bierkergaard

I am still gnawing on the bones for blog meat from the Family Reunion. Essentially, the Fam Re is open season on eating. Gut-busting is the goal. It always makes me laugh when the do-gooder starving diet gurus say "Maintain, Don't Gain" over vacation and the holidays. Really? What is the point then of vacation and the holidays if not celebration? I set goals like more food and I usually can step up and make that happen with just that little extra effort. True enough that most Americans gluttonously act like we are on vacation and celebrating the holidays 24-7-365. Lazyboy used to be only a chair. Now it is society. I had what I thought was a golden idea for the bbq while vacationing. How about grilling some bacon? Genius! I must be the first person in the world to think of this. Einsteinian indeed. I secured what I believed the best bacon to avoid a grease fire...naturally smoked bacon with actually more brown meat than white fat. A perfect cut. To digress into ...

I am on a serious David Foster Wallace jag this last week or so. I was going to buy his opus work Infinite Jest but then calculated that I would probably be like the 99% who would buy the book, try to read it, then put it like a tombstone up on the cemetery book shelf. Instead, to save money, I travelled through the labyrinth of the Lancaster Library Online System where I downloaded the book through Overdrive. In July, I fortunately had renewed my Library Card which really struck me as odd because why should one have to update a Library Card, particularly in person? It is not an ID, has no picture, and the details of where I live and etc. could easily (or should have been) easily handled online. But no, in some homage to days gone by, one has to come to the temple and present one's card to the clergy to gain entrance into the sacred world of knowledge. And while you are here, spit out your damn gum young man. Or, middle-aged man. Downloading the book involved a complex, h...

“Hope is a passion for the possible.”  ―  Søren Kierkegaard ,  Fear and Trembling Last Sunday, fresh off the Family Reunion, I was in recuperation mode. When at the yearly Family Reunion, I give myself permission to super-size food and beer. I still keep it within biblical boundaries, let us just say that I come against those boundaries. I always made sure to exercise before consumption. "No Pain, No Beer", as my buddy Rob says. All weekend long, I was just settling back in to my humble abode. It was interesting how much work and packing and unpacking being away for four days required. I still have the 10 foot kayak in my living room as we speak.  I made an intentional effort to not overpack. Come Sunday morning, I was running a bit late for church because of still feeling out of sync. It is not the biggest deal. My church rarely starts at the stated time of 10:30 and there is no social ostracism if a party comes in late and is discrete about it. Come as yo...

* I have decided to edit this from the previous version Was going to name this blog post "The Gospel According to Forrest." I had been beaten to the punch. Several citations already. From what I watched, my take on Forrest is a bit different than others. So, off we going running. On my runs to the river and back, a five mile route, I run through Columbia, Pa. It is a hard-luck town with a depressed economy and a proud but beat-up people. Most of them seriously out of shape and obese. Columbia ain't going to win any beauty contest. During my runs, it is not unusual for people to make comments. Recently, the comment du jour has been "Run, Forrest, Run." The other day, a young lady slowed down with her window rolled down and said it to me from about 8 feet away. The other incident recently was a group of teens hanging out. That happened about two weeks before the second Forrest comment. There was a third yelled from a decrepit house. In all 3 cases, those ...

VACATION!!! Heading out on Vacation/Family Reunion tomorrow for about a week. Those two things are not necessarily synonyms. Thus, I am going to be brief. Bought a kayak and been spending all week getting ready to go. I am not over-packing so I skipped Costco. Keeping it simple: Eggs, Bread, Peanut Butter, Jelly, Meat, Cigars, and Beer. I will leave it to you readers to determine which is the one thing that I must bring. One year several years ago, I bought so much foodstuffs that I am still  working through it all. I am hoping the grape jelly is still good. Funny how vacations wear us out. Rather than feeling refreshed when we come back, we need a week to recover. The summer is in full swing but I will be back in school the first week of August. It has been a good time off in July. Did a lot of home repair stuff, caught up with friends, worked out a lot, drank good coffee and beer. Practiced moderation. Didn't go away to some exotic locale. Instead, I stayed local and e...

The world sits at the feet of Christ,  Unknowing, blind, and unconsoled, It yet shall touch his garment's fold, And feel the heavenly Alchemist Transform its very ashes to gold. W hittier I took some artistic license and changed dust to ashes....  My title of CrashBurnBeauty is equivalent to TLC's CrazySexyCool.  Don't know much about TLC. Don't care to know much about TLC. I am not CrazySexyCool. OK, maybe a little crazy. Like Nehemiah of the Old Testament rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, I am dedicating July to rebuilding and restoring my townhouse and property. Not quite as labor intensive as Nehemiah's work. I had lived in the townhouse before getting married and have been back for a couple of years since the divorce. That was an 10 year cycle in total. While I was married, in school, and working, I rented the townhouse out. That was an enterprise that was hardly worth the hassle in terms of economic benefits. Not all tenants are exactl...

Matthew 7:5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. There was once a fence that a man owned. He watched is deteriorate slowly. He bemoaned the fact. But rather than fix it, he went on social media and elsewhere to decry the state of broken fences in the world. His tone was harsh and judgmental. In fact, he gave money to politicians who pledged that "They would attack those with broken fences." Tons of money was poured into law enforcement agencies to police and prosecute those with broken fences. The man took great satisfaction in his efforts. All the while, the fence in his backyard fell down. The man blamed society for his broken fence.  This is modern retelling of the saying above from Matthew 7:5.  Yesterday, I bit the bullet and went out to fix my fence. Last Fall my neighbor, who I share the fence with in our townhouse development, mentioned that the wood was rot...