January 12th, 2011 by Conor

Danny and I go way way back as friends, in fact, I think he was my first high school crush. Back when he was a little pretty boy with a clean cut haircut and a baby face which he of course still has and probably will always possess. It’s funny to look back and think that I was intimidated by Danny, when now I make fun of him, for any reason at all. I remember my first FliGi sweatshirt (which of course I still have), and partying at SNHU one halloween. Danny always has the most creative costumes.
My first memories of Danny are just as great as my latest ones. Before Danny left the valley to go back out west, I got the pleasure of “shredding” NoCo’s finest with him. The one and only Cranny. We got to joke about how “gnarly” the park is, and laugh at one piece suits and jeans. I think Danny said once, “This must be denim day” and we all laughed hysterically. We had more time to laugh, and less time to ride because the lines were so long. Now I cherish those long lines, and that short time we had to catch up.
Danny is loved by soo many people, and it is great to see the support first hand on this site. It is always a hard task displaying your feelings when a loved one has been hurt. I think about you everyday Danny, and I pray to a God that I don’t necessarily believe in, to help you heal. Get better so we can all really brag about how much “Danny is the bomb”.
Give us your contagious laugh once again.

Love, aLanz

PS. Conor – You are an amazing person, and we all appreciate what you are doing. Michelle – I don’t know you personally, but you seem to care about Danny incredibly. Danny will be so happy to see you two when he wakes up.

January 12th, 2011 by Conor

Lots of love from the McClare family.

January 12th, 2011 by Conor

Went around with a couple of guys and took a few photos for Danny. Been reading dannyisthebomb everyday. There’s a bunch of us over here in the Stan that send our regards and are hoping for the best.

~Joe Carroll

January 12th, 2011 by Conor

I met Danny at Mt Hood this summer. I knew he was a good dude from the moment he I met him. Super friendly and charismatic among many other admirable traits. He was the only dude (camper, digger, pro) I met that week who could throw down on the beirut table. He attributed that to his east coast roots. After a great week at Hood I was stoked that Danny and Moss would both be in Tahoe this winter. Opening day at Squaw finally came around and the first lift of the season i rode up with Danny and Moss as it was dumping champagne pow. I was super excited to finally have some amazing snowboarders and great people to ride with this season. Being from SF i only get to ride on the weekends and a few additional days here and there so i was pumped that the Shreddy Times guys came out on the weekends to ride. I was honored when i made the Shredit #2 as i never thought I’d be in an edit with a rider like Danny. His trick selection and style is so captivating and motivating. I’d anxiously await the next Shreddy Times edit to see what new cool creative riding ensued. I’m now anxiously awaiting when this will all be over and everyone can have Danny back!

Grant

January 12th, 2011 by Conor

Danny, when are YOU going to give me something to write about? I am dying to tell the whole word that you opened your eyes. I really can’t wait to tell people that you are leaving the ICU. Michelle, me, mom and dad are getting a little too used to the 5th floor. It’s time for a change, but, unfortunately, that will not happen without your help.

Although I don’t think it is time for a whole awareness movement quite yet I am really looking forward to taking on the topic of helmets. Moss wrote a great Words piece and I am excited about the thoughts that it already provoked. It’s important for people to understand how much of an accident this really was. This could have happened to just about any snowboarder. Why Danny? I will never know.

Michelle is super stoked that her hat sold last night. I had to actually remind her a little while ago that despite her new entrepreneurial drive that I thought her time was better spent holding Dannys hand. Her efforts are awesome and I am excited by her ambition.

They just repositioned Danny because his ICP has been all over the place. From where I am sitting I now have a direct view of the whole right side of Danny’s skull. The white tape forms a huge backwords question mark on his head. I can’t believe they actually took part of his skull out from behind his skin. It’s hard to imagine that I could poke his brain by just touching his skin. I think Ill pass, for his sake and mine.

Danny’s ICP somehow just hit 63. I’m not a nurse or doctor but at this point you could call me a casual enthusiast – mostly out of necessity. 63 is reallllly high. Highest we have seen yet.

I’m tired of Pandora asking me if “I’m still Listening.” Please redesign your code to recognize movement in the keyboard and mouse. I am in fact “Still Listening!”

Today Michelle and I explored for the first time since Moss, Iris and Mayo left. We went to Target and a gym, both within walking distance. The gym thinks that Michelle and I are a couple and wants to charge us an enrollment fee. I can’t stand enrollment fees. Honestly, what does that really pay for? Entering my name in the computer? Can someone out there please help me understand this horrible thing.

Alright Danny I gotta make it back to the hotel before the sun comes up. Night dood. Love you!

~Conor

January 12th, 2011 by Conor

It’s 4:58 AM. I’m working on my fourth hat and thinking about life. His ICP is back to normal. The nurses have found that he is pressure is the lowest in the most awkward positions. His head slightly tilted back or too far forward, it looks uncomfortable. This afternoon I was around for the cleaning of Danny’s tracheostomy. It was the first time I had seen this done. I figured by now (besides the suppository), I had seen just about everything that was routine with him. I can’t even imagine what it must feel like to be so sedated and partially paralyzed (it had been a while since he had any paralytic), but having to cough. Watching him, obviously uncomfortable, was much harder than I thought. I held his hand through the procedure and felt faint. I’ve watched him go through so much in the past week. This is hard. The reality of all this is too much to wrap my head around. Taking this one day at a time. I want Danny back.

