Warmest winter
This has been New Hampshire’s warmest winter on record. As reported by New Hampshire Public Radio on March 12, the winter season was 9 degrees warmer than usual on average. According to NHPR’s report, at the National Weather Service’s climate site in Concord the temperature never dropped below 0 degrees, something that has only happened twice since 1868, when weather records started being kept in the state.
QOL score: -1 for the general weirdness of it all
Comments: According to a March 17 story by WMUR, as of Sunday afternoon, March 18, Lake Winnipesaukee is completely ice-free, again setting a new record.
Household bills above average here
According to a recent report, Manchester residents pay $5,547 more per year on their household bills — about 22 percent more — than the national average. According to the 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay report by Doxo, a bill-paying smartphone app, the average American household spends around $2,126 each month on its most essential household bills, and the average Manchester household pays $2,588, or approximately 42 percent of its household income. These bills run the range from rent or mortgage to cable bills to life insurance. According to the same report, things look better for New Hampshire as a whole.
QOL score: -1
Comments: The average monthly cost of bills statewide was $2,052, about 4 percent lower than the national average, the report said.
Missing something?
According to a March 15 Facebook post, a brewer at To Share Brewing Co. in Manchester found something unexpected as he was processing the grain for a batch of smoked IPA last Wednesday: a wedding ring. Brewery co-owner Aaron Share reports that he found the ring as he was straining out the grain from the beer he was brewing, and was briefly afraid that the ring was his, but his own ring was still on his finger.
QOL score: -1 for some anonymous grain malter
Comments: According to the Brewery’s Facebook post, To Share has reached out to its suppliers to try to track down the ring’s owner, but at this point it is still a mystery.
A dramatic rescue
A worker at a construction site on Canal Street in Manchester was rescued after he became trapped under an excavator last Tuesday, March 12. As reported on March 12 by Manchester Ink Link, Manchester fire companies responded to an accident on the worksite and found an excavator upside down in a trench, with its operator pinned on the underside. According to a March 12 from the Fire Department, Manchester crews performed a technical rescue that involved “stabilizing, lifting, cribbing and shoring up the machine.” The fire companies used hydraulic rams, high-pressure airbags and hand tools to free the worker, who was transported to Elliot Hospital with what the Union Leader’s story about the event described as serious injuries.
QOL score: +1 for the rescue, and hopefully a speedy recovery for the worker
Comments: The department’s press release described the rescue as a “high-risk, low-frequency event” and noted, “A successful extrication under the circumstances requires a well-trained, highly focused, and professional team working in a complex and dynamic environment.”
QOL score: 63
Net change: -2
QOL this week: 61
What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire?
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