Third-place winner: Andrew Rouse

It seemed to Joe that every morning he was the first to rise in all of Tooele. His job as a plumber required him to start much earlier than most of the other working people. This morning started out much like any other.

He made his morning coffee, toasted a bagel and was just sitting down to turn on the TV, when he heard a strange noise. Since Joe lived right next to The Great Salt Lake he figured it was probably just a boat going for an early morning sail, and it would soon pass.

But the sound persisted. It was so subtle that it was hard for him to figure out exactly what it was. He listened to the slow, rhythmic pounding for a couple of minutes. It was calming, yet powerful at the same time. Finally he decided to go outside and find out what was going on.

He opened his door, and instead of the fishy, dirty, smell that greeted him every morning, he was hit with a clean, salty aroma. Right when he stepped outside he stopped. What he saw was so breathtaking, so incredible, he felt as if he was in a dream. If this in fact was a dream Joe hoped that he would never awake, for what was before him was the most beautiful thing he had ever laid eyes on.

Imagine that The Great Salt Lake suddenly turned into an ocean.

For Joe, the weeks following the discovery of this strange new ocean, were extremely exciting. Slowly Joe began to sink into a whole new lifestyle. His daily routines changed greatly.

There were so many tourists around, he decided to quit his job, and open a surf board rental shop. This was a dream come true. He didn't dread going to work anymore, in fact he looked forward everyday to opening the shop. Each morning instead of getting up and showering, Joe would go take a dip in the ocean. At night, rather than sitting and watching TV, he would walk on the beach, and gaze at the ocean's beauty that was so new to him.

He started thinking that he would never be stressed again. Each night Joe fell asleep with thoughts going through his head like "What could I have possibly done to deserve this?"

In the months to come Joe started to notice Tooele was becoming very congested. It took him three times as long to get to the store as it use to. At first he liked seeing all of these different people coming to visit his city, but soon the excitement wore off. It was a nuisance having to sit in traffic for half an hour just to go get some milk.

But Joe figured this was a small price to pay for having such a glorious ocean in his backyard. Since there was such a high demand to live in Tooele, Joe started to notice there was always construction going on. This didn't really bother him until they started building condominiums right next to his house.