Maybe just burn a pile of money, instead
As reported in a Sept. 20 online article by WMUR, the current record prices for heating oil in New Hampshire are expected to climb even more aggressively than usual. “The average house will pay 31 percent more for home heating oil,” the article read, “running the average household nearly $2,300 this winter. The rising prices are closely tied to the Iran war, and New England will feel the greatest impact, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.”
QOL score: -1
Comment: WMUR reported in the same article that the state recently passed new laws requiring heating oil companies to be more transparent about their fees.
“Oh, that was due this month?”
New Hampshire Public Radio reported in a Sept. 28 online article that “credit card delinquency in New Hampshire is reaching levels not seen since the Great Recession.” NHPR wrote, “The state’s Department of Employment Security recently analyzed consumer debt data for the first quarter of 2025, the most recent state-level information available. Their analysis shows nearly 12 percent of New Hampshire borrowers have severely delinquent debt, and they’re particularly behind on paying off credit card and auto loan debt. Nearly 10 percent of Granite State borrowers are severely delinquent on credit card payments, similar to the rate between 2006 and 2010 leading up to and during the Great Recession. Severely delinquent auto loans have also increased to 4.6 percent, although they haven’t reached the recession-era peak of six percent.”
QOL score: -1
Comment: NHPR said, “A borrower is considered delinquent when they haven’t paid their scheduled debt payment, and they are ‘severely delinquent’ if their bill is at least 90 days past due.”
The bird-watching equivalent of spotting a yeti
In a Sept. 16 Joy of Birding blog post the New Hampshire Audubon Society (nhaudubon.org) confirmed that a Chilean Skua, a species normally found at the very southern tip of South America, had been reliably identified near the Isles of Shoals on Sept. 8. “The two trip leaders were split,” the post read. “Steve Mirick believed we had seen a South Polar Skua, a rare sighting for New Hampshire but not totally unexpected bird (this would be the 4th record for the state), and Ben Griffith thought it was a Great Skua, a bird never seen in New Hampshire waters but that occasionally had been found in the Gulf of Maine.” Ultimately, it turned out to be a much more unlikely sighting.
QOL score: +1
Comment: An editor’s note at the end of the Audubon post put the sighting in perspective. “To understand how truly rare a Chilean Skua would be in New Hampshire and North America, visit eBird and look at past reports of Chilean Skua globally. … As far as we can tell, there are no previous records of Chilean Skua in North America, let alone New Hampshire.” Visit joyofbirding.nhaudubon.org.
QOL score last week: 62
Net change: -1
QOL this week: 63
What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.