Before I get to the subject of the title of this blog, I’ll first deal with our day. It was another near perfect weather day here in Desert Hot Springs as temperatures again rose up into the mid-80’s. We started the day off in good style with an early morning Pancake Breakfast up at the Oasis Hall. As many of you probably know this is my favourite RV Park activity. Does eating pancakes count as an activity? I vote yes!
A Few Of My Favourite Photos From February
Gotta love a 5 Guys Burger!
After breakfast, Paulette and Sandy were off and running again, this time to a huge Church garage sale in a ritzy part of town. This is one Paulette looks forward to every year because of the great deals. That left me and the muttzo’s home to spend a leisurely morning just taking it easy. I’ve started another new book so I was able to sit outside and enjoy the morning sunshine while my mind wandered off to wherever the author’s words took me.
We love the way the mountains block the clouds
About mid-morning, I made myself a nice Cappuccino with our Tassimo Brewing machine to help me from drifting off into siesta land. Paulette got home from her garage sales loaded up with two of the biggest bags of clothing I’ve ever seen. Her and Sandy hit the jackpot as while they were browsing through all the clothing for sale at the Church, an announcement was made that you could fill up a plastic bag of clothes for just $10. What a haul they made!!
We managed to go on a few great hikes last month
Thankfully, Paulette knows better than to buy second-hand clothing for me as I refuse to wear any of them. It gives me the creeps to think that some guy I didn’t even know may have died wearing the very same shirt I now had on. Paulette thinks I’m crazy, but for all the clothes I buy in a given year, I’ll take brand new ones thanks.
Box Canyon Drive
While Paulette was busy sorting out the over 2 dozen items of clothing she bought, some of it looked brand new and quite expensive, I went up to the pool for an early swim. I had a late afternoon game of golf lined up for 3:45 and since it was so hot a swim was a nice way to cool off before heading out for golf. It’s a tough life being a snowbird!
Rylie’s friend and a daily visitor – the Roadrunner
After going for dinner with friends Gary, Sandy, Tom and Jennifer last night we came home and I sat down to write this blog. While browsing around the web, an article on some website caught my eye. It was provocatively titled America’s Happiest (And Most Miserable) States. That I had to have a look at.
Start of another great desert hike
This survey, or poll, was conducted by the Gallup company. Their results released last Thursday under the heading “The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index”, has surveyed 1.7 million Americans since the survey was first conducted in 2008 and reflects the physical and emotional health of residents in each of the 50 states.
States with high well-being had populations that smoked less, exercised more and tried to learn new things each day. These states also tended to share the outcomes of those behaviours. Residents had lower levels of key health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attacks and had more energy.
Of the 10 states with the highest levels of well-being, the majority are either in the West or Midwest. Of the 10 states with the lowest well-being scores, eight are located in the South. This has been the case since the survey began. Here are Gallup’s lists:
Top five most happy states:
| 1. | Hawaii | Well-being index score: 71.1 |
| 2. | Colorado | Well-being index score: 69.7 |
| 3. | Minnesota | Well-being index score: 68.9 |
| 4. | Utah | Well-being index score: 68.8 |
| 5. | Vermont | Well-being index score: 68.6 |
The five most miserable states:
| 1. | West Virginia | Well-being index score: 61.3 |
| 2. | Kentucky | Well-being index score: 62.7 |
| 3. | Mississippi | Well-being index score: 63.6 |
| 4. | Tennessee | Well-being index score: 64.0 |
| 5. | Arkansas | Well-being index score: 64.1 |
Looking at how the top 5 happy states and the 5 most miserable states scored in the Gallup survey, I can’t say I was particularly shocked or surprised by any of them. I was curious to see how many of the most popular “snowbird states” fared in this survey, so I checked out the following 5 states along with their rankings:
Five of the popular snowbird state rankings:
| 18. | California | Well-being index score: 67.4 |
| 23. | Arizona | Well-being index score: 67.1 |
| 25. | New Mexico | Well-being index score: 66.7 |
| 27. | Texas | Well-being index score: 66.6 |
| 34. | Florida | Well-being index score: 65.8 |
So, for what it’s worth, there’s the poll results. Where do you reside? In a so-called “happy” or “miserable” state? Like I said earlier, I’m not surprised by these results but I’m not saying I take them as gospel either. I just found it kind of interesting.
Have a great Sunday, and thanks again for visiting!
No comments:
Post a Comment