We got a drive-by from that cloud over by the Sandias.
Thanks to everyone who has dropped a dime in Charles Pelkey’s GoFundMe tip jar.
As of 8:30 a.m. Dog time the fund was approaching $18,000, which as organizer David Stanley notes represents “a phenomenal level of love, affection, and admiration” for our old Live Update Guy pal.
I’ve added a widget to the sidebar for anyone who missed the memo. And it was delightful to see so many former VeloNews types in the list of donors.
Meanwhile, here in The Duck! City this morning we got a wet little kiss on the cheek from the gods; just enough rain to rinse some dust off the cacti. Thank you, sir or madam, may I have another?
I expect Herself and her pal Leslie are glad they canceled their trip to Southern California, where the rain is washing away the dust, the cacti, the hillsides the cacti are rooted to, and damn nearly everything else. Especially since the FAA developed a hitch in its gitalong, an IT failure of some sort that buggered about 4,600 flights.
That’s a surfin’ safari you can keep, is what. Nobody likes this drought, but who wants to hang ten on their front door while rocketing down a diversion channel to the Rio Grande?
Tags: Charles Pelkey, Herself, Live Update Guy, rain, The Beach Boys
Mad Blog Media 
January 11, 2023 at 9:07 am |
Haven’t heard one traveling story this winter that had a happy ending. Lost luggage but found new bugs. What happens first: SouthWest finds your bags or you’ll finally stop hugging the porcelain thrown?
January 11, 2023 at 9:25 am |
No kidding. You can just see the gremlins giving your Samsonite the heave-ho out of the cargo hold somewhere over Death Valley as you argue with Ralph over the Big White Phone.
January 11, 2023 at 9:28 am |
Man, that last sentence is golden! What a riff!
I noticed Graham Watson on the donor list. My bedroom used to have two of his posters, framed of course, on the walls. There were his great pix of the Col du Galibier and Mont Ventoux. I’m glad Charles is getting a push on his back on the climb; hopefully he just went over the summit and can now descend back to good health.
January 11, 2023 at 11:05 am |
Yep, GW is on there, along with Casey B. Gibson, another stellar shooter for VeloNews in the good ol’ days. Lots of contributors from the Inside Communications era, before the op’ got passed around like a drunk packer at a Hells Angels rally. Nice to see so many familiar faces.
January 11, 2023 at 11:46 am |
Gary Fisher tinkled the jar as well.
January 11, 2023 at 12:05 pm |
Charles and I went looking for Gary Fisher one year at Interbike, wrapped in hotel-room sheets and looking like religious pilgrims. When we found him, we genuflected repeatedly whilst chanting, “O Mighty Fish … O Mighty Fish. …”
January 11, 2023 at 3:14 pm |
Bonnie Ford was first name that caught my eye. Real knows real.
January 11, 2023 at 9:39 am |
I penned a get well wish to his law practice site, but no word back. Scary.
January 11, 2023 at 11:06 am |
K, I don’t think Charles is working much, if at all, so I expect everyone else is really having to hustle to keep up. Correspondence that doesn’t dollar up by the hour may go unanswered for a spell, is my guess.
January 11, 2023 at 10:02 am |
Crap. He’s a good guy. I know it says they have insurance but it just makes me mad, the general health care in this country. Well, we give a little and hope for the best for him. I enjoyed Live Update Guy.
January 11, 2023 at 11:13 am |
Doesn’t take much to put you in the hurt locker once you have a serious ailment, or more than one. Or even if you just plain get old. I won’t tell you what it cost to keep my mom in an Alzheimer’s unit in Bibleburg, or Herself’s mom in assisted living in The Duck! City.
I keep reminding Herself, “A box of .38 Special costs about $35, and you probably won’t need ’em all, unless I can still run.”
January 11, 2023 at 11:56 am |
Yeah, but I would prefer my better half to use the 357 Magnum factory loads. You do want to be sure that it ends quickly.
January 11, 2023 at 12:07 pm |
True, there might be some false economy involved in going with the .38 over the .357. But I probably won’t be able to run much by then — hell, I can barely run now. Herself can just sneak up behind me and give me one last little love tap in the back of the noggin.
January 11, 2023 at 3:07 pm |
Geez Louise you guys! No such end for us. At about 95 trips around the sun, the three of us will return to the ranchito after a hike or ride, walk into the garage, and fall apart. Kinda like this.
January 11, 2023 at 4:58 pm |
One of my favorite movies!
January 11, 2023 at 3:24 pm |
Burying my dad next week on the VA’s dime, after 8-9 years in a VA nursing home (also Alzheimer’s). There’s definitely something to say for that socialist military lifestyle. You don’t make a lot when you’re in, but you can dodge a whole lotta bill collectors the rest of the way.
January 11, 2023 at 4:35 pm |
I’m sorry to hear about your dad’s passing … though with Alzheimer’s you do reach a point where you feel it’s more of a release from prison. What a hellish disease. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, and I’ve wished some pretty vile shit on some pretty nasty people.
One of the most amazing Alzheimer’s stories I know involves my old pal and VN editor Tim Johnson. He was diagnosed with the early-onset version, and his wife, Stacie, managed to keep him at home for nearly all of the decade it took to finally send him west at age 63. That woman is a saint.
January 11, 2023 at 6:54 pm
It is rough. Both the afflicted and the caregiver. Saint? I would prefer a free two hours of sunny weather and a beer afterward. I only hope that in the end they may know that I cared. In the mean time, to all those who can and have the opportunity, fuck the bullshit and politics for a while and just go out and ride, run, walk, hike, etc. and smile.
January 11, 2023 at 8:59 pm
Chipping around, kick my brains on the floor.
These are the days it never rains but it pours.
It’s the terror of knowing what this world is about.
Watching some good friends scream, Let me out!
January 11, 2023 at 9:00 pm
Thanks, Boss.
January 11, 2023 at 1:41 pm |
Not that anyone reads my blog, but worth a try.
http://labikes.blogspot.com/2023/01/charles-pelkey-needs-little-help.html
January 11, 2023 at 1:50 pm |
Gracias, señor. Every little bit helps. Ours is a fairly small corner of the world, even of the cycling world, but look at what David has been able to do in short order with that GoFundMe. Jacquie Phelan has had one going for quite a while now to help her care for Charlie Cunningham, who took that awful digger several years ago.
In a perfect world we wouldn’t have to crowdsource stuff like this. But it ain’t a perfect world. Happily, there are still people who are willing and even eager to lend a hand where one is needed.