PVBC and Pappas

Bananas, desserts (as in cookie, brownie, ice cream sandwich concoctions), poll workers, landscape design, nearly sharing birthdays with presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, and donuts, as in the soon to open Pappas Artisanal breakaway in Claremont - Grizzly's Biscuits and Donut's. Talk, listen, compare, joke. After that I think my mind started to become a bit addled and I lost track of the conversation.

But no, things are not so bad inside the old noggin'. It was the October community meeting of the Pomona Valley Bicycle Coalition (PVBC) so, beside the incidental talk of donuts and dessert, there was also more frivolous sound bites about bike lanes, cyclist rights and responsibilities, Operation Firefly, and the ever-popular topic, "what's up with La Verne?" That last is always an interesting one - for a city generally regarded cycling unfriendly (or at least indifferent), there are a goodly number of residents trying to change things, and businesses (as well as the University) within the city's boundaries who understand the advantages of reaching out to cyclists. One such business was host for the evening get-together, Pappas Artisanal; a few people were gathered before I arrived, at which point there were a couple more, and later a few more still - not enough to fill the patio perhaps, but still, enough to keep the topic of conversation rotating and swirling. If I had not met everyone before, attempting to keep track of what was being said to my left, my right, in front of me, at the other table, across the patio, while making sure no one tried to sneak (I tried to type snuck there, but none of the spellings - snuck, snuk, snuque - looked quite right, and I figured it must be one of those words you can say, but can not properly spell, though admittedly Google says "snuck" is okay), up behind me to swipe my fish tacos, did not help matters. Even so, I knew the people I ride with, the Facebook friends, others with well-known names, and got to meet some new people, who I am pretty sure don't fit into either of those other three groups. Yet. 

Anyway, rarely is an evening revolving around bicycle people and their bicycles not a worthwhile couple, or few, hours. If you are local cyclist and not a member of the PVBC it really is something you ought to consider - beside the lively conversation, the good food and drink, the greater number of members, and participants is encouragement to organize more of those fun group rides we like to do. It also enables them / us to do more of that community activism - bicycle safety classes, outreach, Operation Firefly, etc, that ultimately benefits us all. For more information about the PVBC, or upcoming events, check out their website, or group page on Facebook. Maybe next time we can fill that patio.