My mother-in-law passing in her sleep. My wife is stuck in a situation of doing just about everything for her parents and brother, FIL has onset dementia, MIL is in the full throes of Alzheimer’s and her brother is living on a prayer after multiple heart attacks and strokes. Her mother takes up much of her time everyday plus the expenses of memory care is quickly wiping out her parents savings. She no longer recognizes anybody and most of her days are spent ranting and raving about non existent things. She will soon turn 90 years old. I know my wife would be devastated over losing her mother but in the big picture, it would make her life much easier than it is today. That would make me happy.
A serious, reliable, informed, dispassionate and professional news source that keeps me well informed on the events of he day - with one exception. They have to completely ignore any and all events related to United States national politics. Seriously, imagine Satan himself bursts out of the Capitol dome with Mitch McConnell in one hand and Nancy Pelosi in the other hand. Satan then rubs their faces together while making kissy kissy noises. I don’t wanna know about it. Maybe a tiny blurb about how traffic on the beltway will be worse than usual and for their own convenience, drivers may wish to commit suicide right now.
My life to live over again with the ability to predict the future.
This sounds morbid, but knowing when my end date is.
Being able to tell the handful of people that I care about goodbye in a finite way would be a blessing.
I’ve had too many open ended goodbyes, most bittersweet. I hate the idea of bumping into someone and their trying to restart the friendship.
Long-term decreased COVID threat.
I don’t know if simple things are that simple.
For me, a better relationship with my nieces. They’re teenagers now and have no interest in family anymore.
As the OP asks for something simple that would make my life happier, I think I have at least one answer.
Over in the Pit I just posted about an ice cream truck that was sitting somewhere around the corner for the past fifteen minutes emitting its incredibly irritating repeating jingle. Earlier I had posted about a neighbour’s swimming pool and the associated screeching kidlets.
We now move on to a neighbour deciding that an asphalt-paved driveway was declassé, so he had it torn up and repaved with paving brick. Know what happens when paving brick is being installed? Yes, many bricks are cut, using a gas-powered diamond-tipped masonry saw. Any idea what that sounds like?
And the very next day, someone way over on another street was doing something else. I don’t know what they were doing, but it involved a powerful high-pitched whine that was loud enough to make my windows vibrate a block away, and accompanied by the sound of a big diesel engine.
Then came the next step of the neighbour’s paved-brick driveway, some kind of apparatus that moved around on the driveway, apparently designed to make huge thumping noises specifically to annoy me.
Then we have lawnmowers, but yes, summer is nearing its end as we approach labour day, the season of loud barbecues and the grand entrance of the season of leaf blowers.
I think you can see where I’m going with this. The one simple thing that would make my life happier is moments of peaceful silence like the one I’m enjoying now. My wish is that there would be more of them, and less screeching, sawing, whining, and pounding.
There are basically no problems in my life that about five million dollars in the bank wouldn’t solve. The few problems money wouldn’t solve basically aren’t solvable by anything but time and having a new property to whip into shape and the cash to do so the right way would make the waiting a whole lot easier.
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.
A cure for tinnitus. It’s like a bloody smoke alarm in my head 24/7 now, it’s taking a toll on all aspects of life.
This. It would give me huge peace of mind to be able to take a job that allows me to pay the other bills, but not need to cover the mortgage cost as well. Alternately, to have all my medical costs covered, so I could afford to pay my mortgage.
Yep. Especially if I predecease my wife. It isn’t even all that much.
Have you try quitting NSAIDs? Aspirin especially. Won’t cure, but will help.
Yes. Haven’t taken any NSAIDS since 2008.
I know what you mean! My doc prescribed lisinopril for blood pressure last month, but I had to stop after a few days because of the deafening screeching. Ibuprofen does it, too. I wonder how many other meds cause it without us even cognizant of it?
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 had a list, but the one thing would be having the courage so many of the posters to this thread show in their daily lives. You all are inspiring.
Oh yes, this too. Talk about never having a quiet moment!
There are some partial solutions:
Earplugs
Soundproofing insulation
I spent years making my backyard wonderful. Now I can’t go down the steps without pain.
A mobility ramp that didn’t eat our back porch would make me so much happier.
Clarity about two things: a very tough legal situation I’m facing, and the decision whether I should marry my girlfriend or not.
I am not exaggerating when saying such clarity would solve 99% of my life problems right now.