bierkergaard

Lake Grubb in All of Her Prescient Glory Jeremiah 6:16 The LORD said to his people, "Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths and where the best road is. Walk in it, and you will live in peace." But they said, "No, we will not!"  In preparation for hiking the Adirondacks this summer, as mentioned in my previous blogs, I am hiking up my activity in the afternoon to work on my conditioning. Ultimate goal...to show that I am ready to roll, seeing my abs. At least 4 out of the 6. I can see the two top ones right now. Hard, hard road down the abdomen yo. Lots of blubber needs to be burned.  This is in addition to my morning work-out routine. As such, for the last few weeks, I have been running, hiking, biking, and even skateboarding yesterday (after putting on the appropriate padding).  Who is that 50 plus year old fool skateboarding? That would be me...   With the weather being unusually cool, then warm, it does create the precursor f...

On Top of Turkey Hill, Gobble-Gobble Thursday afternoon here in God's country of Lancaster County, Pa. the weather was finally warm. It has been bipolar weather-wise. Snow one week, balmy the next, then back to cold. We need a Meteropsychiatrist to diagnosis what is going on around here so that we can predict and plan our responses. Seed the clouds with psychotropics. But, since it was a nice day, I decided to head down to the Turkey Hill Trail. For those of my world-wide audience who do not hail from this modern-day Eden, Turkey Hill is an actual place. It is where the dairy is located. Presumably, there used to be turkeys hanging out.  Turkey Hill is not just some quaint fictional name thought up by some MBA genius to brand ice cream and iced tea. Fictional yet evoking thoughts of bucolity. Bucolic always sounds like Bubonic to me, as in Plague. The Bucolic Plague....Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.    Turkey Hill is one of the higher spots in Lancaster County...

Red Hoodie at Rest  Since Central Pennsylvania is presently embroiled in an endless cold-fire Winter (I know that I am mixing confounding opposites), it is extending the need to wear heavier clothing. The sun is closer but Winter holds on like a miser clutches his purse. Cold Fire. Taos, New Mexico,was amazing in this duality. The sun is strong in the Winter but cold winds blow.  Just learned that Rush has a tune "Cold Fire." Who knew. That is a band that has never got its due. I think it is because of G. Lee's screeching falsetto on some of the tunes. That's hard to take. Would cause rats to jump ship. Even rock and roll ratsos. Must also be because they are Canadians. Eh. I have been quietly upgrading my non-work clothing. I have to shop online because of my size. I can't find garments off the rack. 2XLT.  My appendages are just too long. I have long legs and long arms. I am elongated man. In particular, I needed some new sweatshirts recently. One f...

James in his Epistle writes that "Life is a vapor, it appears for a little time and then vanishes away."   James is speaking of this life on Earth specifically, not life eternal which he clearly speaks of also (see Crown of Life).  About 20 years ago and continuing for several years thereafter, my mentor-buddy--an older family man--and I met almost every Thursday or Friday morning for breakfast where we recited verses of James by memory. We both got to the final chapter of James and then petered out and moved on. I think we met for nearly a decade and I cherish the memories of all of our times together. When he moved down South to be with his kids, there was left a pretty big void. In the end, as Jimi Hendrix wrote, "The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye, the story of life is hello and goodbye...until we meet again." James had and still has a big effect on me and my understanding of how to be a Christian in the Public School system. More abou...

As a Conservative, one would expect that I'd listen to right-wing radio, watch Fox News, and have a Sean Hannity tee-shirt. Often when I am in those fun social media debates with Liberals, they assume that my media consumption is red-state meat. The rawer, the better. Nope, I am a NPR and Public Radio junkie. WXPN down in Philly plays the best music around. I even support them financially, as I feel art and music are essential to human flourishing.  Don't worry, I get in plenty of debates with hard-core conservatives, too. Probably, some of them residing in Stalingrad. Due to Vlad's dark reign over Russia, I am reverting back to calling St. Petersburg Stalingrad because Putin is becoming Stalin by degrees. He wants to make Russia Great Again...which it never was. Unless one extols the virtues of the Gulag. I will grant the Russian Writers are great. That peculiar harshness of life brings something shining out of the soul. Yet, I doubt any of the great Russian writers w...

Romans 11:36.   For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.  1  Corinthians 10:31.   Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Yesterday afternoon, I was chilling in my world headquarters for Bierkergaard and my text sound chimed. It was my buddy Tom asking if I wanted to head out and catch a brew somewhere last evening. "Sure", I texted back. We selected the neighborhood dive bar below a pizza emporium with the dance party starting at 9:00. Made a mental note to vacate the establishment before that time so as to not have to witness the chaotic conflagration in the netherworld. I grabbed a prerequisite hour nap which is pretty much needed for me to hang-out on a Friday first. And out I went to hang. It is great that bars of low chic these days have taps with craft beers. So, I got out the door with a ten dollar bill plus a generous tip of three bucks for the bar...

I am up early today, particular so since it is Spring Forward. I can on occassion fall back asleep. Yet, I tend to be once up, then up. I have to be very weary to be able to get back on that bus of nod. Because I absolutely love coffee, I can hardly wait to drink it every morning. That is usually the motivation to leave the mattress. I am not a lingerer in the morning. I like to move. I can head back to the bed to read or watch TV later and perhaps be visited by the Nap Fairy, I just can't count on it. She comes as she wishes. The caffeine has to wear off to a degree before her magic dust is effective. Particularly awakening, as it was this morning, is if I get listening to a podcast like the one from Freakanomics Radio. I may be in bed but I am up listening. The subject essentially is why we are so poor about planning and predicting projects great and small completion dates. Speaking of completion, let me zero in on coffee: I bought a cleverly designed single-serving Fre...