Post Gordon ~ Thoughts, Commentary & Reflections

Just learned we lost Pete Seeger. I recall a flat, round stage in Minneapolis with no props other than a single, wooden stool at center stage, a lanky tall, relaxed, friendly singer, no theatrics, a single vibe--warmth. Theater-in-the-round so the stage was below and completely circled by the audience.

Even then an older man with banjo and guitar, if I recall. I do remember it as magical, just magical. 'Little boxes...'

 

HTLD Continues to Impress

HTLD stock continues to impress while the market has repeatedly taken it in the shorts. Yes, HTLD closed yesterday $20.21, down 85 cents--while the Dow dropped over 300 points--AGAIN! Market watchers cite slowing in Asia, China specifically. Oddly, little mention is made of the Fed reducing $10 billion in its artificial monthly bond buying that has helped prop up the economy and it's new (first female) chairwoman, Janet Yellen, who favors Fed bond buys.

2014 has not been nice to the stock market, yet HTLD has held into a $20-$22 price range, well above the initial target range of $17-$19 after the acquisition that took place at $14.37. These drops in the markets should have stirred the fear that when you have a market taking big hits like this, it's like the smaller shocks that portend a really bigger earthquake. Should the market take a huge hit, we're then in the proverbial double-dip recession, not the long, slow climb out we think we are still in.

On the one hand the Fed is under great pressure to stop buying billions and billions of dollars in bonds each month (now $75 billion monthly, down from $85 billion monthly). On the other hand the Fed will be under great pressure to keep the economy strong through the 2014 and even 2016 elections. Either way the stubborn resilience of HTLD stock impresses.

What does this mean to a driver? The market seems (to me) to say that with its transportations of staples to the Wally World, HTLD at its core is not much at risk. HTLD hauls commodities that the population as a whole needs on a daily basis, like toilet paper, and that's not likely to change. When ya gotta go, ya gotta wipe.

In a 'normal' economy the Fed doesn't buy $75 or $85 billion in bonds each month. But in any economy you've gotta poop. There doesn't seem to be even a hint, so much as a ripple that HTLD has any problem as it absorbs GTI, python-like. As for China, I'll believe there's slowing in China when the price for car bodies and short steel drops, currently $240-$250 ton for car bodies and $280-$295 for short steel in my part of Indiana.

 

Water Trucks

So I'm still angling to buy a water truck for summer work. The gal I want to buy from is in Florida for the winter so yesterday I pulled into my driveway and stayed there to call her. A while back she offered to sell me a day cab, which I passed on because she had sold the tanker it pulled. Last time we spoke, for the first time, she allowed that she might look into how much she has in one of her trucks that will need repairs. Now that's a possible...

Buy the truck she would have to put $$ in and she goes from $$ out to $$ in on that truck. At least in concept it could have legs. But before we get to any specifics, I look up and see a Swift dead in the road with his four-ways on.

I live on what is considered locally as a major hill on a US Hwy (nothing compared to the big hills in the West but a blind curve at bottom and another at top) and wrecks are common. I got quickly off the phone and saw a young, black guy at the wheel. Looked like he just lost speed or missed a gear but the situation was very hazardous.

Uphill traffic comes around a blind curve from single lane into two lanes where traffic with the horse and experience of the hill clambers for that left lane--guess where Swift was. Right! In the left lane. Would they notice a semi at a dead stop? Soon enough?

I wouldn't wait to find out. Hurried out behind Swift and began pointing traffic to the right lane, fully exposed and just about no escape on foot from downhill traffic or uphill traffic. Finally he got slowly moving again, then repeatedly tooted thanks. He probably has no idea how dangerous that situation could have become. All's well...

 

Snow-Stranded Traffic on Dean Hill

After the incident with Swift halted on the highway in front of my place yesterday I wasn't expecting anything like that today--until a FedEx set of doubles came to a halt in the snow and ice late this afternoon. Usually this hill gets plowed, sanded and salted before anywhere else. So it surprised me. Eventually a heavy dually with four-wheel drive helped pull FedEx up the hill. Another young driver. Very wide-eyed.

Told him if he shifted up into a higher range and let the wheels spin, they'd chew through the ice and then he'd make progress. I've done it. Works. Hauling mail from Bloomington, Indiana to Cincy and back five nights a week. The only time we'd stop if they closed the road--and they never did.

What a mess! A Honda CRV with too-bald tires could make it not quite up to my drive. We ended up spinning it around and backing it into my drive where it will sit until we get through this. They hitched a ride home with a fellow who stopped by. I made several calls to 911, that we needed sand but it took until about an hour ago for a plow to arrive. I heard a salt truck was waiting at the top of the hill. Why? I pushed a car from Fort Wayne as far as I could and then a box truck pulled her through.

I forget the name of the last semi the four-wheel drive dually assisted. My long bed F350 is two wheel drive so I wasn't even thinking about trying to help with that. At one point I went out with a shovel but found the ground too frozen to pull up any sand--despite that my whole property is glacial sand.

Snow wasn't all that deep. Just ice underneath.

One casualty: Dogs ate my popcorn while I was out there.