During my teenage summers working at Tremont Paint, as well as any other time of year my father could press me into service, I drove the trucks. We always used vans: box trucks are not a great option for rushing through New York City streets.
But it did happen at busy times that we had the need to rent a larger truck for a few days. It was my job to drive those too. All went fine, I never damaged anything. And I never thought of the experience again. Just another skill to put in my LinkedIn profile.
Thirty-years later while trying to impress a woman who needed to move her son from one city to another, I said out loud the statement I still regret: “I can drive a box truck!”
And eight-years later I am still the official truck driver of the family!
A few months into his quarantine with us in Stamford, Guy’s son Chris gave up his lease on his New York City apartment and crammed all his “crap” into our garage.
I remember! Because I drove the truck that day!
This Saturday on the morning of his move to Guilford, CT I was given my first assignment of the day. I was expecting a run to the bagel store, or a trip to Dunkin’ for coffee.
“Go get the truck!”
The trouble that people get into trying to impress their crushes!
With Buck leaving for Texas last Friday and Chris leaving Saturday, the weekend was a busy one! And it left us as empty nesters: Take II!
As they left, I told them both “I’ll miss you.” which I’m sure I will.
But that has not happened yet.
In a house which is empty during the day, my soundproof headphones sit quiet. The sole reminder of my life in the kitchen. I added them to the pile of stuff to go out in Buck’s first care package!
Ahhh.
Back in my office for the first time in six-months, I am catching up on my work. Time spent cooking, cleaning, vacuuming and being interrupted has all been replaced with a euphoric quiet and time at my desk.
This week I continue to pound away at issues which come up as I design and the development team builds THE Revolution web sites.
At just two-weeks into the building process, I can already see much of the site taking shape. I continue to be impressed with the development team and the work that they are doing in turning my vision into a functioning site.
In the quiet of my office, I have re-found my groove!
I do still spend some time going onto web sites which are selling paint, but by now I’ve seen them all. On Monday of this week one of the Minutemen called and asked me if I could open up a web browser so he could show me a feature of a site he had been to.
“What site is it?” I asked.
“KellyMoore.com”
“What did you like about it?”
“A particular part of the color display.”
“You mean the part where you can (censored)?” Sorry, no sneak peeks!
At this point I think I could write a dissertation on web and e-commerce sites for paint stores: I spent hours looking at them all! Though most of the work which I am doing at the moment is behind the scenes. The creative decisions get made during the morning stand-up and then I work on all day on “filling in the blanks.”
Adding the parts of the paint business which a developer could never know.
I was hoping to have a podcast for you today but unfortunately, time to edit them is hard to come by without putting aside the Minutemen. Which I am not going to do! But I do have a terrific episode for you which I’ll put out next week. It’s with Jay Ward. Jay is a dealer in upstate New York who dealt with a Covid outbreak in his stores a few months back. The story of the outbreak and Jay’s response is both a cautionary tale and a lesson plan! You won’t want to miss it.
See you on Monday!
