Motorcycle, paint, fire, guns, and Jack

The weekend: I worked on the inside of the house, probably not as much as I should have, but then the weather was fantastic and Jenny was beckoning. I did get some painting done, picked up the back splash components and outlet/ switch trim, plus I installed a molding across the sink back. Saturday I spent quite a bit of time on Jenny but never really went anywhere, just bopped around town, (towns). 

Saturday I returned home after having Jenny in a Thunderstorm which forgot to have any real rain with it. I parked the bike and went back to work inside, mostly cleaning. Let me step back in time a tad at this point. A couple weeks ago I was cleaning up upstairs, tossing items into the dumpster and getting rid of accumulated debris. I had a plastic garbage can with me and it was getting paper crap, old shoes , boots, and a bunch of crap which cluttered the floors after tossing out and rummaging through stored items. The can was filled to the max, but at the time I was unable to bring the can down the stairs due to the issues with my knee and ankle. 
This brings us back to Saturday, the can was still sitting upstairs and I had to do some computer work. I sat down in front of the terminal with the can to my back. I flipped the ashtray over my shoulder emptying it into the can. At this point there was a pause in my computer work, as a question popped in my head, Did I put a cigarette out in that ashtray? I thought about it and came to the conclusion I had not, I just walked up stairs and did not have one since I had sat down. As I downloaded photos off the camera I became aware of a crackling sound, turning around I noticed smoke rising out of the "plastic" garbage can. The smoke wasn't "wisping" like when you try to light a campfire, it was shooting out of the can like a geyser in a roughly 10" column. What I found truly amazing was how fast a person with a screwed up knee and locked up ankle can pick up and carry a 32 gallon trash can down the stairs and into the kitchen. I pulled out the sink spray hose and filled the can with water before taking it outside and dropped it by the dumpster. 

Looking back on it, what I should have done was taken it right outside and emptied it into the dumpster. Since the 15 yard dumpster is reaching it's full mark this may have afforded me an almost empty dumpster depending of fire department response time.

Sunday, having heard there was a ride to the Tilted Kilt in Rocky Hill that day, I decided to join a ride with a few of my Club brothers and sisters. I fired up Jenny, met them at Dunkin and headed off with them to a Barbecue/Steak house in the Manchester/ Bolton Notch area. There were seven bikes when we left and after a run up Raymond Hill to 163, then 82 to 354 into Colchester we added another bike and a cage to the list. We cruised up 16 to 66 and as the Club hooked a right onto route 17 I had a thought regarding the destination. I talked to Danny and we broke off for the Tilted Kilt, (there was an alternative plan here). We took 66 into Middletown, jumped on 9, grabbed 99 in Cromwell.  we arrived at the Kilt ordered drinks, Beer and Jack Daniels. We were joined at our table by our waitress Brittany. She sat there and talked with us for quite a while discussing bikes, weather, and Mike Henry.  I ordered wings, whipped out my phone and entered H-O-F-F-M-A-N-S. Yes, the alternative motive was about to become a reality. Having never been there I figured it was time to see what they have. (You can NEVER have enough firepower). it turned out that by pulling out of the Kilt onto Maple St. Hoffman's guns was 4.9 miles away. So we took maple to 287. 287 to 15&5. looking at it now it would have been better to stay on Maple to 2 Rod highway to 15&5 because we would not have had to wait for the light and play with the divided highway. Arriving at Hoffman's we noticed a Motorcycle parked out front. Dan walked in and spotted his target right away, standing side by side a cashier. In a loud "Danny" voice bellows out, "Who owns that Indianapolis motorcycle I just backed over?"
It got Rick's attention.

I picked up a couple holsters and some speed loaders, I found a Mossberg Shotgun I want, A Springfield M1A1 I want, and a 8mm Mauser Rifle I want. Looks like I will be heading back up that way shortly with a vehicle that can actually carry something. I would have bought the Mauser right then and there but wasn't sure how the Police would handle a biker with ape-hangers cruising through town with a rifle slung on his back.

The ride back took us up 15&5 to route 3 over to 2 down to route 94. We took 94 to 85 then 66 to 87. then back roads into Willimantic for a stop with Nat at work. from there it was pretty much home bound down 32 and 395.