Silver linings

Just when you think things couldn't get much worse, you happen across a few little things that restore at least a glimmer of hope. Yeah, there's still a moron in the White House. Yeah, our fellow cyclists are getting run down by cars every week. Yeah, the quagmire in Iraq is an unending nightmare with no hope in sight. But hey, gas prices are still climbing and more commuters are finally getting it: A bike can carry you to work!

And you there's no need to feel like a pervert when you get turned on by chicks who flash a little road rash, because it happens to Bob Roll, too! (Sorry, photo link deleted.) That's Becky Broeder's leg the Bobke is servicing, by the way.

And then -- AND THEN -- some doctor turns around and says something along the lines of, "Uh, hey, maybe you're paying me too much. How about giving more to the nurses?" OK, so his future of hanging out with other doctors is shot to shit. It was still a cool thing to do. So he'll be a pariah and won't be welcome to spend every Tuesday for the rest of his life playing golf. There's always Doctors Without Borders.

Speaking of doctors, a couple of years ago, my friend Carlin "Buckwheat" Donahue suffered heart failure while visiting Juneau. All of us who care about Buckwheat are damn glad he was in Juneau because if he'd been at home in Skagway at the time, he might not be with us today.

After two years of getting his heart in better shape, he recently started walking across North America as a way of raising money to improve the clinic in Skagway so that when the same thing happens to a neighbor, the right technology will be available to save a life. Buckwheat's walking from Florida to the Yukon River, then floating down the Yukon to Nome before flying back to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, to walk the final miles home. Read a wonderful story about him here (click on "The Long Road Home") and, if you can, send in a few bucks to help the cause. Tell 'em Bicycles and Icicles sent ya. Skagway is a town full of good folks and they're worth it.