One Sunday evening this past May I received a very rewarding phone call from a long-time friend and colleague, Mike Hedlesky. For almost a year Mike has been managing the construction of my log lodge, so we have frequent phone conversations. But this phone call was different. Before giving me a progress report, Mike thanked me for possibly saving his life. Then he told me about his freak bicycle crash earlier that day.
He was traveling about 25 miles per hour when the rear wheel broke away from the frame. Mike sailed over the handle bars and hit the road head first. It happened so fast that he didn't even have time to put his hands forward to break his fall. Mike's face was painfully bruised, but imagine how serious his injuries might have been if he had not been wearing a bicycle helmet. Mike claimed that he put the helmet on that day because of me - thus the reason for the "thank you."