May 13, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

 I have a rather large collection of books. Kind of goes with being someone who started reading at a very young age and a genetic makeup that is part “pack rat”. Do I have books! It would really be a serious problem if I did not go through a process of culling out the ones that are not “worthy” of being on the shelf, or the habit that I have of “sharing” some of the better ones with friends. 

Last week I was looking at the book shelves in my office, considering what should stay and what should go. Part of the criteria is the question; “Is the book still relevant? Is the material or ideas in the book still relevant to today?” If the answer is no, then the book goes off into a box and sent over to the local thrift store.

May 1, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

In the wee hours of the morning I got to sit for a few hours at the Amtrak station in downtown Cleveland, Ohio last Thursday. It was quiet, a steady noise of the big wind turbine that is up by the Science center, punctuated by the passing of many freight trains on the Norfolk Southern main line (the old New York Central “Water Level Route”).

As the freight trains passed in both directions, I noticed three consistent characteristics of the trains. They were short. They had only one or two locomotives (3:1 one locomotive). Finally, the trains were mostly empty. 

It kind of struck me odd as I sat there and noticed these three “trends” in the 2 hours that I watched by my count almost 20 trains pass by. The NS route is not th...Read More

April 30, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Could you drive better with that phone…

I ride a motorcycle. I own several, but ride only one at a time. And I ride a lot. A “slow” year is one that I don’t ride more than 10,000 miles.

I ride both short distances and long distances. I have been riding for a long time, over 25 years. I have had a few accidents in that time. I raced for a while, and you will have more than one “close encounter with the asphalt” if you race. I have also had two on the roads accidents where I lost traction and had the rear of the bike “step out” from under me.

I have had a few close calls with other vehicles. Most of the encounters in recent years has been bec...Read More

April 15, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

I stopped by the Post Office yesterday to pick up my mail. It was a busy place, not an empty parking space to be found. Most times there are only 4 or 5 cars in the lot. My first thought was that they were giving away postage. Then I remembered that today is tax deadline day and that everyone was rushing to get their taxes into the mail. The lines were long and people were grumbling, unhappy about the wait and unhappy about paying taxes.

I remember my accountant telling me as we reviewed my tax return that my “effective” tax rate was 21%. For every $100 that I earned the federal government got to take $21. But that is not the whole bite, which is only the income tax bite. There are all sorts of other taxes that we pay that are bites from our income AND additions ...Read More

April 2, 2008 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

It is the afternoon of April 2. I woke up yesterday to the sound of Class 8 trucks on the turnpike. I went to bed with the sound of Class 8 trucks on the turnpike. Scale houses were just as busy this Tuesday as they were last Tuesday.

Yesterday was the big date of the “Shutdown”, by independent Owner / Operators. While there were reports of protests, like at the Port of Tampa, and the blockage on the New Jersey Turnpike around Newark, the nation’s transportation system moved like it normally does.

Not that the effort by the O/O’s was a wasted effort. They did get more press with this shutdown than they did with the ones in the past. They did get some pandering mention from a presidential hopeful in a speech to a union (but t...Read More