My mother is in New York for the next few months.
Or forever, depending on who you ask.
Before mom had to decide where to stay, our house in Stamford or my sister Marci’s house in Westchester County, Marci and I had a conversation about where mom would be the most comfortable.
But it seems only one of us was just conversating!
In the time it took me to open the box containing the contents of my former office at Benjamin Moore in Montvale, and get a few family photos placed around my office, my sister turned a den into bedroom. And added a walk-in shower!
Which I felt, was sucking up.
Needless to say, on Saturday mornings, I find myself driving to my sister’s house if I want to see my mother! When Guy and I got there this weekend, my sister and mother were just walking in from their early run for haircuts and manicures.
Marci's treat!
Clearly, my sister is taking our sibling rivalry far too seriously.
Still though, I needed to address the situation.
Thinking fast, I changed our plans. I needed to score some points or Marci was going to win this round in a runaway!
Anyway, mom and I can lay on the couch and watch college football on another Saturday!
With a renewed sense of purpose, we threw mom into the front seat of a smooth-driving (and free to me!) German sedan and headed north and west to Cold Spring, New York. Mom’s first trip through the Hudson Valley’s autumn colors in over 20-years.
Cold Spring is a village laid on the Hudson’s flatter eastern banks. Just 20-miles south of the hills surrounding Cold Spring the rocks form one of the most interesting geological formations east of the Mississippi River: THE Palisades! Two miles south of Cold Spring, on the great river’s opposing bank and tall bluffs, lies the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Sadly, there will be no Saturday home games at Michie (pronounced Mikey) Stadium for the Black Knights this year. The last time Guy and I caught a game at Michie, it wasn’t until I got this video that they realized we didn’t belong where we were and asked us to find our seats.
Autumn in the Hudson Valley has inspired many paint-color palettes, though we were a few weeks early to catch the peak fall colors. Being a few weeks pre-peak didn’t stop the throngs of pandemic-weary New Yorkers from joining us on our visit! This one-main-street river town of 2000 people was SRO! The streets filled with recently unlocked New Yorkers gulping in the fresh smell of a Hudson Valley autumn day.
Looking to do more to regain the top spot as the best Lipton offspring and fearing that a ride in the country may not be enough, we got some ice cream and I made crab cakes for dinner!
THAT ought to do it!
If you’ve ever had my crab cakes, you’d understand my confidence.
I have got more to be proud of these days than just my spot atop the list of the best Lipton's of this generation. As the web and e-commerce sites of THE Revolution are preparing to take their final form, I am really proud of the work we are preparing to release.
I say “we” because while I am the only employee of THE Revolution, it still takes a village!
My days continue to start with a 9:00 AM “stand-up” with my team of developers, designers, managers and graphic designers. It's at these daily meetings where I can see the payoffs from our efforts over the last four-weeks. Pages are beginning to look and function as they are intended to look and function. As databases get integrated and links begin to work, this project morphs from being my mad (computer) scientist experiment into its final form: a tool for independent paint retailers to grow their market share, volume and profitability.
In the early stages of the project, I spent most of my effort on the sites traffic-flow and making certain that the paths to purchase were both intuitive AND recognizable to both dealers and their customers.
I believe that I have done that!
Four hours after this blog goes live, I am showing the site to the first dealer who is not a member of THE Minutemen!
THE reveal!
I was going to show it to my sister Marci first, but was afraid she’d design a better one and my mother would love hers more!
And I'm all out of crab meat!
