More doggie love, if you can handle it…
Every day when I get home, Dog acts as if I’ve just been pardoned by the governor. She wags not just her tail, but the entire aft portion of her body.
Then she runs to her toy box and drags out her favorite stuffed animal - it is the same one every time, the only one she has never destroyed - and brings it to me.
What could be better?
mmm
[ul]
[li]Laying in the grass on a warm spring day.[/li][li]Quenching a thirst I didn’t know I had with a sharp cold drink.[/li][li]Experiencing a really pleasant dream.[/li][li]A new episode of one of my favourite TV shows.[/li][li]The perfect pithy tweet, that I send promptly and get a good reaction to, especially from a celebrity.[/li][/ul]
Have you ever tried ‘talking’ to them? I once had a long chat with one of our local woodpeckers while I was trying to drill a hole in my shed. I must have been getting the timing of the drill just right to imitate their communication hammering, so every time I drilled, he replied.
Watching birds playing in the wind is one of my little happy moments; I don’t care what species, I’m not a bird snob.
If you’d like to see more butterflies than you currently see, it’s pretty simple to attract them by providing plants they feed on, and also plants their caterpillars feed upon.
We have swarms of butterflies in our backyard every year, thanks to creative gardening inspired by the cool folks at St Martin’s Butterfly Farm.
(When we have visitors who are impressed by all the beautiful butterflies in our yard, my standard reply is, “Yeah, I really need to spray”)
I’m a store cashier. Interacting with children at the checkout always makes me smile. And whenever anyone comments on how fast I do my job, I tell them my secret: I’m going it with only one good hand, and explain about snapping off my left wristbone. Their reactions make me laugh.
I love talking to anyone anywhere about anything. Just being acknowledged is the best thing in the world.
Sitting on a lawn chair on the front porch drinking a beer, particularly after a long day at work. Watching the world go by for 10 minutes is a great way to decompress.
A lot of dog love in the thread, so I’m going to share the story of my stoner cat. He’s an older cat, and I inherited him after his owners had to move into a no-pet place. He was originally called Dizzy, as he had the tendency as a kitten to spin around in circles until he fell over, then do it all again. That’s still technically his name, but if I actually want him to come to me, I have to call him Bong. He will come right away if I call him that or if he hears that distinctive gurgle sound.
He’ll park on my shoulder while I smoke a joint. If I don’t blow all the smoke at his face, he’ll dig the claws in. However, if I feed him a hoot or two, he’ll relax on my chest and start … well, chatting while I pet him. It’s a cute collection of mews, meeps, and trills, and it’s easily the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen a cat do in my life. That’s my happy time, and it always leaves a smile on my face.
Also, to be clear, I don’t blow pot smoke in pet’s faces as a rule. This cat is so freaking into it that he’s the exception that proves that rule.
Kookaburras. The ringing laugh call makes me happy.
My dog’s furious reaction to magpies when they turn up as he eats his food and he tries to chase them off.
My adorable 5 year old red-headed niece and the way her happiness and excitement is so close to the surface.
The plane taxiing in for a landing at Louis Armstrong airport, NOLA!
(oops that’s not daily, is it?!)
Clarification: by “daily,” I didn’t mean it necessarily happens every day. I meant “quotidian,” i.e., “ordinary or everyday, especially when mundane.” As in common, replicable, routine, unremarkable, unspecial occurrences, as opposed to once-in-a-lifetime events, such as meeting the Pope, winning the Nobel Prize, scaling Mt. Everest, swimming the English Channel, giving birth to quintuplets, etc.
Everything mentioned so far qualifies, and so fun to read. Can’t stop smiling. Love the cat and dog stuff. 
Has anyone mentioned cooking? I don’t cook dinners as often as I’d like, as we eat out 2 or 3 times a week, but even making an omelet in the morning is fun.
After showering and dressing at the gym, it feels so good to toss my used towel at the hamper while I’m walking out.
Not sure if it’s because my workout is done, or that I don’t have to be tidy and hang or wash the towel, but my brain just says “YES!” every time.
It’s even better if I knock another towel in with my towel – YEEESSS!!!
Lots of great stuff here.
I love seeing the goldfinches in my garden, also we have some big blue slate slabs edging our lawn and when I cut the grass and strim the edges I end up with stray wisps of grass on the slate. I clean them off using a hose and there is something intrinsically *right * about the combination of neatly trimmed turf and dark, shining slate.
Summer evenings when it’s cool enough to open the windows and listen to the insects. Sitting on a covered porch during a rainstorm. Sorting through some books I’ve just gotten and deciding which to read first. Sitting on the couch and noticing that the dog has walked up and fallen asleep on your feet. Seeing a new astronomical object through a telescope for the first time.
Best of all, dancing with a good partner to a good song and everything is in perfect sync.
Crawling into bed and falling asleep listening to a good rain storm.
Allow me to join the pet bandwagon…
In the morning, after I get out of the shower to dry off, I gaze down at my bed, where my wife, my son (who is 4 years old and usually crawls into the bed in the middle of the night), and our two dogs (a Boston Terrier and a Shih Tzu) are normally cuddled peacefully. Seeing my family so content always makes me smile.
Bonus points if one of the dogs is on their back with their legs in the air.
Having your luggage come out first on the carousel at the airport.
It’s only happened once, but golly it made me happy for a bit.
I can go even lower than that. Making a round-trip without having at least one bag lost or delayed brings me endless joy and I am always pleasantly surprised when all the bags show up at all. I have had my bags lost permanently so many times that one airline accused me of fraud. Nope, they and the others are just incompetent. I have had my bags delayed for days more times than I can count. Family members make jokes about how many times my bags have been permanently lost or delayed until they travel with me and it happens to them too. None of us can explain it.
It is a thrill to see everyone’s luggage come out the other side like magic because I don’t ever assume it will really happen.
You need to visit the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, someday. I’ll bet some of your stuff might be there.
There’s part of my commute that has a beautiful view of a river, with stunning tree-covered cliffs on the other side. I’ve seen it at many different times of day, in all seasons, and in all types of weather. The view never fails to lift my spirits.
In spring, I wake up to the sound of birdsong. In my half-conscious early morning state, I always get the mental image of pink ribbons leaping from tree to tree. It always makes me smile.
The walls of my apartment are a beautiful shade of blue. It’s the first time in ages that I’ve lived in a place whose walls aren’t landlord beige. It’s been a few years since the walls were painted, but the color still makes me happy.
Polar seltzer makes me happy, especially if I get lucky and find my favorite flavor, or a new flavor, at the bodega. Going to the bodega late at night and chatting with the bodega guy makes me happy, too.