Running to Keep Up

Doing our best to keep our heads above water

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Con-way Inc. (NYSE: CNW) today reported net income to common shareholders for the second quarter of 2009 of $31.5 million (after preferred stock dividends), or 64 cents per diluted share. The results compared to second-quarter 2008 net income to common shareholders (after preferred stock dividends) of $48.7 million, or $1.02 per diluted share. The 2008 second-quarter net income included a net gain from discontinued operations of 4 cents per diluted share.

...

Revenue in the 2009 second quarter was $1.06 billion, a decrease of 21.2 percent from last year's revenue of $1.34 billion. Operating income in the 2009 second quarter was $66.0 million, a decrease of 30.5 percent compared to $94.9 million earned in the second quarter a year ago.

...

Con-way Truckload continued to manage effectively through a difficult market for full-truckload services. "The volume of shipper bid activity moderated from what we saw in the first quarter but weak demand and over-capacity kept pricing under pressure," Stotlar noted. "Our truckload unit took steps in the quarter to right-size its fleet, selling 195 older tractors and aligning its resource base closer to market demand. Con-way Truckload remains well positioned as a premium service provider with sound operations, a loyal customer base and excellent cost controls."

...

TRUCKLOAD

For the second quarter of 2009, Con-way Truckload, the company's full-truckload transportation operation, reported:

-- Operating income of $6.9 million, a 44.7 percent decline from last
year's operating income of $12.4 million. Results included an asset
disposition loss of $2.5 million from the sale of 195 tractors as fleet
capacity was realigned for market conditions, and a $1.0 million
write-down related to the 2007 CFI acquisition.
-- Revenue of $89.8 million was down 34.6 percent compared to 2008 revenues
of $137.4 million. The quarterly revenue reflects the elimination of
inter-company revenues of $53.5 million in 2009 and $44.2 million in
2008. The truckload market continued to experience soft demand
exacerbated by excess capacity.
-- Operating ratio on revenue, before inter-company eliminations and
exclusive of fuel surcharges, was 94.7 compared to last year's
operating ratio of 90.6.

Like I said earlier in the month, "It ain't bad but it could be better."

Forty four point seven percent down feels like the end of the world some weeks but at least there is a paycheck coming in every week. The suits at my company are really trying hard to keep all the moving parts moving together and doing a remarkable job.

Many of my kind are simply out of work.

2nd UPDATE: UPS 2Q Income Dn 49%; Sees 3Q Earnings Below Views

And, there might be light at the end of the tunnel

Freight volume: Tough times may be receding

Jul 24, 2009 3:26 PM, By Sean Kilcarr, senior editor

Though the slump in freight volume is expected to continue for the rest of the year, many transportation providers believe the toughest stretch may now be in the rearview mirror. And if the downturn removes weaker competitors from the playing field, some companies believe that may open up opportunities for growth and market share gains. ...

Just a glimmer but light all the same.

Ozark, Alabama

Well, it 's been better but it's not bad for the Friday before July 4th. Everything basically shutdown at noon today as far as freight is concerned, so

we'll be here awhile. Such is trucking on holidays. Been here since nine Thursday night. Learning all there is to learn about Ozark.

View Larger Map

Here we remain at the intersection of US 231 and Jernigan Rd until the gods find freight. As I say, It's not bad but it's been better.

Dreaming on down the road

My friends, rj and Migs, seem to be in an introspective mode, so, I suppose I can join them along the path. Seems I dreamt all night or perhaps only an instant - who's to say, it is the dream I recall when I awoke - about rolling a ball across the floor to a seated infant whose back was to the wall. The infant who could crawl and stand but not walk without support was faceless, or perhaps not faceless, not some horror movie blank faced no nose, no mouth, no eyes infant but rather just an infant whose features I did not recognize. It seems from this narrative that it, the baby, was a boy doesn't it. Anyway, I would roll a ball to the baby from some short distance across the floor, I was I believed seated on the floor, open legged, facing the baby. The baby was seated in a similar pose, opened legged, towards me and propped up by the wall behind him. The ball would roll into the area between his legs near his crotch and he would bat the ball away, generally making the ball go back in my direction. The very last scene in the dream the baby bats the ball in a direction that requires that I get up to retrieve the ball and then I lob the ball back to him in the air and the baby catches the ball on the first bounce, stands up and walks the ball back to me. Bingo! Eyes open! Awake! That's it. You go figure and comment here. Yes, I will answer questions about the dream content and anything else you might want to ask that is related to the dream. Waiting outside Charlotte until Wednesday morning when delivery is scheduled to occur. Waiting here since yesterday. Trying to expedite delivery to today but it's JIT and likely I'll just have to wait it out.

