Happiness is Air Conditioning

~ Jenny

I know we’re not nearly as bad as Europe–so sorry about that!–but it’s in the nineties here and I’m broiling. I like working outside, but ten minutes in that heat and I come back in and bask in the cool air roaring through the window AC. I need to put a second one it, too. It’s July. I cannot imagine what August is going to bring.

Air conditioning. I appreciate Shane even more now.

What made you happy this week?

73 thoughts on “Happiness is Air Conditioning”

  1. My sweet niece took my mother to visit her sister in Arkansas this weekend. So I took it upon myself to paint the kitchen as a surprise for her and it’s just another reminder that I’m not as young as I used to be.

    But it’s done and she will be so excited when she gets home tonight!

  2. I have been thinking grateful thoughts for air conditioning all week. It has been in the mid-90’s here in upstate NY all week (WTF?) and today we are supposed to hit close to 100. I had to persuade my best friend that it was finally time to put her AC in…was she waiting for it to get hot? My garden is going to hell because it is too hot to weed. Also, we need rain. I have friends in places like Texas and I just can’t even imagine.

    I am going to spend part of today in an air conditioned movie theater with that same friend watching Thor. I hear the movie isn’t great. I don’t really care. Watching Thor makes me happy. Yes, I’m shallow. I’m happy with that too.

    My biggest happy was my annual (when we pull it off, and not for two years due to Covid) vacation with a group of friends and a couple of husbands and kids. It was 4 1/2 days, only about an hour from home, but the house we rented was on a lake and we spent almost the entire time sitting by the water (and the fire pit by the water at night). Not perfect, but lots of happy.

    2. I loved Thor. The screaming goats made my internal funny playlist. But my mental twist renamed them the shrieking sheep.
      I went to an air-conditioned movie last night. Mrs. Harris goes to Paris. I read the books years and years ago and loved them.
      The movie version is great. Happiness is a feel good movie and dinner with a friend. It is also air-conditioning. Since the early 70s I have thank God for air-conditioning almost every day. Also for indoor plumbing. Truly a marvelous thing.

      1. “You flicked too hard!”

        Did you watch the credits and see that the girl playing Gore’s daughter is CH’s oldest? Lots of cast members’ kids were the Asgardian et cetera kids.

  3. My happy is that my house didn’t explode.

    Let me explain. I’ve gone back to the office while DH is still at home. On Thursday, he texted that he stepped outside and smelled gas – more specifically mercaptan (he had to tell me). I insisted he call the gas company.

    When the gas company dude came, he told DH that what he was smelling was a dead animal . . . BUT the connection from our HVAC to the gas line was badly corroded, and we were in imminent danger of a major leak. He shut off the gas, we got repair folks out (and DH located the dead animal – in a black garbage bag at the curb of the neighbor’s house, awaiting pickup from the city).

    Friday evening, the repair was made, the gas turned back on and our hot water restored. We were then able to make jokes about it. We even rehearsed the TV interview – “The last thing I remember was mowing the lawn . . . .” It was a good laugh after the fact.

  4. Happiness is raspberry gin, blood orange liqueur, and elderflower tonic. I don’t usually turn to drink after work but this has not been a good week. One more shift and I get to lie down for two days.

    And Lily the greyhound. She is a constant source of happy.

      2. Oh, I love Pink Martini.
        Especially “And Then You’re Gone” and “But Now I’m Back.”

    3. I used to keep a Rubbermaid container of gin in my refrigerator so I could make a really cold martini whenever the need arose. Over time, the lid broke and I stopped drinking in an effort to lose weight, but I think it may be time to reinstate the tradition. Of course, the friend who has been sending me cocktail of the day updates throughout the entire shutdown has recently stopped drinking so we’ll see whether I actually use the 1.75l bottle of gin I bought a few weeks ago.

      1. I also stopped drinking at the start of the pandemic after watching a friend develop alcoholism and lose custody of her kids after her husband left. She’s been sober for over a year now. And I’m back to having an occasional cocktail.

  5. It’s been a stressful week at work—lately they all are—so I was happy to get to the weekend. Yesterday I saw Marcel: the Shell with Shoes on, and it was delightful. It’s not in many theaters, but if you have the chance, go see it. The premise is absurd, but the movie is funny and sweet and touching. Lots of laughter in the theater.

    1. I enjoyed the short so much that I bought the book. I hope the full length movie is as good.

  6. An up and down week, with some strange family dynamics at play.
    Best hour: having dinner with good friends sitting beside the AC and laughing a lot.
    Best trend: the gym is air conditioned! stopping by the empty church to vocalize and learn music, after the gym. My halo glows.
    Evening breezes that cool off the day.

