bierkergaard

Me as Snurfer Boy. Look at that Hill, Yo!  Tuesday morning, school was cancelled due to a strategic snow storm that hit precisely at the worst time.  Or best, depending on your perspective.  Since I have been in too many harrowing journeys and accidents and near-misses back and forth to my school in the 26.5 years I have worked there, I am fine with the "safe rather than sorry" approach. I see snow and snow days as Sabbaths from the Sky of sorts. Chill out and enjoy. Slow down, watch the flakes fall. I like the Winter and love the snow. Tuesday morning, after it was called, I knew what I was to do. Hit the legendary Snurfer, which was a prehistoric dinosaur-like ancestor of snowboards. Snurfers are still made but their heyday was the 1970's.  Snurfers were a big part of my childhood and adolescence.  I still recall me and the boys going down to Valley Forge Park and Snurfing for hours at our special location when we were Teens.  I found a sweet a...

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. After two weeks of being home and working, I finally feel acclimated back to Pennsylvania. The first couple of days back at work in particular felt quite odd. Like I was a stranger in a strange land. An alien. I was almost apologetic that I was out for so long. But, the decision to give us Comp Days for summer work was not of my doing. Working in a school for 27 years tends to provide very strong psychic walls to keep the external world out. It is a planet unto itself. An adolescent ecosystem of sorts. It is good to be reminded that the world keeps on keeping on. When I was on Sabbatical twice during my Ph.D. work, it never ceased to strike me as interesting that most of the world wasn't in school. It is obvious but my own personal narrative leans so heavily to the school side of life. Some day I will...

During my three day food-poisoning ordeal in Manila--well, it seems to have been food-poisoning, l am not certain as I am still not feeling 100% (I am becoming a hypochondriac I fear)--one thing loomed on my mind as I was fighting through it. I thought to myself, "You know, I am alone here, sick as a dog. A stray, in a strange country." It is difficult to be both sick and the agent acting on behalf of the sick at the same time. Those two roles, opposite as they were, were mine. I did have back and forth communication with my high school's school nurse on Facebook Messenger (thanks Nurse Glock), a phone conversation with an emergency nurse in Nashville, TN, working on of my doctor's behalf at 2:00 AM EST, a couple of friends who are seasoned travelers giving me advice and online companionship, and my Dad.  All through the internet and international communication networks. My best friend's brothers were also in town with their families, plus the American Embas...

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health Of the daughter of my people recovered? Jeremiah 8:22 I am back from Manila. I knew it was going to be a difficult trip. It was even harder than I imagined. I either ate some bad food or drank bad water (or both) and spent the better part of three days in the hotel bathroom. I will spare you the details. Our dainties disappoint us.   Really miserable. Probably the third most horrid experience in my life. First, being docked in a mosquito-filled swamp in a sailboat overnight when 13; Second, my perforated appendix emergency surgery three years ago; Third, and this.    I hadn't really imagined Manila and the Philippines as being a vacation per se from the start. I am not a huge fan of the tropics and all that comes with it...bugs, swamp-ass, etc. The purpose was to attend my best friend's wedding and then hope to get some good food and drink along the journey. Manila and the P...

Well, flew back from Taos late December 30. It was a nice drive down in the early morning to Albuquerque along the Rio Grande River. When I had driven up to Taos a week before, it was 1:00 to 3:30 in the morning.  I hadn't seen the river to the left.  I was pretty beat arriving at the Bed and Breakfast but bounced back pretty quick and had a great week. The flight back was pretty good except for the boy crying all the way back from Chicago. Assume, from the sound and looks of it, he is on the spectrum. I like to enjoy myself with food and drink while on vacation. Although, that is not the whole story. I am afraid that my Facebook posts might lead people to conclude that I am just a glutton. I ate enough Nuevo Mexico cuisine to scratch that itch for a year. First, I am actually fairly moderate in my consumption. I typically know when to stop and say enough. Second, the back-drop to this consumption is a whole lot of exercise. I try to walk everywhere possible. In Taos,...

IF all goes according to plan, THEN I will be in Taos, New Mexico in 24 hours. Sleeping in a bed at an artsy Bed and Breakfast. I am a big Travelocity user. Put in the dates, check flights, select flight, check lodging, get lodging, check cars, get a car. Pull out credit card and pay for it all. Easy to plan. Oh those easy IFs, they haunt us. After I get back from Taos, I have 2.5 days back here in Molumbia, then I head to Philly to fly to the Philippines for my best friend's wedding. We started out playing ping-pong together at Millersville University over three decades ago. Since then we have been whopped around by the paddles of Providence, us ping-pong balls. I suppose my road has been harder, but who really can tell that in the end. Providence is a term used in Christian theology that speaks of God' s ultimate control over everything for His purposes. It differs from God's ethical will as expressed in the Ten Commandments which is known. Providence is instead u...

* My illustrious Craft Beer Christmas Tree. Could only work in a mid-brow neighborhood! A few years ago when going through the most recent shipwreck in my life (I have had a few) I wanted to swim away from the wreckage. To get the flock out my circumstances. Returning to my previous townhouse felt like defeat writ large. I was a second away from buying a townhome in Lancaster City for $185K. I could live in the city rather than the beat-up 'burbs where my current townhouse is situated. I'd be cosmopolitan, sort-of (as cosmopolitan as Lancaster can be). And, about a 100K poorer. As I looked at the contract from the real estate agent, I had an epiphany of sorts. Besides the upgrades in locale, appliances, and accouterments, my present townhouse and the townhouse to-be were essentially the same functionally. I liked the idea of living in the city but also worried that it would be easier to spend money wining and dining. I'd be a short walk-away from a lot of opportuniti...