I Believe

I Believe
an essay by George Henderson

I believe in the power of love, in the healing and redemptive power of love. I believe that we should love everyone as we love ourselves. And, that in that simple statement, the encouragement to love our neighbor as our self lies a huge puzzle that we can profitably work on all of our lives. The puzzle is this, in loving someone else we learn to love ourselves and we must love ourselves in order to love someone else. The idea can be summed up but not elucidated in the phrase, "the unforgiving are most often the unforgiven" or its corollary, "the unloved are most often the most unloving". Forgiveness and love are so tied together as to be nearly the same thing, one does not exist without the other. "What is love?", you might ask. Well, you'll know it when you feel it, my friend otherwise I will have to refer you to Dr Maslow and his ideas of "unconditional positive regard". Unconditional positive regard is a great idea but expressing that idea is sometimes tricky. Often times we will do what we consider to be a loving act and the object of our action, our beloved, will either not notice our action or misinterpret our actions and then the fun begins.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4, down toward the end, as I recall.

Love yourself fully so that you might love another as well as you love yourself and let another love you fully so that you might learn to love yourself fully.

Got it? OK, do it!

Waiting for delivery in Hammond until Tuesday

Sherry,

Thanks for this wonderful story. Here is the complete article from the Washington Post with the photo essay

Something About Harry

Old Dogs are the Best Dogs

By Gene Weingarten

Sunday, October 5, 2008; Page W16

Not long before his death, Harry and I headed out for a walk that proved eventful. He was nearly 13, old for a big dog. Walks were no longer the slap-happy Iditarods of his youth, frenzies of purposeless pulling in which we would cast ~read more~

Without your forwarding of the chain letter I would not have found the original and the wonderful photo essay. In my unkinder moments in the past I would have done a "reply all" to send this little note to everyone in the chain with a preface excoriating them all for not having the gumption to attribute the work correctly and leaving out the photo essay. I will give the chain letter author credit for having included the Washington Post reference at the bottom of his text, complete I might add with the apocryphal caveat about being reproduced by permission. Chain letter writers, the writers of mass forwardings, the old send your friends a Xerox or a clipping of a magazine article approach to correspondence, have good intentions but it is a kind of laziness that galls me still to this day. But, I have grown older, wiser and more loving so I restrict my efforts to replying to you. The photo essay is a gem and should get wider distribution and to that end I might, emphasis might, post this in some fashion on my blog with the vain hope that it would get out to a wider audience.

I'm going to call you now and if I get you on the way to church, well, good, I'll talk to you and if I don't get you, well, I suppose I'll stop dawdling and go take a shower.

I love you more than words can express and time will allow, but I can write and I do have the rest of my life so I press on with the main task at hand, Loving Sherry, The Last Dance.

Later with love,

George

Nothing works today!

From: George Henderson <xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.com>
Date: Mon, May 25, 2009 at 4:23 AM
Subject: INABILITY TO ACCESS ACCOUNT INFO AND MANIPULATE ACCOUNT ONLINE
To: NYRcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am extremely frustrated at the moment by the inability of your website to allow access to my account using correct account information.

Account Number:XXXXXXXXXX

Name:George Henderson

Address:Po Box xxxxxx,Clarksville,TN 37042,United States

E-mail:xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxx.com

I am essentially a mechanized mahoot, I live in my over the road truck for all practical purposes and my mail goes to a Postal Box as you can see from the information above.

I am getting ready to move and cannot change my address online this morning nor can I access my account information to confirm the billing information you have. Additionally, and most frustratingly, I cannot enter gift subscriptions for my son’s nor my nieces upcoming graduation gifts.

I have registered successfully for The Digital Reader which is a big plus in my particular situation.

I have attempted several times this morning to enter the gift subscriptions, rechecking and confirming all my address and credit card information each time. The system always responds with some cryptic message about “an error occurred in committing your order”

Unfortunately the following errors occurred:

• There was an error committing the order.

https://magazine.newyorker.com/ecom/subscribe.jsp?oppId=1100290&_requestid=8290161

with no direction as to what the specific error(s) might be.

Your prompt response to this email and your prompt resolution of these issues will be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

George M Henderson

P.S. Remember, everything you have now came to you on a truck.

