HPVOoO Sunday dinner

The HPVOoO Sunday dinner gathering has been a ritual for close to four years now. And for the past two we've been dining at the Vietnamese Noodle House, conveniently located two blocks from my house. :) Sometimes there may be only three or four of us, but we've also had over twenty, with an average of around eight. One of the handy things about these dinners is that when we meet or hear from people that seek advice about recumbents and fun bikes we can just tell them to join us. If they're lucky we can sometmes arrange to have a machine on hand that they'd like to try out. Quite often we go for a ride afterwards, regardless of the season. And the ride often begins with us hanging out in front of Richard's (RGB) house* around the corner. That's when new folks can check out whatever hpvs are on hand, and / or one of our members can show off their newest creation or purchase.

This past Sunday we were on our way over to Preston St. to have some dessert (gelato) and check out a vehicle. While gathering a RGB's I noticed a funny, and very red, plastic tub chair at the curb. At first I ignored it, as from a distance it looked like it lookd like it was cracked, which upon inspection proved to be just a cord draped over from the dead lamp standing behind it. So I tossed it into the back of Kyoto, and then Adina climbed in and we went for a short hop. I later figured out that there were two chairs stuck together, one perfectly fitting into the other!



Then we eventually all pushed off, stopping behind Pub Italia to check out the owner's cool little Vespa delivery truck (curiously called the VespaCar). This thing has three wheels, and and is registered as a motorcycle (the steering is done with a motorcycle-type bar setup). Joe, the owner, admitted that the handling was "interesting" while cornering, as this type of layout makes for a tippy machine. We put Kyoto beside it, and noted that they were the same length. Now, his truck would be nicer, in that it carries more weight and would keep one dry in wet weather, but on the other hand it needs gas, a vehicle license, and also tips over more easily! ;) Not to mention the challenge of finding parts for this vintage foreign machine...



Then it was over to the gelato place where I pulled in behind a parked car, and then decided it would be fun to pull out the two chairs for sit-down dessert. Note RGB's well-lit tallbike (built by Mike, in ballcap looking at the camera) at the extreme right.

All photos by Richard, found at the day's photo page.

As we were getting ready to leave we noticed a bunch of stuff on the curbside from an emptied apartment. Charles and I grabbed some shelving, along with some venetian blinds, and then we all proceeded to his place to deliver his catch, then home for me with mine. RGB was thinking of heading back to grab some of the filing cabinets...

* Richard lives 2.5 blocks from me, while builders Juergen and Mike Watson live in the east and west ends of the city, respectively. So with these "hubs" of creative activity we thought we needed a good acronym for whatever the heck they are. I came up with ARMPIT (Advanced Research and Meeting Place for Ingenious Transport), with Richard and I being ARMPIT Central, and the others naturally ARMPIT East and ARMPIT West. We'd have a South, but don't know anyone out there, and North, well, from here that'd put you in the Ottawa River...