Update on Danny 11-30-09

Danny will have surgery tomorrow morning to repair the 2 broken bones in his left forearm - 2 plates & screws will be inserted through 2 incisions. We spent all day today either at doctors' offices or the pharmacy. The neurologist says he has postconcussive syndrome - symptoms include headaches, dizzyness, fatigue, occasional blurred vision, nausea, etc., which can last from weeks to months. He has been asleep probably 80% of the time since last Wednesday. The neurologist cleared him to go under general anesthesia for his surgery in the morning. Thank you for your love and support! I'm sure Danny would love to hear from you later in the week...

Danny's crash

Danny crashed on his dirt bike during practice in Fort Worth on Wed...ambulance to JPS Hospital in FW... concussion, 2 broken bones in left forearm...CT scans.... 5 grown men trying to hold Danny down while they tried to "set" the broken bones before casting...another CT scan... all 3 of us overnight at hospital...vital signs and blood drawn every couple of hours...asking questions to determine his memory/cognitive abilities...morphine...next night - 2am MRI to make sure his tiny hemorrhage hadn't worsened...futile calls to Blue Cross Blue Shield...decision made to postpone arm surgery until early this week...discharged from hospital Friday...trying to manage pain without using highly addictive pain killers... lots and lots of sleeping... little appetite...sitting on a lawnchair in the shower to get cleaned up...a very long, very scary Thanksgiving weekend. SO thankful his injuries weren't even worse. Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers and calls!

November!

How can it possibly be November already?! I wanted to say how proud I am of Danny. He was in the first race of the new TORO series, had a great hole shot start, and was riding well when another racer had a bad crash on a downhill part of the track that made him nearly invisible to approaching racers. Danny stopped his race to go help him and to flag down approaching racers to keep them from hitting the downed rider. Gong Gong and Pop Pop just returned from a trip to Arkansas & Oklahoma to see the autumn color. Papa C will be getting a Mustang this weekend to begin rebuilding. Kevin & Rachel went to a Halloween party dressed as "Where's Waldo?" and "A 70's Chick".

Beautiful Morning Light

The light this morning was surreal and beautiful. The western sky was filled with strange dark heavy clouds, and the eastern sky was bright and sunny, after many days of rain. The resulting light was amazing. This photo is SOOC (straight out of camera), with no Photoshop adjustments. Sure was hard to put the camera away and go inside to work at 8:30 this morning!

Fall is Here!

It is pure bliss to finally experience temps in the 50s after a long, hot summer!!! Mom and I shopped at Watters Edge in Allen on Saturday, and Mom wished she had worn her winter gloves. What a lovely shopping area! Even has a Sample House, a shop that I could spend hours in, and a Swoozie's, Charming Charlie's, Chico's, Cheesecake Factory... Made a huge pot of taco soup, and watch the UT football game last night. Today was the Vinson family reunion, so got to catch up with everyone. Listened to the Cowboys on the radio on the way home -- it's a good thing they found a way to win this one, or Coach Wade might have been updating his resume. Anyway, it's wonderful to have autumn weather!!!

Good Intentions

I really do have good intentions to finish editing my NYC photos, and posting some more, but my allergies called me to take a short (?) nap today, so I still have more to work on. My niece Shannon and I had lunch together at Cafe Express at the Shops at Legacy today, and had fun chatting. I had the most delicious spinach & penne pasta salad with lemon olive oil dressing; I might have to attempt to make it at home. It was only in the 60s today, hallelujah; the season to make homemade soups. Off to bed...

TMS

Last Sat. at Texas Motor Speedway's "Laps for Charity" event was so much fun! Andrew, James, Maridelle and Missy drove Papa C's 1969 pace car Camaro 3 laps around TMS, Shannon and Kelley drove Shannon's Mustang, and Jeremy and Mike drove Jeremy's Mustang. Papa C built the Camaro from scratch, starting many years ago with nothing but a rusted car body (whatever that thing is called!) Everyone came over after for sandwiches and cherry cheesecake. A fun night!