Shutting Down

I know a few of you still look in on this blog from time to time although I haven't written anything in several months. Thanks for checking in. I started this as a means to a more mentally disciplined life, not to acquire any sort of following - but I appreciate the kind words and the positive feedback.

My employer of the last 12 years is closing its door this Friday. Ronnie Dowdy Inc. has suffered through some tumultuous changes in the trucking industry and in our economy, and has adapted and survived up until now. However, the restrictive nature of bank lending has made it impossible to continue doing business.

I cleaned out my truck yesterday, but not before already receiving two solid job offers - and over the next several days I am sure I will receive several more. So I am not terribly concerned about finding employment. The hard thing for me is turning loose of what has become for me and for many a family.

When I stumbled into the recruiting office at Dowdy twelve years ago today (!) I was close to the end of my rope. Through my own blunders I was living life east of Eden, desperate to find a connection and become a part of something bigger than myself. That bill is filled in the lives of persons in many ways, some healthier and more constructive than others, but for me it was this motley cast of characters in Batesville.

And it is clear that places like this are becoming fewer and fewer, and more and more far between. As the middle class dissipates, so do the family businesses that made up so much of its soul and its life. In the niche that I have occupied the last few years, in is clear that the days of the hard-charging, smokey-dodging 'outlaw trucker' are gone, replaced by electronic monitoring, ridiculously low mileages, huge companies with 2000+ trucks, and, hence, a wage that is often at or only slightly above poverty levels. Some laud this as a great advance in public and highway safety. I don't want to argue about it - but that is patently absurd.

Well, at least your lettuce is still green and your chicken is still fresh and you get pretty good fruit nearly year round. That hasn't been a happy accident.