Danno's Down But Still Up

Spent a lot of time visiting with Danno yesterday. Visiting hours didn't start until noon, so of course we went in well before that. Received a few looks from the hospital staff, but they were pretty good natured about it. (Even the nurses in the elevator, when Matt (good naturedly) called me out for smuggling kahlua in.)

Despite the pain he's in, Danno's still crackin' jokes. Every time we laugh, he chuckles and then immediately winces in pain and says not to make him laugh. And then he says something funny again. Wish he'd make up his mind.

After a while, Me, Matt and Chris M. took a break from the visiting thing and headed over to the tow yard whereDanno's bike was taken. The front end was stuffed in, as expected.


Also as expected; the rest of the bike was pretty intact. Including the nice new pipes Danno had just put on. Hope he's got receipts.

Danno obviously had tightened his grip on the bars as soon as the car appeared in front of him. They were bent over forwards, as you can see in the next pic. (I kinda liked the Indian Larry thing that happened to his clutch lever when the bike came down...)

We then headed back over to see the man and show him the pics. As expected (a lot of expectations today), he was not keen on seeing his bike in such a state. The downtubes are bent in, and speaking as someone who has just gone through the whole 'frame damage' thing, I assured him the bike would be totaled. (I'm big on cheering people up when they're laying immobile in the hospital.)

Folks have been asking what happened. While I wasn't there, the picture has been described in good detail. The group was heading East on 106 (one lane of traffic). Traffic on the westbound side (one lane) was stopped. On the westbound side of 106 is a shopping plaza. On the eastbound side (directly across), is a bank. A lady was looking to exit the shopping plaza and go to the bank - and needed to cross directly across both lanes of traffic. As mentioned; the west bound side was stopped. So the lady in the parking lot shot out across both lanes without checking that the east bound lane was clear. It was not. Danno was there. And then he wasn't.

Back to the visiting/recovering thing; his ability to go home rests on whether he can walk or not. He was unable to yesterday, so he'd earned himself another night in the sick ward. Hopefully he'll be doing better today and can move to the more comfortable setting of being with his family in his home.

Send him and his family some thoughts. They could use 'em.