There might be hope for the future

There might be hope for the future but it seems frought with difficulty and will be slow in coming

From The New Yorker

In Search Of Success

by Steve Coll

May 25, 2009

In Pakistan’s tribal regions, near the Afghan border, the United States deploys the armed flying robots known as Predator drones in attacks against Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. About a year ago, the United States began to acquire better intelligence regarding these terrorist groups. The recent accuracy of the attacks has caused Al Qaeda to murder suspected spies in self-defeating fits of paranoia, a trend that has disrupted the organization’s ability to plan attacks against the U.S. and its allies. General David Petraeus, the over-all American military commander in the region, told CNN, “Al Qaeda, in particular, has sustained some very serious losses over the course of the last six to ten months or so, and there is a considerable concern among those leaders because of the losses that they have sustained.”

It would be difficult for any President to set aside military analysis of this tenor; in any event, Obama has persisted with the Predator strikes at roughly the same rate as George W. Bush. There is no evidence, however, that the drone campaign has yet moved closer to Al Qaeda’s senior leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, or dismantled the group decisively; instead, the targeting still seems to be stuck in the middle of Al Qaeda’s leadership lists. Moreover, Pakistan’s government, although it apparently facilitates the drone attacks in private, finds it necessary to vocally oppose them in public, knowing how unpopular they are. Opportunism and hypocrisy hardly seem the foundation for a sustainable political-military partnership that breaks with the unhappy past.

There are some ideas in train that may truly be transformative. Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act, a bipartisan plan to provide Pakistan with $1.5 billion in annual nonmilitary aid, for at least five years. The legislation is intended to “mend a broken relationship with the Pakistani people,” as John Kerry, who co-sponsored the bill with Richard Lugar, put it. The bill has been well designed to support, for the first time in years, the long-term goal of rebalancing U.S. aid to strengthen pluralism and democracy in Pakistan. “Most Pakistanis feel that America has used and abandoned their country in the past,” Kerry noted. Indeed, most Afghans feel the same. Obama has inherited a toxic legacy; Congress, at least, could ease his burden.

Yes, it would be very nice if Congress began to work in earnest to ease Mr Obama's burden as well as the burden all the world bears from the toxic legacy of the Bush administration.

Inspiration

Friends ,and Loved Ones, Children and Grandchildren,

Gus Lloyd's blog Reflections is good his post today about the changes in the American Catholic Church as regards satisfying the obligation for the Feast of The Ascension is very informative.

Also, from a Protestant Evangelical perspective you might also be interested in Hank Hanegraaff

Hank Hanegraaff serves as president and chairman of the board of the North Carolina-based Christian Research Institute. He is also host of the Bible Answer Man radio program, which is broadcast daily across the United States and Canada—as well as around the world through the Internet at www.equip.org.

Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading Christian apologists, Hanegraaff is deeply committed to equipping Christians to be so familiar with truth that when counterfeits loom on the horizon, they recognize them instantaneously.

~read more~

Last Sunday, as we Catholics are aware from childhood, was the "Fifth Sunday After Easter", "The Fifth Sunday of Easter", or "The Fifth Sunday of Pacaltide" depending on which flavor of English you speak.

Recently, I have returned to a church to which I have a deep and long standing emotional attachment, St Michael's Houston, Texas, it is the building to be sure that I have the emotional attachment to and the Wicks organ. I have been going to Saint Mike's since it was built and I was there during the several days when the Wicks was installed.

Coming up this Sunday is Pentecost an important day in the Christian tradition. As much as the Western Protestants would like to object the liturgical calendar is still set by The Pope in Rome as far as I know and the best source I've found for the Christian liturgical calendar is The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wherein you will find Liturgical Calendar 2009 for the Dioceses of The United States of America. The USCCB also has an excellent page of documentation, Committee on Divine Worship, about the Catholic liturgy, if you're interested in such things.

Many of you, my children and grandchildren in particular, are of some faith, in some way, Epsicopalian or Protestant Evangelical, and one of you was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church in infancy. Some of you, my friends in particular are of no particular ostensible faith but still seem to have some sense of something beyond the senses, some measure of "the force" if nothing else that lies within human life and its various expressions in art and literature as well as social and political organizations.

I have had some extensive exposure to other philosophical traditions, in particular Zen Buddhism, and no less a person than His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama himself has encouraged me to continue in a spiritual tradition that is familiar to me, especially if that tradition and its training extend back into my preschool years. So, with the Dalai Lama's exhortation in mind I have begun to refamiliarize myself with my Catholic faith.

Pentecost is coming up this Sunday. No matter your faith, whether you have one or not, whether you have a little or alot, whether you can express your faith or lack of faith in words or hold it close to yourself in a nonverbal way, I encourage you strongly to at least read about the history and meaning of The Pentecost and perhaps consider the true meaning of the word inspiration and how it might apply to your life on a daily basis.