  7. It’s cooled down drastically in the UK, and we’re having some good rain. I got a whole lot of weeding done this morning – editing my self-sown marigolds to give the acorn squash a chance to grow. Best day this week was sharing my old home town of Shrewsbury with a friend.

  8. I got a red cloth napkin.
    I’ve been looking for one, and my local Mexican Food chain uses them for table service. I asked when I was there on Thursday, and they let me have one — a new clean one, not the one I was using.
    Why a napkin? Why red? I do a lot of stuff with hand percussion, and I’ve got a middle eastern frame drum I find myself going to more than any of the other 50+ ethnic drums I own. (for those of you who know of such things, a Meinl synthetic head 20″ daff) I have different beaters and such for my frame drums, and I like to have a cloth napkin on hand as a muffle to expand the sound possibilities. I’ve got other colors for other drums, and this one felt like it needed red. Now it has it.

    1. Where do you keep all of them? Not to mention the different types of drumsticks they all require?

      1. On the walls, in closets, on top of furniture, in their bags so I can grab them and go to play somewhere, (my early music percussion rig lives bagged up in case I get a chance to go out and support an early music ensemble) and pretty much wherever else I can keep them. Some are small, so they don’t take up much room. For frame drums their sticks, beaters, brushes, and of course napkins live in the back of the drum when they’re hanging on the wall, sometimes with the drum’s bag folded in the back too.

  9. Happiness is sitting indoors on a rainy day, watching the most episode of The Bachelorette, still in my pyjamas. I may never move from the couch.

    1. Have you ever read the Bachelor / Bachelorette recaps on Smart Bitches Trashy Books? I read them religiously even though I’ve never seen an episode of either show. 🙂

        1. Sounds more like Television Without Pity (may it rest in peace) than like SBTB to me. Is that possible?

        2. Search for “Elyse Watches the Bachelorette” (or Bachelor). I don’t watch the shows but read her posts. She’s such a good writer. (I couldn’t find it other than a search either.)

          1. Found it! hilarious! And Alexandra, on the side bar, one of your books was featured!

      1. We’ve had thunderstorms interspersed with pouring rain all day. I took the dogs out in a brief non-rain interval but it was still like a sauna out there. I’ve been in rain forests that were drier.

  10. The patient perspective that I co-authored for the Endocrine Society’s journal finally made it into print (the digital draft was released a few weeks ago), and I can now ego-search my name at pubmed (the NIH site that collects medical research publication links) and come up with an article! https://academic.oup.com/jes/article/6/8/bvac086/6607648 It’s REALLY unusual for a patient-written article to be published in medical journals, and the Endocrine Society has only recently started to publish them. Usually, if there’s a “patient perspective,” it’s filtered through a clinician instead of actually written by patients, but this one is straight from our POV, not through a narrator, so to speak.

    And an extra bit of happiness is that there’s a second article about my rare disorder in the same print issue (unusual for a rare disorder to have more than one article on the topic even in a specialist journal, since even within the specialty, few clinicians see any one rare disorder) — and I’m one of the study’s subjects. So I’m both an author and a subject in the same issue! Plus, of course, the information in both articles is useful — the one I did not write but was a subject of is about physical therapy for my disorder, which had never been studied before, and there are real risks of making our condition worse (potential paralysis or worsening of damaged joints) if our physical limitations aren’t respected.

    1. Gin, This is really interesting. I read the abstract of your article. Then, because I don’t know anything about medicine, I searched for hypophosphatemia on the web. It looks like the genetic basis for the condition has yet to catch the attention of popular medicine. Certainly, your argument for a whole life/body approach is extremely important for anyone with the condition — and anyone who is expected to diagnose and treat it. Congratulations for getting published and for getting written about.

      1. Thank you!

        Yeah, a lot of info on the web about hypophosphatemia is for non-genetic causes, and to the extent they mention genetic causes, the info tends to be massively outdated (or flat-out wrong), including otherwise reputable sites that just haven’t kept up with research. In the last twenty years, there’s been a huge increase in actual knowledge among researchers/experts about my disorder, but it’s not reaching clinicians. It’s the “17 year delay between bench (research) and bedside (clinicians)” thing, which worsens access issues for the extremely effective treatment we’ve had for the last four years but only a small percentage of the patient population can access.

    4. Congratulations! The advocacy this must have taken over the years is seriously impressive. Well done you.

  11. After my 6 month long nightmare with National Association of Social Workers’ Continuing Education department, not only are we approved (yes, I said it last week, but I’m still happy about it) but the CE application function is being taken over by a paid employee for the first time. She is starting with NAADAC, (who are much easier to deal with), and is unfazed by the process so far. We did have 10 million texts this morning, but I expected to do some coaching, and she is DOING IT!!!!!

