I did a small Roth conversion last year and it worked out perfectly; I remained just inside the 12% tax bracket at tax time. This year, I hadn't planned on doing a conversion since, if I'm committed to staying within the 12% bracket (upper end is just $50,400 for a single filer), there's not a lot of room to spare between my essential annual expenses and the extra room a conversion would take up. (I'm sure there's a more elegant way of expressing that thought but hopefully you follow.) And I was hoping to spend a bit more on home improvements.

But....now we have the war Rumpie has started. I haven't wanted to check my investment balances, but I'm hearing on the news that the stock market is jumping quite a bit. If you want to find a silver lining in it all, you might consider a Roth conversion when the market is way down, since you'll be paying taxes on a much lower cost per shares.

If you're going to do any Roth conversions and are also delaying collecting Social Security, that creates a narrow window of opportunity, just a few years for most people, when doing a conversion is most cost-effective. It's the time between the start of retirement and the start of Social Security; these could likely be your lowest income years just prior to Social Security and then RMDs.

It helps that pretty soon I'll have the new car paid off; that means that between the monthly payments and the extra I've been throwing at it that I'll have an extra $700/mth to spend. My balance is down to $2,900. so it'll be done by June, when I'll probably throw a lump sum payment at it just to get to payoff.

Regardless of whether I end up doing another conversion this year (I'll likely take a cautious wait and see approach as I feel a conversion later in the year gives me more flexibility) I am thankful that a long time ago I set things up for just this kind of uncertain market environment. I moved a good chunk of money....enough to cover my essential expenses right up til the time I begin Social Security...to a money market settlement fund at my brokerage. It's not earning a ton of money...about 3.58%....but the important thing is it's pretty much like "ballast" and immune to yo-yo stock market prices.

Nothing new to report on the air quality VOC readings. After 2 straight days spending a lot of time with "Claude" AI and not conclusively determining anything, after moving all my chemicals, paints, solvents, glues, etc to the garage, the readings are still a bit high, whether or not the heat is on or off. I kept a detailed summary of our conversations that Claude wrote for me, so when I'm ready I can pick up where we left off, but I kind of wonder if I'm just going down a rabbit hole with Claude that's not going to lead me to the truth.

I'm going to a democracy rally tomorrow. If Minneapolis people can brave cold weather, so can I. Yeah, here in the far Northeast, we haven't really enjoyed much of the heat wave affecting so much of the country. We had one nice day yesterday.

I had hoped that by deleting my account at ActBlue that I would stop getting these super-annoying text messages looking for donations for anyone running for anything anywhere in the country. Unfortortunately, that has not been the case. Each time I delete the text I'm careful to report it as a "scam" so I stop getting texts from that particular address, and now I'm keeping a list of each text I get post-ActBlue acct deletion to make sure I'm not getting repeats from anyone candidate. I deleted my account yesterday, and thus far have received 2 texts and an email. I'm not sure there is a way to donate to political candidates anymore without having your personal info used to hound you incessantly moving forward. It's the same thing with NRDC. I made a one-time donation and now, despite repeated requests, I'm still getting mail from them. Each time, I stuff everything into their postage-paid return envelope with another request to delete my info from their mail list.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but I truly appreciate AI and am frankly astounded by the depth and accuracy of my conversations with it.

I may have mentioned that in my quest to get to the bottom of why I have slightly elevated tVOC readings on my new air quality monitor, I contacted Qingping customer service, who were less than helpful. I would describe what was going in detail and they would reply back with a sentence or two, not really attempting to figure out the why.

So I began conversing with Claude AI. It's been a time-consuming process (most of the past 2 days) but I don't think I would have gotten nearly as far as I have without them because while it's  ot yet definitive, there are several things that could be causing it, and I wouldn't have connected those dots. Claude suggested that because of the variation in readings from one room to the next, and also because of variations throughout the day, that I do room by room readings. Each reading takes about 30 minutes.

