Degrees of Happiness

 It seems in the current times that happiness isn't always easy to find.

At first I thought that it was only present when there was eating and drinking going on. But long time readers know the difference between correlation and causation. And they are certainly familiar with alternative explanations. You know, control variables. See if you can spot the alternative explanation.

A dinner out at Pietana.

The next seven pictures, like the ones above, get no caption.

If you guessed Pietana, wrong! Grilling and having the first fire in a long time were also a giant source of happiness. True, the fire was accompanied by eating and drinking.

If you guessed that the outcome was somehow tied to forgetting about a virus, you are wrong again. Some new additions to the shed. Poor little shed.

If you are doubting the existence of an alternative explanation, you can't be faulted. Here is Eva enjoying mochi ice cream for the first time after a sushi meal, after a fantastic check up at the doctor's office. Three inches and 11 pounds in one year.

No, friends, the alternative explanation is these are times where I'm doing stuff with the whole family. Funny enough, in the current times when people might be going crazy when they are cooped up with their family, and people are being driven nuts by too much exposure, I seem to only be really happy when I get that exposure. I think the pattern was to have too much of it early, too little of it, and now long for more of what hasn't always been present over the past few months. When family is entered into the stepwise regression, the significance of food and drink is reduced to p = .09. OK, marginal significance. I am who I am. Alternatively, when food and drink is introduced to the stepwise regression analysis, the beta for family remains significant (p < .001). I report that both ways at the request of Reader 2. Manuscript ID JP-2020-0016 R2.

I'll keep my eye out for opportunities to take pics of those times when they don't include food or drink. If nothing else, like Thomas and friends on the train tracks, we're always happiest when our purpose is clear.