Steve Fernlund and The Long Way Home

While moving eight to ten inches of what I hope is the last big winter storm of the season I found myself pondering some of the economic and life lessons I keep bumping up against. Nothing like the routine of filling a sleigh shovel and sliding it to the side of the drive to open up the mind for pondering. My mother-in-law was widowed quite young, and she chose George Guthrie when she married again a few years later. George, unlike me, was an educated man. He held an MBA and had spent his working years with Soo Line Railroad as its Director of Corporate Planning. His experience with strategy and accounting was most helpful when I ran for the Minnesota Legislature.  George was not the most sociable of chaps, but he found me brilliant and shared lots of good stuff with me whenever we were together.. He told me that transportation leads to development. Most every major city developed on a port or near the confluence of two or more rivers. Transportation. To connect those cities, railr...

 My dad was a salesman, by profession and demeanor. Probably more Willy Loman than Tony Robbins, but he got the job done. Dad taught me many things. Drinking coffee (with milk and sugar) in the mornings with him and Uncle Kenny at the kitchen table before slogging off to school. How to smoke at the same table. And how to drink. Three habits with me still.  He also advised me, being the salesman he was, “Do not ever try to bull***t a bull***ter.” In “the freight business” we are often called upon to make excuses for why a truck was late. We joked about having a list of excuses for when a customer called to find out where the truck was we could refer them to number 8, or 64, or number 135 on the list.  I once worked for a company that provided transportation for a major frozen food company. Food companies are sensitive about timely and safe movement of their products. If you know the corporate world, this one had a protocol we followed if there were exceptions to planned sc...

Six young bowlers will represent the Silver Bowl bowling alley in the Pepsi State Bowling Tournament next month. The tournament is scheduled for May 5-7 at Drkula’s 32 Bowl in Inver Grove Heights. The six bowlers came out of the 22 participants in junior leagues at the Silver Bay bowling alley this year. Competing in the state tournament this year is Keenan Fischer, the reigning state champion in the under 8 age category. Also competing are Ellis Goutermont, Emsley Fischer, Brielle Fischer, Gabriel Russell, and Donnie Melander. Each of these young people finished first or second in their class at district level tournaments held last month. “This was a record year for participants in our youth leagues,” said Silver Bowl owner Logan Fischer. “We went from nine kids last year to 22 this year.” He added that Silver Bowl is the only public bowling alley between Thunder Bay and Duluth and from Lake Superior to Virginia. Logan and his wife Joleen acquired the bowling alley nine years ago. The...

This long winter saw a spike in complaints on social media about small package deliveries lost or misdelivered. Many complained about packages being left on snow banks by the road, some where the house was actually in view and accessible--by foot or wheels.  I was a bit entertained by the complaints, I’ll admit. The arrowhead is a very remote area that presents many challenges for what is euphemistically known as last mile delivery in the logistics world. We live in a country where package delivery is a large industry led by United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx). My brother in law points out that if the two package delivery behemoths were to merge they’d be known as Fed Ups. Last week I became another who went to social media and complained about a package left on our driveway, near the fire number, about 600 feet from our porch. Admittedly the drive weaves in places and the house is not visible from that spot. You might remember we had a final (I hope) winter sto...