I’m on vacation this week. Vacation makes me happy. So, here are some other things that make me happy:

• Finding money on the sidewalk. I know everybody enjoys this, but the denomination doesn’t matter to me. Finding anything more than a penny is like unearthing buried, forbidden treasure. I can still remember the time in middle school when I found a $5 bill before school. Legends are told of that day.

I spotted a shiny silver nickel in the driveway the other day and it might as well have been a gold doubloon. I giddily scooped up my treasure and moved five cents closer to being a millionaire. I did at least avoid doing a Snoopy dance in full view of the neighbors.

• The end of the high school sports season. This one gets an asterisk, because it makes me happy and sad.

Happy that we finally get a break from the busy spring schedule and can schedule some much-needed vacation time.

Sad that it means another year in the books. The passage of time is a cruel mistress.

Let’s move on before we get bogged down and depressed, shall we?

• Chick-Fil-A’s peach milkshakes. Goodness are these things good.

Why do they have to be a seasonal item, Chick-Fil-A!? Why!?

To make it worse, their season seems to be approximately four days in June and July. Much like a teenage summer romance, you eagerly go to see them one day and they’ve moved away.

Sigh.

All the more reason to enjoy them while they’re here.

• Air conditioning. It’s been a mild spring so far, but it won’t be long before we’re in the summertime weather pattern — 93 degrees, heat index of 97, with a 30 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms — for the foreseeable future.

It’s brutal, except for the one saving grace of modern comfort, the air conditioner.

There’s something primal about stepping out the front door and getting slapped with that heat and humidity as nature says, “What are you thinking? Get back inside!” I appreciate the brutality of a Mississippi summer. Even enjoy it on some level, in the same way you enjoy a good workout.

But that’s when I know I can take nature’s advice and retreat back inside to my 75-degree comfort zone.

Seriously, how did people survive for 150 years in Mississippi without air conditioning?

That’s all I’ve got for now. You’ve been a great crowd. Enjoy the weekend.

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Ernest Bowker is a sports writer for The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com