They say the reason you can't buy happiness is that we, as a race, are remarkably adaptable to our surroundings. Let me explain. When things are going miserably, we adapt and make do with what we have. The folks in prison camps develop their own rules and societies and make do. At the same time, follks who have found themselves to be recipients of windfall sums of money are initially elated, but soon also adjust to the newfound riches and find that they are no happier than they were before. Studies show that happiness remains more or less constant over the long term regardless of the day to day positives or negatives that happen to us.
The other day, we drove our Suburban for the first time in a month or two. Wow - that is a nice vehicle. I guess I had forgotten about it after driving around in the metro for so long. The contrast between the two vehicles is huge, but here are a few of the most glaring differences:
- Road noise
- Handling
- Height above the road
- Cleanliness
- Radio
- Seat comfort
- Did I mention road noise?
Anyway, this post is a salute to the things that bring us back down to earth and remind us of how great we have things. Heck, just having a single vehicle with money to pay for gas is a great thing. Oh yeah, and if you are waiting for "tomorrow" for things to be better, you better reconglomerate because this is it baby - it doesn't get any better than this....and even if it did, your human bean mind would just moderate your happiness right back down to where you were. Carpe diem baby!
PS - to keep the farming flavor:
- Today I wrestled a 200 lb goat to the ground and gave myself a blister by trimming his hooves with wire cutters while I sat on him to keep him down
- We found a turtle that tried to go under a low electric fence. Apparently turtles don't do well with 4,000 volts running from the top of their shells to the ground because he had a serious case of total death.
- We took Jessica's parents (here visiting from Holland) to a genuine cattle auction in Bonham. They thought it was a unique TX experience and couldn't beleive how many cattle were sold.
- I took the day as a vacation day from work, but ended up putting in a good solid 2+ hours of work anyway
- I was welding the pool fence (making repairs to rusted out areas) and while cutting out some old rusted sections, my angle grinder self-destructed - thank you Harbor Freight!
- I put in a couple of laps on the tractor around one of the last sections of pasture that is not yet mowed
- Ginger (our youngest at about 2.5 years old) can swim about 6' under water. As soon as we can teach her to put her head up to grab a gulp of air, she will be swimming all the way across the pool.
- One of the chickens climbed into Jessica's mother's lap to steal her pizza (while she was eating it) This did not go over to well as she is not a big fan of chickens and that is a little to close for comfort even for a moderate chicken-fan
- BIG NEWS around here, apparently the bachelorette got rid of the guy that Jessica says was a "playa." I'm not really sure what any of that means to us, but it is BIG NEWS around here
- I found Jessica's keys (missing for 2 months) in an old vato jacket that she had left them in out by the sheep pen. I am the big hero!
3 comments:
That livestock auction was a new experience for me too! I'm also so excited to have the pool fence fixed. And I love it when a chicken jumps on my lap to try and steal my food.
A great read. That suburban is a nice vehicle. I am so glad it is in good order,because I would like to know if we could borrow it when EVERYONE is here starting July 10. Nancy and family are flying as are Kelly and Roko so we are definitely short on seats. Heck we can't even retrieve Nancy, her kids, Christopher, and Ruth from the airport without help.
Sure thing mama. Maybe we could just trade vehicles for the week or something.
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