-Michelle

January 12th, 2011 by Conor

The Bomb Band is here! Well, kind of. They are going to take 7 days to process and then another days to ship. We are estimating that they will ship on January 26th. The bracelets are $10 and that includes shipping. Thank you to Alyssa Hussey for getting that ball rolling on those. These things are probably gonna be more popular than the Livestrong bands so make sure you get in early so you can say you had one first!

$10

Sizes

Small 7" (Women) $10.00Large 8" (Men) $10.00

January 12th, 2011 by Conor

It’s 1:57 AM. Today has been the smoothest day thus far. Danny’s ICP has been at an all time low (a good thing) until about an hour ago and it started to fluctuate. The numbers go up, the numbers go down. After about ten minutes of trying to figure it out, repositioning Danny and watching the number do it’s thing, Danny is finally comfortable…as comfortable as you can be in his state. Today a lady walked in that I’ve seen a couple of times. She likes to check in on his progress. Danny is a celebrity here. She asked me how he was doing and I replied, “He hasn’t had any paralytics since four o’clock. His ICP is stable. He shudders at times, but it hasn’t effected the pressure. They’ve increased his morphine and gave him a little something to get his gut going. Today has been mellow.” She gave me a surprised look and said, “you should be a nurse someday.” When you spend this much time in the ICU with Danny, you begin to feel like a nurse.

-Michelle

January 11th, 2011 by Conor

In between holding Dannys hand and sleeping Michelle continues to make hats. She just finished her second one. The last one sold in just 6 hours!

These hats are being made with lots of love while she watches over Danny. Ships quickly and makes for awesome pro ski/snowboard type gift. These hats are one of a kind and we love Michelle for making them! Michelle is also the Bomb!

This is her second hat. It is Gray.

Pics are from the cell again. Just like last time I will get the good camera out if necessary but this hats are much better than they look on my phone.

$100 and it’s all yours!

!!!!SOLD!!!!

January 11th, 2011 by Conor

Facebook Is A Beautiful Thing:

I never really knew Danny growing up, I probably should’ve – we were both Kennett teacher’s kids (Ellen and my dad taught together), he was my brother’s age, I knew Conor from band and, unfortunately, Senior Slave Day but that was it. I went on to pretty much loose whatever touch I had had with the Toumarkines’ after high school… and then along came Facebook. You can say what you’d like about it, but no matter your feelings on exposing information to the world, in my opinion, it’s a good thing, strike that, an amazing thing and the sole reason I reconnected with such an amazing family.

Almost two years ago now, I attended the Outdoor Retail Trade Show in Salt Lake with the company I work for and had the opportunity to meet some pretty cool people. A few of which had started a gear company that year, but we’ll get to that in a bit. A week or so later Conor posted a sponsorship video of Danny. I knew that Danny had been into snowboarding but, damn, he was good! I think I must have watched that video 3 or 4 times and lets face it I like skiing and riding but ‘d never really been all that into watching video of it. Danny’s riding style was mesmerizing. I found myself feeling proud of this kid I indirectly-sort-of-didn’t-know, he was talented and from the same place I grew up! I figured the least I could do was try to help him out. I messaged Conor and gave him the names of the contact I had made in Salt Lake, in hopes that they may be interested in sponsoring Danny.

I didn’t hear back from Conor, mind you I’d never asked him to respond after the initial, ‘Thanks for the look’ response, so I assumed that the start up company hadn’t been interested. They were small after all and who knew what their sponsorship budget was, or if there was one. I chalked it up to ‘it was worth a shot’ and pretty much forgot about the whole thing.

Fast forward to that fall, I run into Conor and company (one thing I have learned about the Toumarkine boys is there is always ‘company’, magnetic personalities are followed and they are no exception to this rule). Conor and I chit chatted a bit and I found out that the small gear company had picked Danny up as a rider and Danny was actually doing a little work for them too. Too fun! I love networking and helping people out in general so seeing that this had actually worked out made me smile.

I continued to hang out with Conor that fall and early winter and thereby Danny as well. Danny always had a smile for me or a sticker or some such thing that made me feel welcome even if we really didn’t know each other all that well. An especially memorable instance came one weekend just a few weeks before Conor and Danny made their trek back to Tahoe. The aforementioned gear company happened to make an appearance in town, I went over to say hi and reintroduce myself to them and hang out. Towards the middle of the evening they all decided to go down and work on more stickers. I followed them down and watched as Danny effortlessly created a string of different designs on his vinyl cutter. With the gear company owners and Danny arguing the merits of each one I had half tuned them out. All of a sudden Danny looked to me and said, “You’re the designer, which one do you like best.” I was caught off guard, not only because I needed to form an opinion when I hadn’t been paying much attention (typical me) but it is my opinion that Danny possesses more artistic talent in his pinky than I do in my entire body and therefore a better judge of this sort of thing than I am. But I formed an opinion anyway and stated my reasonings, I’ll never forget the half wink and “Good choice” I got from him. Phew! – Funny how even knowing him for only a short time makes you want to gain his respect and approval.

I’m so glad to have reconnected with such a wonderful family and look forward to seeing all of you back in the Valley as soon as possible! Danny, you’ll have to let me know when you wake up if I actually chose the ‘right’ sticker design or if you were just trying to make me feel better about being lost in space. 😉

Oh and PS Ellen, the ‘rents send their best!

Love to you all,
Talia Brooks