    And my kitties were sitting on the table with me this morning, which is endearing.

    And my food consumption virtue seems to be working. I am staying off the scales, because it is too depressing when I plateau, but I am looking better, which is what I care about anyway.

  12. Garden happy: yesterday morning was unexpectedly overcast and mild which led to me unexpectedly doing an hour of watering & outdoor yard grooming which meant I could then proceed through the weekend unencumbered by the guilt of neglected yardwork.

    Also happy that it’s forecast to be a few degrees cooler all week. I’ve been stress-eating junk food which has set off insomnia / headaches / mood swings / hot flashes (I knew this would happen but am not always proof against unwise behavior) and a cooler week while I detox will be helpful.

    On the writing front, happy that the August title is set up and ready to go. All I have to do now is book a promotion for it, and I don’t think I’ll make myself do that today.

    On the friends front, happy that we have a date for homemade pizza with our landlords / BFFs this evening. I haven’t seen them for months.

  13. I AM HAPPY! I just had a two-hour plus chat with eldest grandson, ranging from appliances he will need when he moves out in August to providing him my email address so he can send me a rough draft of THE BOOK HE IS WRITING! In a family where only my son and I read anything besides captions on TV, I found out my grandson reads AND WRITES! Science fiction. He says he is good with criticism. 🙂

    Oh, and my Air Conditioner makes me happy, too. Right now it is 99°F/37°C outside and 76°F/24°C in the man cave. The biggest difference is the relative humidity – 50% inside and 94% out. I got on my bike this morning and rode Around the Block, and barely made it. I was so happy to get back inside.

  14. My ice cube trays have made me happy this week. I bought a second set when I saw some on the sale rack and I love the fact that I can use the whole 2 trays and still have some ready before the next day. And decaffeinated iced tea and herb tea mean that I can drink as much as I need to without screwing up the rest of my body.

    Some of the tee shirts I have been binging on have arrived and now that the rain has cooled things off a bit I can wear the ones with dark backgrounds. The 2 newest arrivals include one that says, “Sometimes I talk to myself, then we both laugh and laugh” and another that shows Cookie Monster drawn into a Japanese style cresting wave. There are chocolate chip cookies floating between the waves so it looks like the waves are chasing and devouring the cookies, set against a red sun. I know I have to stop shopping online, but these shirts really make me smile.

    1. I also have been indulging in t-shirts, two are Murderbot-related graphics. And one is a black cat smoking and filing its nails, saying “Don’t tell me what to do.”

  15. I am happy for fans and air conditioners, like everyone else. I’ll be happier if we get some rain.

    And I’m happy for ice cream.

    1. I wish my waistline was as happy about ice cream as my taste buds have been.

  16. Working on a flower farm makes me happy. It was very hot this week but seeing the flowers in full bloom is the best reward. I spent most of my mornings this week harvesting and deadheading. I’ve decided that deadheading is the best type of mindfulness – I have to pay attention to the plants and my snips and the repetition relaxes my brain.

    We had lots of rain which makes both me and my garden happy. I harvested all my garlic – 18. Bulbs and it’s hung up and drying. First time growing garlic and can’t wait to cook with it.

    I spent a few hours tending to my indoor plants, including deep watering and re-potting. This time of year, my focus is primarily on my outdoor plants and gardens. I tossed out a few plants that didn’t survive my benign neglect. I need to figure out how to set a reminder to water them on my phone.

    1. That sounds lovely. Does your farm sell bouquets and such? Or tubers and bulbs? I know nothing about flower farming.

  17. I am happy for 3 ac window units.
    We have been really enjoying Portrait Artist of the Year and now Landscape Artist of the Year. They both stream on Freevee or Tubi which stream free with ads. We generally mute the ads and talk about the show.
    Our favorite episode of Portrait is season 2 episode 9. On that episode the season 2 winner paints an amazing commissioned portrait of Alan Cummings. As the artist ‘studies’ to do the painting he spends a lot of screen time with Alan Cummings.
    The season 1 Landscape painter does an amazing commissioned painting on the last show. Her landscapes have a dreamy quality.

  18. We went up to our almost defunct mall, to borrow their air conditioning for a couple of hours. It only has about two storefronts left, and one of them is a bookstore. I got spendy on some real paper books, which was fun, and got a Lufo stuffie from Labyrinth. My niece is turning three in two weeks. Not sure if she is getting him, along with a DVD of the movie or if I am keeping him.

    And we are getting a Spirit Halloween up there eventually, so I will go back. Halloween is my absolute favorite. Nothing in target yet, they are still all decked out for back to school, alas. But they did have cute mushroom printed tea towels which also came home with me.