So yesterday I did every room in the house including my bathrooms and the basement.  Surprisingly, VOC readings were lowest in the basement closest to the furnace and higher elsewhere except for my family room, which is not serviced by the oil burning furnace. (It uses electric baseboard.)  Big clue. This led "us" (me and AI) to speculate that the higher readings were caused by my furnace, which carries cool air from the basement and redistributes it throughout the house (except family room) and then sucks in air from the main living area to complete the cycle. 

It was either that or the possibility that the higher VOC readings could be caused by the many paints, glues, solvents, etc sitting on or near a workbench in the basement since the readings were somewhat higher on the workbench than on the floor next to the furnace.

I also mentioned to AI that I have a roughly 5 x 5" opening at the bottom of the door leading to the basement. It used to be a cat door but the little door broke off so while the door leading to the basement is closed, the little cat door opening is always open. AI first suggested I take a tissue and hold it in front of the cat door opening when the furnace was on to see if the air was being pulled into the basement. It was. AI then suggested I close that up, which I did with a styrofoam sheet I happened to have from some packaging.

The next thing "we" were going to do was have me move all the paints, etc to the garage to see if that improved the readings. But before doing that, I suggested just turning my heat off and doing more readings, and AI agreed that would be a good idea. So as instructed, I'm giving the house about an hour and then will do more readings in my main living area, the basement workbench and in front of a floor return air register.

Along the way, Claude was asking many relevant questions, like when was the last time you had the furnace serviced, do you have a humidifier attached to the furnace, when was the last time you changed the filter and many other things. I also told him/it about the paneling I had done on most of my first floor. It's not wood and I know it outgasses, mostly in the 1st year, though I'd read that once it's painted, it outgasses less. It was done in 2022.

I hope we get to the bottom of it. Certainly, I would never have guessed that paints in the basement could be contributing to the VOC problem. If the next readings with the heat turned off are lower than those taken with the heat turned on, that will confirm it's not the furnace and more likely all those paints, etc. 

I am really eager to rule certain things out.

Update: Got my latest readings and they are a little confounding.  

Here are the key conclusions since AI offered to summarize:

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• Family room being lowest confirms HVAC is the distribution mechanism
• Reading right in front of return air register is the most sensitive indicator — highest reading in house at 1.596 originally (this points to furnace/duct issue)
• Basement consistently reads lower than living spaces, also suggesting chemicals not dominant source
• HVAC running raises readings significantly regardless of chemical presence — compare register at 0.681 heat off vs 1.505 heat on with chemicals gone
• MDF paneling likely contributes a background level in open living zone
• Something within the HVAC system itself — ductwork, humidifier, or aged duct sealant — remains a suspect as an active VOC source

Now Claude has suggested doing 3 more readings first thing tomorrow morning before anything else becus it's possible any chemical outgassing in the basement has not completely cleared out yet.

I'm getting a little fatigued with all the readings and haven't gotten much else done but hopefully we're close to some sort of conclusions. 

You mean in addition to soaring oil prices?

A few of my favorite FB reels that lighten my mood in these dark days....

Patrick J. Abdo: A Dubai drummer who teaches little kids how to drum and always acts surprised when they do great. Best song: Begging by Maneskin (Drum Cover).

Wildwildwilli: 3 cute long-haired dachsunds

ccihancelik: A Turkish farmer who often shows you what his typical day is like, with one really cute donkey he likes to share his food with.

Oga Duke: Nigerian pet parent with a schnauzer who listens intently to whatever he says.

My Horse Willow: A girl and her high-spirited horses

Hotrod552: A miniature schnauzer who loves to race while his owner clocks his speed, sporting a new outfit in each reel gifted by his many fans. Ready...set...go! His owner tries to test his vodabulary to see if he'll take off when he says words that sound like "go," like gopher, gorgonzola, gone and so on but he has never slipped up.

Laura Ramos: I haven't watched her lately, but she's a comedian best know for her rendition of a snarky French flight attendant.

I also watch a lot of music and dance videos, and those where someone gets a haircut and it transforms them.

Watching the elephants at Sheldrick Land Trust in Kenya led me to my adopting a baby elephant.

