I have a new alarm clock. It wakes me without fail sometime between 7:25 and 7:55 every morning. With enthusiastic slobbery licks to the face. And I, in turn, reinforce my alarm clock’s behavior by stumbling out of bed and taking it for a run at a nearby soccer field.

I’m swearing off of TV. Well, not entirely. Probably just live TV. The last holdout for me was my weekly Michigan football game. As of the blown tackle in the backfield by Burgess midway through the third quarter on 3rd and 4, I decided I just can’t do it anymore. I can’t put up with the disappointment. Watching Lloyd Carr coach football is not fun and I’m tired of feeling like I’ve wasted three hours of my day after the game. I have no doubt that the talent on the Maize and Blue is worthy of the preseason number three ranking, but the play is completely uninspired.

So now it’s down to watching downloaded commercial-free episodes of The Apprentice, Curb Your Enthusiasm, or maybe Kitchen Confidential. Even the usually solid Office hasn’t been doing it for me this year. Basically what I’m getting at is that TV brings me nothing but feelings of disappointment when I watch it live. So I won’t do it anymore.

I’ve been feeling unusually content for the past week or so. Feeling like maybe all my talk of simplifying might actually be finally manifesting into action. I think selling our extra property helped ($409/month payment – *poof*). I think finally selling off the last of my cd collection helped ($270 in pocket). I think a changed attitude about work helped. I think cleaning out my car helped.

But mostly, I think buying my first surfboard helped.

Sure it might simply be symbolic at this point. A temporary foam/fiberglass placebo or sorts. But I’m okay with that. The real thing is coming and I’m throwing myself at it guns a-blazin. I’ve got my wetsuit, gloves, hood, boots, leash, wax either stashed here on or on their merry FedEx way. Bring on November Lake Michigan! Bring on the falling over again and again into fifty degree water!

I’m ready to be caught up in the spirit. As a kid on a sunny Saturday day at the beach you couldn’t pull me out of the lake. I’d bounce around, dive through, and coast under the waves until most of me was blueberry. And until all of me was abuzz with the day and the medium. And, as they say, life was so good you could taste it in your spit. Well, I want that back.

So, sadly, no money pit investments right now. As great as it would be, no boss-free neighborhood shop. Stress is out. So uncool these days. The times, they are calling for liquidity. Like the lake, like the ocean.