‘Springing’ Out of the Gate (4/5-4/12)

We started our week on a music note, meeting up with friends last Thursday evening at the Dautaj Restaurant in Warwick. Meeting once a month, jazz musicians throughout the Hudson Valley have an opportunity to play amongst each other. It’s fruitful ground for musicians looking to develop their music chops and also makes great entertainment for spectators like us. Top musicians play, reminding us how lucky we are to be amidst high caliber talent right here in Warwick. For more on this new series, click here. On April 26, don't miss the Gabriele Tranchina Quartet, who will perform jazz and world music at Silvio’s Italian Villa. For more on that special show, click here

20501231 warwickbusinessexpo 0942Last weekend we attended the Warwick Valley Community Expo where we met up with lots of business owners. Visit our photo album on facebook to see who we chatted up. It was nice to see familiar faces like Betsy Mitchell from Track 7. Speaking to her briefly, she told us that they were embarking on their seventh year in business and were appreciative of all of the support their business has received from the community. Always busy, their growth reflects their positive spirit and energy. All of the work they have done for the Food Pantry in Warwick has not gone unnoticed, either.

At the expo we enjoyed a pleasant conversation with representatives from Certa Pro Painters. Fans of our website, they gave us a few tips about our music calendar before we stumbled onto the subject of favorite eating destinations. At their booth, they were raffling off a $100 gift certificate to the Landmark Inn, which then launched us on a long conversation about food. We really hope we win that raffle as the weekend is here and we are hungry for something good to eat.

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Their raffle gave us an idea: To focus energy on the variety of ways vendors promote themselves through what they giveaway at their booth. Opening up our plastic tote bag courtesy of Edward Jones Financial Services, we took up a large collection of company pens, frisbees, stressballs, and chocolate from as many vendors as we could gobble up. We enjoyed all of the food, devouring it immediately. Thank you to all of the vendors for the abundance of new office supplies you furnished. And that nifty beer opener, free photography session, back massage and stress test. The book on insurance tips will come in handy. We will continue to nurture that small plant we received from the Warwick Valley Community Center. All the raffle contests we entered give some hope too that we might be winners of a host of prizes, like a mini-ipad. And we are looking forward to our Discover Warwick Valley T-Shirt, which has arrived. Thank you again for the gifts!

Believe it or not it was a frivolous bag of popcorn that engaged us most at one of the booths. A harmless giveaway, I thought to myself. The man giving out the popcorn, Bob Bogert, was the owner of Alpine Air Heating and Air Conditioning. The popcorn was a big hit, not just with me but amongst a line-up of kids, who had one thing on their mind and it wasn't related to heating and air conditioning.  An hour later, I didn’t know that bag of popcorn was going to lead to a long conversation about geothermal  energy, a technology the company was promoting to showcase its cost savings.

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It looks like spring has finally broken loose like a race horse sprinting out of the gate. Find out in the next couple of weeks how the horse race fares amongst our nursery brethren as we preview the area to see what’s springing forth on their lots.

This week we have some spring clothing that’s been out for some time as we look at some of what's fashionable. We also have a few other stories for you to check out and we've dug deeper into  “Letters from My Father,” this time focused on living a life of relevance. That's a great story, I must say so myself. Click here for the latest letter. 

Remember he who is first out of the gate is not always first to the finish line (Got that one from a Chinese fortune cookie). But gaining good track position is advantageous.  So…having said that….on your mark, get set………..Happy Spring!