bierkergaard

After a winter of nearly and nary zero snowfall, old Mother Nature decided to send us a Northeaster' mid-March semi-blizzard Stella on Monday night into Tuesday. It turned out to be a substantial amount. About 12 inches or so, with bands of more and less depending on your domicile location. My general shoveling of snow philosophy, honed by years of living in the 'burbs, is to shovel early and shovel often. One can decide to watch the snow fall platonically inside the cozy cave as it were (for all of you who took Philosophy 101 in college) but at some point, sooner or later, you have to pick up the shovel and throw some snow. Or bear the consequences. Back-pain payment with the interest ache. Present small amounts per shovel vs. future big debt payment at the end. I watched a neighbor a couple of days ago attempt to remove snow from their driveway after a couple of days of melting then re-freezing. A mess, that is what is was. As I was out early on the shovel Tuesday, ...

One of the big events for me work-wise yearly is being Test Supervisor for the SAT. I run the administration. I know that the test is important to kids and their parents for the attainment of goals, so I take it seriously. It weighs on me until it happens and I plan for it months ahead of time and then go full-throttle that last two weeks before testing. It takes some wisdom and expertise to do it well but that is not the stressor for me. The big worry is the reality that something can go wrong that is not under my control and that keeps me up at nights in a cold sweat. So, yesterday before heading up to school, praying that I wouldn't get hit by another car, crash into a telephone pole by hitting some ice, or getting  a flat tire, I read a devotional, hoping that it would offer some solace. And it did. The gist of the devotional was when one is in a stress-inducing situation, go slow. Anxiety often makes me breathe shorter breaths, walk faster, talk faster, lose myself in ...