpike. About 70 miles and a cultural chasm as wide as the time between the 20th and 21st Century. Lancaster as a whole is somewhere in the 90's. I grew up close to the King of Prussia Mall, less than ten minutes. And besides getting terribly lost there then when I was 7, and a few super lame attempts trying to pick-up girls as a teen, and last minute Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve as a young adult, I am really K.O.P. mall-averse. I hate the super-saturated consumerism and all that it represents. The Great Gatsby as a way of life. I didn't have much money as teen and going to the Mall would have just reminded me of being broke all of the time. Maggiano's is a great place for dinner but watch the dr...

Great news. I bit the bullet and got my book published in hard copy today. Just pulled that tooth once and for all. Swiftly slammed that door with a string. I had to put in the yellow borders on Paint Shop Pro to create a buffer like a DMZ to protect the lettering that was getting consumed on the cover in the formatting software on Lulu. Worked like a charm. Taking that ILT web development and  publishing class in the Temple Doctoral program  has paid many dividends. I know it was probably not the best solution but I did what I could. Not bad after months of wringing my hands. Either wring the hands or put the hands to work. Same energy expended. Worry or work.  By the way, I was at Fort Ticonderoga in New York in New York State (a Revolutionary War Fort) as a kid and saw a musket ball on museum display with teeth marks in it. The aftermath of surgery without anesthetic. No biting bullets for me. Laughing Gas por fa...

So, I was at a happening party Friday night where me and the boys hung out, listened to 45's (most of them Blues and Jazz), had laughs, snacks (bacon pepper jam on cheese-infused crackers) and drank some beers. Paradise. But, there was chill in Paradise. The floor-based air conditioner blowing cold air on me all night from 7:00 PM to midnight. I had not the sense to sit elsewhere. It was the third floor of my buddy's house so the AC was needed. I just didn't need to be necking it all night. I am extremely sensitive to the cold. It is why I usually wear a hat year round. I can't stand too cold AC. It is the curse of the age to freeze when it is a hundred degree outside. Correcting one problem by going too far the other way. Idiocy. Wasteful. American profligacy. Come Saturday, I felt a cold coming on. As typical, I gargled with some whiskey and it seemed like the cold virus was on the defensive. I had coffee with a good friend. Sunday morni...