Well it was bound to happen. My Social Security number was found on the dark web. Not the first time my personal info has appeared there, but it is definitely unnerving. Every time you turn around there's another data breach. I'm so sick of some company, hospital or whatever mailing you that letter and the only advice they give you is to check your credit report, which is basically looking for damage after the fact.

I already have a credit freeze in play as well as a credit alert, which expires in September, so hopefully at that time I'll be able to renew the alert. I did also check my Experian credit report, something I haven't done in a while, and all appears well. I created a little schedule for myself to check all three of them on a rotating basis every 3 months.  

I also have a security freeze with chexsystems.com, which prevents crooks from opening a new bank account in your name. You may wonder why anyone would want to do that, but they do this to launder dirty money and commit fraud without using their own identities.  Examples would include collecting fraudulent unemployment benefits or an IRS refund, or they could overdraw the account, leaving you on the hook.

The planned sale of my gym fell through, I think due to financing issues, so I consider that a good thing since new ownership would have a good reason to raise the monthly rates, in my mind. The equipment is pretty old, with some of the machines having developed rips in the vinyl padding, but they still work just as good. 

Today I did the treadmill for 45 minutes (!) at a 3.5 mph walking rate and peak heart rate of 107. As long as I have something to watch on TV, I can do it, but otherwise, it's deadly dull. I don't like to use earphones so that's out. There are maybe 6 or 7 treadmills and only 2 TVs, so you have to always hope you get a treadmill in front of a TV. You can watch a TV from an adjacent treadmill, but then you're craning your neck at an uncomfortable angle and maybe it's something that doesn't interest you but you can't change the channel.

I have been thinking more about continuing to organize litter cleanups in my hometown. I've done about 4 here last year and the year before while still being active wtih my statewide litter group, but that group has been inactive for at least a year now, so I decided to focus on just my town.

However, picking up roadside litter is not a low-risk activity. I am going to ask every volunteer who shows up to sign a liabaility waiver (adapted from my state litter group's form) whose main purpose is to keep myself from being sued should someone get hurt. People have a way of wanting to blame someone else for their own actions when something goes wrong. After doing some research reading various legal blogs and so forth, I realized that even if a parent signed a liability waiver for their minor child, that waiver would have no standing in court, because even a parent can't sign away a child's rights. So out of an abundance of caution, I am limiting involvement to those 18 and older.

I have designed the flyer I'll be posting on our town FB page once we get some warmer weather around here, probably in April. The flyer will state, "This is an adult activity for those 18 and older." I just KNOW that someone is going to challenge me on that so I am prepared to defend my position so I don't look like a total dickhead for excluding dear children. There are several groups that don't have age restrictions, but they focus solely on public beaches, where presumably the risk of getting hit by a car would be low. But they are a 40-minute or more drive away. Or, people could organize litter cleanups on their own streets.  I just hope no one glosses over the "This is an adult activity" line in the flyer and then shows up with their 10-year-old. Then what do I do? Look like a jerk and turn them away? Or let them stay, possibly creating further problems if others observe I'm not really enforcing my own rules?  

Anyway, after my gym workout, I did a drive-by of the road I plan to do this spring; it's actually the 2nd half of the road we started in September but didn't have time to finish as it's about a mile long. There was noticeably more trash on the end we didn't touch than the part we did do. This road runs parallel to a small brook, and on the other side of the brook is an interstate highway. I could clearly see how people had thrown trash over the guard rail and how it has migrated down the enbankment, into and across the river and so on. 

Tabs mentioned a dead tree he wants gone close to his place. I've had much the same thing in mind following a rainstorm with heavy winds 2 nights ago. During the peak of the storm, I watched the top half of a massive Norway Spruce sway to and fro. Having a tree fall on my house has long been a worry for me during strong storms. Over the years, I have eliminated a number of them for this reason. I also feel less bad about getting rid of this Norway spruce because it is not native and offers little benefit to pollinators. I would definitely be planting higher value shrubbery in its place, maybe small trees like a flowering dogwood or river birch, but no massive trees!

Norway spruces are especially prone to coming down in a strong storm because they have a shallow root system, which can fail when the ground is totally saturated; also, their arching branches act like a sail that catches high winds.

