All that rock! 
go with a composting toilet and gray water field.
The first time I adopted an Angel Tree kid I had no idea how much it would heal my soul.
The lady handed me a list of what my kid would need and said I don’t have to get everything on there just get what I can afford. Except when I looked at the list I was brought to tears. I thought it was going to be a bunch of toys. But nope, it was stuff like, jacket, shoes, underwear…
Seriously, how does one decide which one of those NOT to get? So of course I got everything on that list.
And I have been hooked ever since. Now I look forward to Christmas for that reason alone.
I guess “sympathize” is the wrong word here, but I understand the issue. After the sale of our house last year for a surprising amount of money, we’re also awash in cash. Hell, we don’t even come close to spending our retirement income, despite the high rent in this place. The OP didn’t mention children. When we first got out here, we wrote checks to my kids and the wife’s nieces for $10K each. This wasn’t arbitrary, as all of them needed a boost at that time. We also give to charities and political candidates. But we don’t personally need anything, nor do we have room for it. Once my knee is healed, we may do a bit of travel, but I have a feeling that my wife is also going to need knee surgery. At age 76, we’re getting close to looking at travel as being more trouble than it’s worth.
I’ll second travel. If planes and driving are difficult for health reasons take cruises and/or trains.
Also, look into volunteering. There’s all sorts of things possible there. Tutoring. Work at an animal shelter if you like animals. Tour guide at a favorite museum. Whatever suits you.
Closer to home, plant a vegetable garden or take up word working or some other hobby (realizing that things like woodworking can be dangerous…stay safe).
I get it. We had a similar issue last year ($50,000) We have to pump up a hill and create a new drain field away from the Sound. We could afford it, but it reminded me (not for the first time) how fortunate we are and how many people, even in our middle class neighborhood, would be completely screwed with an unanticipated expense like this.
Related to this thread, I do find that being grateful helps my outlook. All of us have some stuff that weighs on us, (the OP perhaps more than his share) but almost all of us also have something to be grateful for.
That reminded me of a recent This Old House project house that used an alternative to a septic system. Googling, I think it was the house in Essex, Massachusetts and the system was described in episode 22 of season 34. It was described as a “self-contained membrane bioreactor septic system”. Normally, the show is good about providing the names of the vendors shown but I can’t find details of this online. As I remember, this house was on granite, with very little earth, so putting in a conventional septic tank and leaching field was not possible. You might investigate if such an alternative would work for you.
Further Googling leads me to BusseGT, which is the system used in that house and here is a clip from that episode. (Here is a link to the part where they show the system in that house.)
projects that do not make necessarily “business sense” - but are worthwhile anyhow …
- solar powered perimetral lighting
- If it’s in the cards, a (used?) smallish EV … and build a solar carport for it - so you can charge it at home for free…
those kinds of things … that might be a (shortterm) net-cost but a (longterm) net-positive
good thing is there is lots to read up to … and also some good online resources (boards) that are helpful and can guide you through the process …
nothing more rewarding than finishing a good project, and extra brownie points for helping the planet …
along those lines …
I want to plug "The Happiness Project " again, but this time I will do it with quotes
“One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.”
“It was time to expect more of myself. Yet as I thought about happiness, I kept running up against paradoxes. I wanted to change myself but accept myself. I wanted to take myself less seriously – and also more seriously. I wanted to use my time well, but I also wanted to wander, to play, to read at whim. I wanted to think about myself so I could forget myself. I was always on the edge of agitation; I wanted to let go of envy and anxiety about the future, yet keep my energy and ambition.”
The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It’s more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit.”
Finally
“The First Splendid Truth: To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.”
Thanks, but I would have no place to put it. No basement or garage.
We spent all our married life together traveling, so it holds no particular allure. While there are places I wouldn’t mind seeing, the hassle of getting there is a real deterrent. I absolutely will never take a cruise, and I’ve done AmTrak, which is noisy, slow and uncomfortable.