    I have been very, very good about extra spending since my partner left his job and it felt good too ease up a bit. I have to be careful though because it tends to be a floodgate situation with me before I turn it all off again.

  19. I’m happy to have had a great 1,5 evening of looking at old photos with dd.
    First she had fun looking through the (kind of) yearbook of my last year at school. The she unearthed old photos of her and her brother. Baby times. We shared memories of her and her brothers early childhood.
    Gosh, were they cute!
    And gosh did we look young 16-13 years ago…

  20. Here are my two happies today — kind of an odd juxtaposition, but first there was my favorite crow, who we call Han Solo because he has seemed like kind of a lonely bird, softly caw-ing on a branch outside until we bring peanuts out. This morning I heard his caw, and went out clucking/cawing back to him with some warmed-up chicken nuggets. I put them in two spots — his usual Stump Mountain spot under a favorite branch, as well as on the stone on Log One where we usually put peanuts. Much to my surprise and cheer, by the time I’d taken the ten steps back inside I saw Han Solo AND A COMPANION gliding down from the same branch, one to each location, where they each collected as many nugget pieces as they could stuff into their beaks, then flew back up to the original branch and gorged themselves next to each other.

    My second happy was discovering a really interesting thinker called Malcolm Nance, who I’d never heard before, speaking on Christiane Amanpour’s show. He laid out in gorgeous logical fashion his sense of the current political crisis in the US as well as the current status in the Ukraine, where apparently he is currently a foreign soldier in the army. And he’s written numerous books, but I’d never heard of him, but I loved this introduction to his observations and his thinking.

    Crows and ideas — that’s happy. 🙂

  21. I am happy we are home, sleeping in our own bed after nine days away, We drove through Jasper to Edmonton and back to Vancouver. Beautiful scenery. The wedding in Barkerville, (an old gold rush town) was great fun, met some lovely people. Then on to friends and family visits. We had dessert almost every night.

    Also very happy the girls little house of many colours was moved to a new home where two little girls live. There was much opening and closing the door and shutters. The drive over with the house in the trailer was harrowing. One more item gone in the great purge.

        1. There’s Bear Paw and The Other Paw and everything is delicious. One is on Connaught (aka the highway through town) and the other is 1/2 a block off. Get the raspberry white chocolate scones. Skip the sausage rolls.

  22. I’m happy that the girls’ weekend last week went well. I was iffy on it because one of the friends is on a totally different life path, she’s a mom who has hardly had any friend time with us in the last 20 years, but everything went okay and we had a good time.

    I’ve been off work this week doing stuff around the house and yard. I’m about half done deep weeding the garden and tomorrow I’m going to work on getting stuff that belongs in the workshop/garage back out there so I can get that cleaned up and start painting closet doors. Getting the house back in order is making me happy.

    I’ve had 2 birds fly into the front window, both flew away, but I found a pretty bird guard so I’m going to order that. It has branches and flowers and birds so it’s better than the strips of tape I used when we first moved here.

  24. I am happy about the meme I just saw:
    Women For Trump is like Chicken For McNuggets

    so funny even though it is so true!!!!!!!!!!!

  25. One happy was wearing my new “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon” t-shirt out to the movies. Sadly, no one except my husband asked me about it. Thanks to whoever it was here who made me aware of the existence of such shirts.

    Going to the movies was also a happy. We saw a Sidney Poitier double feature, both from 1967: In the Heat of the Night and To Sir, With Love. We hadn’t seen either one before and they were both very good.

    My third happy is that the theater where we saw these movies finally reopened a couple of weeks ago, after being closed since March 1, 2020. It’s the Stanford Theater, in Palo Alto, California: beautifully restored, with its own pipe organ that’s played between shows or for silent movie soundtracks, over 1,000 seats and a huge screen. Usually they play movies older than 1960, but the Poitier movies were an exception. We’re looking forward to a couple of upcoming Kurosawa films.

    1. Love both of those movies. We’ve watched In The Heat Of The Night several times. Each time we see something else we’ve missed or see a deeper nuance. Such a good movie. Love the slap to the face and the reactions of the other characters as well as the slapee. Sidney Poitier was wonderful to watch on screen. He held so much emotion within and still revealed the inner rage.

  26. I know we all don’t watch the same TV show but this can’t wait till GBT or in my mind I call it GBT book, movie, TV show, series etc. because by then I will have moved on. But last night on Grantchester, a PBS program, Mrs C. went on a rage at and to just about anyone she came in contact with over her cancer diagnosis. She didn’t hang back at anyone. The way we would all like to do but just can’t. And truly it wouldn’t be only cancer. The only one to console her was dear Leonard. Oh, do I really like his character.

Comments are closed.