# One thing that would make your life happier **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 27, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448 "2022-08-27T21:32:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/41 "2022-08-29T11:04:24Z")
UBI…(to meet minimum character limit) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/42 "2022-08-29T12:39:39Z")
I would like some more private/reading time, please. For years, I have been getting up an hour earlier than necessary on weekdays, so I could drive to work alone and read for a while before clocking in. Nowadays, to save gas money, I have to ride with my husband. He kindly changed his schedule to accommodate me, but in reality, we do leave the house later than before. So I’ve lost my alone time in the car before and after work, and my reading time’s cut almost in half. These are the linchpins of my sanity, folks. Also, I don’t ever get a moment to crack open my book on the weekends. That’s been true always, but as long as we’re wishing… ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/43 "2022-08-29T15:31:33Z")
To pay off my son’s student loans. We cosigned his private student loans so when he died we were on the hook. I send sob story letters to the lenders on a regular basis hoping to have the loans forgiven but it seems no one has a heart at the lending institutions. We can’t retire until they’re paid off. It’s a constant worry for me. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/44 "2022-08-29T21:49:46Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Energy. I have something like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and I can do about one thing a day. I understand. I thought I had something like CFS but would have odd moments that made me suspect my heart/lungs. After several attempts we finally caught my heart murmur. Now I need to convince the doc who persevered for me to convince others that maybe surgery is in order. She says, it’s minor. It doesn’t feel minor when I haven’t got energy. Can I afford the surgery? No. Can I afford to go without the surgery? No. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/45 "2022-08-29T23:11:11Z")
this is sad, I’m sorry to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2022, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/46 "2022-08-29T23:31:40Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Energy. I have something like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and I can do about one thing a day. For example I can go grocery shopping or ride my horse for a couple hours, I cannot do both. So many things I’d like to do just take more juice than I have. Pushing myself to do more makes me ill, dizzy, angry, and push me far enough and I just lie down and scream-cry, and it doesn’t matter where I am, I’m like a toddler. So I really really avoid pushing. It is as limiting as any other disease, but doctors think I am making it up. > > Just the normal amount of energy for a fairly fit older woman would be enough. I can understand. I go through this, too. I believe you’re only born with a finite amount of energy. When you’re a kid, you have plenty of excess energy. As you grow older and bigger, that amount of energy gets depleted. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/47 "2022-08-30T00:02:49Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I can understand. I go through this, too. **I believe you’re only born with a finite amount of energy.** When you’re a kid, you have plenty of excess energy. As you grow older and bigger, that amount of energy gets depleted. If this were the case, people who exercise frequently and vigorously would be the tired-est and weakest people in old age, but it’s usually the opposite. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448/48 "2022-08-30T09:33:36Z")
> [@Mortimus](#): > > You should get out of suburbia and move out to the sticks. Morning noises out here consist of wild turkeys gobbling, sand hill cranes screeching and the sound of someone shooting at their breakfast… or whatever needs to get shot at 5 am with what sounds like a machine gun. Are you my neighbor? =) Well we don’t have sandhill cranes here - but I have a family of crows in the mulberry tree, a mated pair of owls in the woods [the tree that the eagles nest was in fell 3 winters ago so they moved across the road] some feral guinea fowls, and the jackass that shoots at 0500 OR at about 2200 [10 pm] Sigh. We get both larger ca shotgun and some annoying lighter round rifle, and what is fairly obviously a .22. At least when we shoot target, we restrain ourselves to early afternoon on a weekend. I lived in a slum in Norfolk VA and had a stalker for 25 years, so gunfire at really early or really late makes the skin between my shoulders crawl, and if I am asleep, I end up with flashbacks. [Yes one does not have to be military to have PTSD associated with gunfire. Sigh.] But I will definitely say, gun toting neighbors aside, sticks is where it is at for peace. Personally, only thing absolutely better would be to live with a private stretch of oceanfront beach with nobody for at least 400 feet in either direction. I love the sound of surf, and salt air lightly scented with rotting fish and seaweed [well that is the beach smell] is comforting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-thing-that-would-make-your-life-happier/970448.md?page=2)