... adrien invited me to join her in portland for a "movie afternoon" ... we watched two flicks, "oblivion" and "ironman 3" ... former was good entertainment, but it's my opinion that cruise and crew didn't rise to the level of "minority report" ... as for the latter, it was zoom-zoom bang-pow crash-crumple-explode great fun ...
... ride down was first real test of both the repairs on my new motorcycle and the effectiveness of my new really-serious wind/weather gear ... bike ran like a charm—if, that is, you consider a motorcycle that likes to settle in at around 85 mph charming ... going down this morning it was only about 48°f when i left, and there was rather gusty wind on the interstate, yet i was comfortable both physically as well as in minimal amount of energy it took to safely manage the bike in those conditions ...
... after a nice meal at friendly's in portland (kudos to the renovations and excellent service), i drove home ... got back just in time to see the last part of what apparently was a rather dramatic fire in ticonic row, the last set of buildings on the west (right in the picture) side of main street ... early reports are that a woman was cooking with a gas grill, nobody was hurt, and the brand new apartments in the silver street tavern building may have suffered some severe smoke damage ... it was fortunate if that was all that happened, the empty lot across from my front windows attest to what happens when one of these 80-110 year-old buildings becomes fully engulfed ... when that occurs the firefighters back up, spray the adjacent structures with as much water as they can pump, and cross their fingers ...