US trains suck (AmTrak). I HATE AmTrak. They are awful and expensive when they should be cheap (an example where unions make things so much worse). Trains in other parts of the world are usually much better.
I agree about cruises but not all are the same. My parents swore they would never, ever ever ever take a cruise. Then a social group they were a part of planned a cruise and they reluctantly went. They freaking loved it and after that they couldn’t get enough of cruises but never the super big ships.
There are light years of difference between a cruise with 5,000 people and a cruise with 100 people (or less).
I was recently in Italy and took their train (Frecciarossa). Show me an AmTrak as nice (or as fast):
Since books are being bandied about here, you might look into Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.
He also wrote 4,000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals which I also recommend.
This is really skirting dangerously close to suggesting happiness being something you can achieve or earn and that if you aren’t happy you just aren’t trying hard enough. That’s not how it works. Most people who are happy at not trying to be happy, they just are. It’s paradoxically one of those objectives that gets farther and farther away the more you seek it.
It also suggests happiness is a worthier goal than say, a life of meaning, or a life lived according to one’s values. Happiness is not a guarantee but we can make choices that feel right no matter how depressed we are.
I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about this as a person whose baseline mood is somewhat low and who has experienced long (years-long) bouts of severe depression.
For my part, now that I’m the parent of a small child, I worry much less about abstract concepts of happiness because I’m too damned busy. My idea of happiness has changed a lot. There is a lot about parenting that isn’t fun, but life isn’t all about feeling endless quantities of pleasure, it’s about building something meaningful, and I dare say, rising to meet challenges that push you to your limit of what you thought was possible. Even hardship can be gratifying, in the right circumstances. But nobody should be required to smile about it. It’s not that kind of happiness.
True enough. I have actually considered the Viking river cruises. It’s the flying to Europe; makes me feel exhausted just thinking about it.
Check out if there is a service dog facility near you. We raised guide dog puppies. First, they are cute. Second, they have been bred to be well behaved. Third vet bills are paid. You have to give them up, but you know they are going to help someone who needs their help. And our last one became a breeder and we got to keep her and see her puppies. Another advantage of this is that you go to meetings where the dogs are trained and you get advice, and you get to meet other raisers.
The main thing I found (I’ve been retired 7 years now) is to decide what makes you happy and do it, and not worry about the money or the time. I write and still stay active in the conference I was involved with while working. I may curse it often, but is a tangible contribution to my field.
But you can’t find joy unless you know what joy is to you.
We’re going on one in August, from San Francisco, but we’ve been on lots of cruises, so low stress. I could see a first timer finding it difficult.
Notice that she says act happy, not be happy. You can’t always change how you feel, but you can change how you act.
I can’t say how hard it is to act happy, because that’s my default social veneer - I am depressed, but few who have me me would know that. It’s called smiling depression. (I can also verify that “fake it till you make it” doesn’t always work.)
I would never say that someone who wasn’t happy was just not trying hard enough, and I doubt that Ms. Rubin would either. She put in a lot of work on her happiness project.
As I think about it, I don’t think what you’re thinking of as happiness is the same as how I think of it. To me, happiness is more about feeling good about where you’re at, not about pleasure.
German trains are very nice too. Except for the one time we got our own sleeper cabin. Yuck.
Ah. I have never been able to hide my depression. At its worst (and hopefully these days are behind me) I was unable to function, to work, to bathe, to dress myself. At its best it’s just obvious I’m not in a good mood. It’s gotten me into trouble a couple of times. I will probably read the book, as it’s a subject that interests me, so I thank you for bringing it up.
I stayed up way past my bedtime and watched this whole house in one weekend. It was an EPIC project!! And the septic system was indeed epic! Too bad the OP has nowhere to put such a thing 
I object to them on principal. I know how high-handed those companies are, disregarding local laws, polluting bays and waterways, and being in cahoots with local businesses (referring passengers in exchange for kickbacks), etc.