Feeling good only costs 10 cents

10 Swiss centimes

10 Euro cents

10 USA cents

You know how busy we all are, how we run from one task to the other, one errand to the next: a merry-go-round of “things to do”. If we’re lucky, we stop to “smell the roses” or recognize happiness when it hits.

 

This morning I was on my third errand, which involved parking in one of the commercial centers. Upon going to pay my parking ticket, the chap before me couldn’t get the machine to accept his bill, one that was within the limits of what the machine should accept. He turned it over, nothing to be done. He was then going to use a credit card (for 1 franc!) but

Must of thought that he had pressure as he looked first for change. After the fiasco of the bill I had offered to pay, but that was refused. However, when the coins he had came up short by 10 cents He did allow me to me to chip in. He left happy, I left happier!

What temperature is happiness?

Somewhere in the past week I read a small article that maintained that satisfaction was found at C 13,9°.

Unfortunately my brain didn’t start thinking about that premise until several days later and I can’t find the article although I have searched high and lo (and on internet). I am pretty sure that it was a written article on paper, and in French so spent an hour going through the paper basket…) Then of course that thought became rather important as I walked to and fro (loaned the car to my older son) the past few days.

So why would they determine that one is most satisfied at C 13.9°?

This is rather cool, does it have to do with not sitting still (if one did at that temperature, one would quickly become rather cold)? Does it have to do with being out on a lovely fall day, sunny, but cool?

No matter as I can’t find the original explanation: it still led to my thinking about my favorite temperature.

It isn’t one temperature, in fact, the more I thought the more  “ideal” temperatures or the temperatures with which I am “happiest” for various reasons, I came up with:

·       19°C (or 68°F – one conversion that I know by heart as there was a little liquor store in my youngest sister’s town the fall I spent four months there, which posted both!) is often deemed the best temperature for a room: not so cold that one freezes, not so warm that it costs a lot to heat

·       10°C – if I am out walking I need a light jacket

·       11°-15° C – again, if out walking start with a sweater that I usually end up taking off after having walked uphill for 10 minutes

·       17-18°C best for gardening and housework as that involves both effort and moments of non-effort.

·       20°C is the temperature I prefer for my bedroom: this is warm enough so that I only need the light duvet, yet cool enough so that I don’t wake up feeling stuffy

·       21°C is o.k. for about a half hour if sitting still

·       23-24°C my personal “ideal temperatures for sitting around

·       25°C upper limit of my own personal comfort zone, anything beyond that becomes “warm, let’s not make too much of an effort

·       26-29°C bearable, but again I am more likely to not want to move too much

·       30° and above: I become somewhat (now, now, really – don’t contradict me on that somewhat) cranky.

·       35°C I am definitely not much fun to be around as, if I am not complaining about the heat, I am saying that it’s too hot (I do make an effort for my family and friends – the rest of you I ignore at that temperature).

Then of course there are all the temperatures of items/food in my daily life…

·       Just to be contrary, my favorite bath temperature is around 40°C : I did say contrary.

·       Love my sparkling wine as slush (not sure of the temperature).

·       Try and keep the freezers at 19°C and the refrigerators at 5-10°C (I think)

·       Love my hot drinks HOT and my cold COLD, but don’t always put ice in the cold ones.

·       Same with food – if it’s meant to be hot, it had better be hot: I am more lenient with warm and cold

Who knew that thinking about the temperature where one is happiest could produce so many diverse thoughts?

 

How about your own list?

living room

bedroom bookshelf

bathroom

Happiness is… or

At least for this moment.

Three smooth flights: all on-time and with sufficient transit allowed to not have to rush to catch the next one (o.k. it made for just as long of a day as going all the way to the West Coast of the USA with only two flights). I didn’t dare say it by the time I was waiting for the last one, but I have rarely had as easy a trip.

Laying vertically after all those flights and a 24-hour day

Seeing the moon out the window over the mountains as I lay in bed.

Waking to see the rising sun out the same windows (guest bedroom has a whole wall of windows looking out over the surrounding mountains: not a road, nor person in sight, only trees and nature. It is hard to sleep under those conditions as one could spend the whole time just enjoying the view.

Being able to get into the walking trousers that I had left behind (see former blogs about recent not-so-much-a-diet as a got-to-come-to-grips-with winter kilos. Now I didn’t say that it is a pretty sight, but at least it was doable.

B & K’s having gone to the trouble of buying me a lemon for my morning drink (o.k. no juicer meant that I had to get creative, but peeling and cutting into chunks and putting through a garlic press certainly did the job: as they say, necessity is the mother of invention); of having also pointed out to me the various coffee options available in the house.  Not my only addiction, but perhaps the best known one is my need for a cup of coffee in the morning and somewhere in between 15:00 and 16:00 in the afternoon.

Taking a walk around the “loop”: my brother’s street circles at the top of Monte Sano (appropriately named meaning as it does “health mountain”). The temperatures were perfect for a light sweatshirt and a brisk walk. Enough low-level up and down for me to feel that I have had a walk: there were birds that I don’t have at home such as red cardinals, robins, but there were other more house sparrow types that I do have; the trees and vegetation is in about the same flux of spring as at home; the streets still quiet.

Knowing that I have three whole weeks to enjoy being here.

Having family and friends who are always willing to house-sit and keep the home front secure.

Happiness is: also tempered, and thus made more precious, by not having Domino to walk with me; thinking of favorite walking spots and missing the beach by my younger sister. Losses make us appreciate even more those who remain, both human and animal.

But this happiness won’t be denied: my current waves of the stuff could warm many a corner if I could only think of a way of canalizing it.

Happiness is: being alive to enjoy it!