Inspiration

c.1303, "immediate influence of God or a god," especially that under which the holy books were written, from O.Fr. inspiration, from L.L. inspirationem (nom. inspiratio), from L. inspiratus, pp. of inspirare "inspire, inflame, blow into," from in-"in" + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). Inspire in this sense is c.1340, from O.Fr. enspirer, from L. inspirare, a loan-transl. of Gk. pnein in the Bible. General sense of "influence or animate with an idea or purpose" is from 1390. Inspirational is 1839 as "influenced by inspiration;" 1884 as "tending to inspire."

Quick definitions (inspiration)

▸ noun: arousing to a particular emotion or action
▸ noun: a product of your creative thinking and work ("He had little respect for the inspirations of other artists")
▸ noun: a sudden intuition as part of solving a problem
▸ noun: arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity
▸ noun: the act of inhaling; the drawing in of air (or other gases) as in breathing
▸ noun: (theology) a special influence of a divinity on the minds of human beings

From the Tent Maker, a few words worth thinking about, in my opinion, in this context, no matter how much you might not like the Tent Maker or his greater body of work, here he has, I think, something worthwhile

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

In My Own Words, By Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama XIV, Rajiv Mehrotra

The journey is the destination

And, from our old Hebrew brothers

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD and shun evil.
This will bring health to your body
and nourishment to your bones.

Well, I'm sure you've had enough by now. I can only encourage you to have some LORD in your life, some guiding principle verbalized or unverbalized, something you can be inspired by every waking moment.

Without competent and immediate medical intervention we are at any given time about six breaths and three heartbeats away from the next adventure.

Every breath is a gift, every beat of your heart is benevolence.

Be thankful, be inspired.

May the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as you trust in Him, so that You may overflow with Hope by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Amen! ~read more~

Love,

George

!-)

P.S. Yes, freight is slow. Sitting in Chicopee,MA waiting for a load since last night.

God does not call those who are ready but rather God makes ready those He calls.

www.qualityofthelight.blogspot.com

And now for something more positive

There maybe hope for those of us who know what to do now.

It's fire sale time again and there won't be an RTC. Ladies and Gentlemen get your licenses in order and your websites up and running.

Pascal Lamy, the director-general of the World Trade Organization, says,"My point is that retreating from market opening is not a solution to the economic crisis. For countries that depend on trade and have specialized according to comparative advantage, a reversal of openness will impose significant costs on the economy. What is more, setting up new barriers to trade will be seen as protectionism and will risk retaliation from trade partners. One country's exports are another country’s imports. Rather than reviving economies, the effect of this will be to worsen the global crisis."

~read more~

Mr Lamy seems to be dead on to me but as he says Washington seems to be a bit slow on processing and implementing ideas like his, but perhps slow is better than not moving along at all. There is always hope that things might pick up if they are at least moving in some way.

Where are we now?

'splain to me, Lucy, where are we now.

Does anyone know where we are now?

Last summer these guys knew where were and where we were going or thougt they did. Really, they really did. Does anyone really know now?

Slow Day

Zachary,LA - A slow day here.

Duhzn't get mo betta dan dis ma bruthers and sizters. No hit doan beez much mo betta.

Seven and a half hours from the area near the Bud brewery in Houston yesterday. Leaving at noon we arrived here in Zachary, read that far north Baton Rouge, at seven thirty last evening, a distance of two hundred eighty three miles. What rate of progress is that class? Only had to change clothes twice, once in Houston at the start and once in Zachary at the end. Did I mention the rain? We really do need to look into being able to raise the landing gear from the left seat. The load here seems to be canceled or at least has a severe SNAFU. My hotel and other travel arrangements for my niece's wedding in Charleston,SC on Saturday coming up are all in place along with my beautiful date for the event, the lovely Ms Bee Pee Oh. Beautiful woman Bee is, perhaps you've met her brother, Three. I should have been in Memphis by now.

Yas Sir, If dog farts wuz air I'd be N a Gotdamned hurricane bout now. Gawd! I just luvs de air here.

At least I've got Bee Pee Oh!

Anybody seen Three? Three, hey Man, we got to do a better job of getting these ducks in a row next time.

Everybody tried, the home office did a great job, the travel booking agents were superior and the shipper tried but sometimes ...

Three, yo dude, you got any double ought. Yeah, I know a bit heavy for ducks, but hey, if we hit'em they'll drop, right!