Y’know, The Geat White Shank’s daily existence is not an easy one: dangerous work, and long, lonely hours spent without a whole lot of respect from the community I serve. But every now and then I win one, and today was just one of those days when everything seemed to go right. First, I closed a good-sized deal with a resistent client for 900 hours of report developer time between the end of April and the end of of August; then, I was able to get my dysfunctional pool filter working by pumping water directly into the pump to generate enough pressure to avoid a $100+ service call.

And then, finally, after a good seven months, I was finally able to complete the patio of my dreams, adding wireless sound capability that enables me to play music from the computer in our home office out onto the patio nearly forty feet away without any wires and having to leave doors open when it’s 110 degrees outside. Pretty sweet, eh?

When I was doing my patio over, I knew I wanted to have the capability of playing music outside from an inside source, but had no clue how possible it was (or expensive it was) without having to run wires. In addition, because I have “dog ears” when it comes to music, I had to have a quality product when it came to speakers – no tinny car radio sound for this dude! So I did my homework and spent more than a few hours checking out Amazon.com and other online electronics vendors to see what was out there for solutions that would offer good quality at a decent price.

And that’s how I found the Mutant MIG-MS2-S Media Block Deluxe Weather-Resistant Wireless Outdoor Stereo Speaker System. That’s them in the pic above, just under the multi-colored frog (his name is Marley). Say what you will, but when it comes to product reviews I trust women a hell of a lot more than men, and one of the reviews from a woman in Pennsylvania sold me on this particular product.

It couldn’t have been easier to set up. I opened the box, plugged the wireless transmitter in and connected it to my home PC through the microphone jack (there is no software involved), plugged the speakers into my patio outlet, started up Windows Media Player for some Sandals tunes, and viola! I have tunes on the patio. And it’s not just tunes for the sake of tunes – the sound quality is excellent. There appears to be a little occasional interference whenever the wind seems to be blowing, but not enough to detract from the experience of music played outside when it’s just you, your cocktail, the tiki bar, the palm trees, and the pool, all relaxing under a summer moon or watching a broiling sun disappear into the west behind the house next door.

I can’t wait for the experience I’ll soon know (within weeks) of doing my nightly 1 1/2 mile brisk walk, then plopping into the pool for a cool down, then enjoying a Johnny Walker Red nitecap while soft Caribbean or surf music plays in the background in a darkened patio under a bright summer moon. To me, this is all I ask of life. It’s called living the high life, and it makes for one contented Great White Shank.

Sure beats watching the damned Red Sox. Now 2-9? They suck. I’m counting the days until Terry Francona is fired.