As the weather warms here in Michigan the return of the beach sports is imminent.  The official invitations for beach volleyball are extended and the anticipation of the new season is palpable.

Finally the day for the first games arrives.  Invitees are divided into teams and the first night’s matches are set.  My team ends up playing three games winning two of the three.  So a good start to the year.  I am anticipating a bit of soreness in the morning. 

It seems like the players are getting younger…and I appear to be getting older…not a good combination for me.  I think my impact on the games will start to diminish.  Sucks to get old.

……At least that is what it felt like. 

A little background…I had finally removed all the stumps and the vast majority of rocks from the area by the garage then I painted that side of the garage.  It was now time to landscape.  Given that area that needed plants was fairly large (30′ X 6′) it was going to be fairly expensive to purchase the plants.  Given the current economic maelstrom I was not to excited to spend a bunch of money on plants.

Fortunately the neighbor across the street has an overabundance of plants around his house and he has been up north since last night with no plans to return until Monday.  They sprayed some WD-40 (so it wouldn’t squeak) on the old red wagon, grabbed a shovel and some work gloves, and marched across the street. 

The plantings in his yard were overgrown and in bad need of some attention.  They split several hostas and placed them in the wagon.  The hostas were quickly replanted on our side of the street.  Another trip produced a bunch of lily of valley in my front yard. 

In all four trips were made, each time more and more greenery was added to the previously empty dirt in my yard.  As of right now the greenery is looking rather limp but with a bit of water over the next several days we are hopeful that the plants will survive and even thrive.  Meanwhile across the street you would never know that a bunch of plants were removed.

Ohhh…and by the way, the neighbor did give us permission to raid his plants.  But I’m curious to find out what the other neighbors thought was going on.

The kids had friends over to swim and watch scary movies.  So the first swim of the pool season has been swum.  I’m estimating the water temperature at around 72 degrees.  A bit cold for me but the kids were all in and swimming so that’s good.

The temperature for the upcoming week looks to be in the high 70’s and possibly the low 80’s a couple of days.  That should boost the pool temperature. 

Back to the pool party.  After the initial swim, beverages and chips made their way to the patio and were consumed in mass quantities.  As I casually observed the action from the deck, it looked like the kids were having a wonderful time.  Most of them reentered the pool and spent a little bit of time swimming.  By this time dusk was upon us so they went to the basement to watch a couple of movies.

I was glad to have people swimming in the pool because I sure as heck wasn’t jumping in it.

Internet so fast they had to create a new name for it.  Faster than broadband, Charter introduces Phatband to the St. Louis market with the name of ULTRA60.  Yes that’s ULTRA60 as in 60 Mbps.  So if you have a need for speed Charter’s ULTRA60 might be the option for you.

ULTRA60 will be rolling out to select areas through out 2009 and in many cases will be the fastest Internet available.  So if you are a gamer, a movie lover or a telecommuter ULTRA60 will add a high velocity experience to your day.  DSL has officially become the dial-up of this decade.  Ok, I’m not sure that I can unilaterally make that pronouncement but it adds a certain poetic essence to my prose.

I have not heard what kind of pricing that ULTRA60 will have.  I sure hope that when it reaches Michigan that the price will be reasonable.  I can just imagine myself sitting by the pool, towel wrapped around my waist, hair still wet from my recent swim, right around sunset, cranking up the laptop and visiting Hulu or a site like it and watching a movie while sipping a nice cold Coke.   

Need additional information?  Check out the Ultra60 Information Page.

Do you use Twitter? Check out Charter’s Twitter Feed.

It is a bit early, especially in Michigan, but the pool is open for business.  Usually the pool opening doesn’t occur until Memorial Day weekend.  This year, however, I was able to drain the murky water from the top of the tarp and this event coincided with a nice, warmish weekend so off came the cover and the pump was primed.  The tarp was cleaned and temporarly stored in the garage. 

The patio funiture was placed around the pool.  It looks like summer in my backyard.  All that and the schedule for beach volleyball is being set.  I am ready for summer to start!

This year in Southwest Michigan the blooming trees are vibrant.  The neighbor’s lilac bush, which is right outside the kitchen window, is in full color and I can smell the lilac fragrance wafting across the strip of yard that separates their bush and my house.  The lilac’s purplish hue is stunning this year.

The crab apple tree in my front year is just past peak color.  Earlier this week the tree was an incrediblelight purple.  The tree bloomed more intensely than it ever had. 

In the back yard both the dogwood and the weeping cherry trees are showing very nice color.  I believe that the warm weather coupled with the amount of rain that we have had this year has created an optimum enviroment for the blooms to become especially intense this year.

Over the past week I think it must have rained six days.  That means lots of standing water for mosquito larva to grow.  Not a good situation for people who enjoy spending time outside.  In order to combat this I’ve walked around the yard looking for standing water to dump.  Fortunately I didn’t find any.

I’m sure that there are mosquitos growing nearby hoping to bite me this summer.  No only do Mosquitoes hurt when they bite they are carriers of a variety of illnesses, like the West Nile virus.  One way to keep them away from your skin is to use the Mosquito Magnet.

Here is my Mosquito Magnet review.

Mosquito Magnet traps are the only long-term, scientifically proven mosquito control solution in the marketplace.  Stop slathering DEET products on yourself and your little ones everytime you want to spend time outside in the summer.  According to one testimonial, the Mosquito Magnet showed dramatic results in one week.  The Mosquito Magnet’s trap was full of those nasty little beasts. 

Don’t let those little blood suckers ruin your time outside this summer.  And don’t spend all summer applying Deet to your exposed skin.  Let the Mosquito Magnet take care of those sucking insects while you enjoy the great outdoors with friends and family.

The weekend looks to be great.  Although there is a ton of work to be done around the yard.  It’ll be nice to be outside in the sun getting the work finished. 

The chores are:
  Mow the lawn
  Remove a couple of stumps
  Shovel river rocks to improve landscape
  drain the pool cover

These task will take a good part of the weekend but I’ll be very happy to put them behind me.

I hate coming home from vacation.  The trip is such an antithesis of the trip heading to the vacation.  The excitement is replaced by dread.  The happiness is replaced by discontent.  And rolling all those miles home is like marching to my doom.

Ok, maybe I’m a little over the top with that first paragraph.  The thing is I really don’t want to go back to work on Monday.  I know I will have a ton of work to catch up on and who knows what disaster awaits me.

We arrived home at about 2:30am after a very long drive.  I unloaded my stuff from the Sidmobile and dropped it in the living room and hit the hay.  Now it is time to unpack my duffle bag. 

The week down in Myrtle Beach was awesome, although we did not end up doing any surfing.  Maybe next time the weather and ocean will cooperate.

I borrowed Surfin’ Sid’s metal detector and hit the beach.  Not to much luck.  I think the problem is the location.  The Marriott resort we are staying at is away from the hustle and bustle of Myrtle Beach. 

I spent about 45 minutes on the beach with the metal detector and only found a paper clip.  It was a nice new shiny one but it sure wasn’t worth the effort.  I did meet some folks who asked me how I was doing.  And the sunset lit up the clouds.  And I did get some exercise.  Maybe next time I’ll try it down where there is more traffic.