It might not look so big in this photo, but the photo was taken leaning out my upstairs bathroom window, which overlooks the garage.  Just the tops of those dried hydrangea flowers you see behind the garage roof are about 7 feet high.

I texted my tree guy, who just finished pruning a giant silver maple on the other side of the yard a few weeks ago, and told him what I was thinking about, maybe for him to do this fall or winter. To my surprise, he already gave me a price: $1,400 to remove everything but the stump. Which to me seems VERY reasonable; I'd been anticipating several thousand dollars. I like to leave a snag, actually, maybe 8 feet high, not just a stump, as it's a big benefit for wildlife. Some people might consider it an eyesore, but I don't. 

I'm looking forward to Violet's arrival in a few weeks. Her jet-setting parents are headed to France this time around and she and I will be visiting for about a week-and-a-half, during which time I envision many enjoyable long walks. I had her last September also.

I waste a lot of time watching other people's reels featuring their incredible cats, dogs or donkeys doing amazing things. There's the very hard-working Turkish man who helps his aging parents run their farm, and every day you can watch him tend to the chickens and turkeys, donkeys, goats and cows. He does this signature thing where he likes to swat every animal on its backside. Yes, even the chickens. But mostly he will have a big bowl of oranges or other fruit/veggies and he and his favorite, most-expressive and soulful-eyed donkey eat them together.

Another favorite is the man, always sight unseen, with a little miniature schnauzer that loves to race around his owner's house on a well-worn track. The owner will say, Ready....Set....Go and it is never until the word "Go" is said that this little dog takes off at full speed. Other viewers have made a game of it, suggesting the owner try other words that sound like "go," like "gone," "gopher" or "gonzo" and the dog won't budge an inch. It also has a very cute move of sticking his right hind foot out upon hearing the word "Set." Kind of like an Olympic sprinter at the starting gate.

Then there is the trio of long-haired dachsunds who are regularly seen in different doggie outfits rapidly walking here, there and everywhere, sometimes carrying a favorite toy in their mouths. The videos are somehow shot at ground level, making it even more interesting to watch.

Anyway, I was trying to think of fun short clips I could make with Violet since I happen to love watching these myself. But I'm not sure she does anything adorable. In between walks, Violet is pretty laid back, so it makes sense to make the walks themselves the highlight of the reels. Maybe I could make it a game and ask, "Where are we now?" and see if the locals around here can figure out where we are based on local landmarks.

Just to wrap up loose ends, I expressed concern here in the past about the Qingping air quality monitor I'd bought and the consistently yellow ("slightly high") VOC readings I was getting from it. This won't likely be of much interest to anyone except possibly Tabs since I think he may have also picked up an air quality monitor.

I think my air is fine but it's good to know there are 2 units of measure you can choose your readings in: parts per billion, which is what I'd set mine to, initially, and mg/m3. So it's important to compare apples to apples when looking at readings. Per my research...

Why Choose

mg/m3 over ppb?

• Standardization: The Qingping Air Quality Monitor's onboard sensor (SGP40) is designed to align with Chinese standard guidelines that track tVOC in
  
  .
• Actionable Advice: The monitor’s associated app provides air quality health advice (such as "avoid staying in that environment") based on
  
  thresholds, typically defining good air quality as below
  
  
  .
• Conversion: While you can change the units to parts per billion (ppb) on the device, the conversion factor is approximately
  
  
  
  
  (1 ppb = 0.0045
  
  )

So after reading this I changed my units to mg/m3. My readings were about 1.242 using that measurement yet is was displayed as yellow or slightly high.

 

TVOC Level (µg/m³	Meaning	What To Do
0 – 300	Good	Air is clean; normal ventilation is fine
300 – 1,000	Fair	Increase airflow
1,000 – 3,000	Poor	Remove sources and ventilate strongly
3,000+	Very Poor	Take immediate action to clean air

Here is why your Qingping monitor shows this in yellow:

• The 1-3 mg/m³ Threshold: While readings above 3 or 10 mg/m³ are considered hazardous over shorter periods, the 1–3 mg/m³ range is considered slightly elevated and is designated in yellow to indicate that, while not immediately dangerous, it is not "fine" or "excellent".
• Purpose of the Sensor: The tVOC sensor (often a SGP40 sensor) in the Qingping monitors is designed to detect a wide range of gases, including those from cleaning products, alcohol, paint, and humans themselves (breath/sweat).
• Why It's Slightly High: Even with good ventilation, it is easy for indoor VOCs to hover in this 1–2 mg/m³ range due to building materials, furniture, or perfumes.
• Automatic Calibration/Relative Measurement: The Qingping monitor uses an index to calculate VOCs, where 100 represents the average 24-hour exposure, and the unit sets its own "baseline" to 0 in clean air. A reading of 1.282 might be a reflection of your environment's relative VOC levels compared to that baseline. 

So the suggestion is to open a window. I did so for just about 5 minutes; within minutes the VOC levels dropped considerably, until they were in the green zone. According to Qingping, this happens when the cause of the elevated VOC readings is "localized pollution," meaning things like furniture or chemicals inside the home.

While I do mostly have old furniture here, there are 2 exceptions on the first floor and I wonder if one or both may be the culprit: 

1. I did buy a jute rug maybe 2 years ago. I suppose it could have been treated with something. Well, I'll be pet sitting again soon (in my home) so I planned on rolling up this rug and putting it away since last time the dog kind of damaged it. I can see if putting the rug in another room with door closed has any effect on the monitor. If it did, I would air out the jute rug outside for a while.

2. The other thing is that in 2022, I had board and batten wall paneling installed in my LR, DR, back hallway and stairwell. It wasn't wood; I think it may have been MDF or HDF, which I had read at the time could outgas, but that  painting it (which was done) reduces, but does not eliminat, that. Could it still be outgassing 4 years later??

Found this online:

MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) paneling generally off-gases formaldehyde for months to several years, with the highest emissions occurring in the first 6–8 weeks

. While peak off-gassing drops significantly within one to two years, low-level emissions can persist for up to 7–10 years, particularly if not sealed.

This is more than a theoretical question since I want him to extend the board and batten to my kitchen. I'm not sure he could closely replicate the look using wood, which would be thicker. Also more expensive, though that's not a priority now, especially given there are just 2 small partial walls in the kitchen to panel.

I did watch the monitor go from the green zone with the open window (<1.0) and then it slowly increased to 1.282 after I closed it. So even if the rug, wall panels and anything are outgassing, it's still only "sightly elevated." But still, it bothers me. The thing is, though, that the house is pretty closed up all winter, and once it gets humid outside, starting probably in June, the house is again closed up with central air on. So not a whole lot of time to attempt further airing out.

I also watched the monitor after my forced hot air/oil furnace kicked on; it seemed to have a slow and gradual negative effect on monitor readings. One other thing I could do, just to see what happens, is move the air quality monitor to my upstairs, which would be even further from cooking (which can elevate readings) as well as the jute rug and wall panelling.

...I just moved the monitor upstairs about 15 minutes ago. Surprisingly, VOC readings actually ROSE upstairs to a high of 1.5. Then I opened the window right next to it and it quickly dropped to about 0.37. After closing the window, it slowly rose to a high of 0.956 but is now back down to 0.598 (green zone). Let's see if it stays there, cus these reading seem all over the place!

I also reached out to Qingping customer service to see if they could shed any further light on this.

I recently bought a pair of double-walled, insulated, borosilicate clear glass mugs. They are oversized but quite lightweight, especially compared to a ceramic mug, and will hold not quite 2 cups, so that's perfect for me. Because they are double-walled, not only do they look cool when you are drinking out of them, but they will keep your tea/coffee hot for longer. Kind of like a thermos. I remember many years ago at work some people liked to use those plug-in mug heaters at their desks; I don't think you need that with these!

I bought these after I started reading a blog written by a mom concerned about her kids and lead ingestion. The blog evolved  and now she regularly tests many different kitchenware items for lead content. Anything that is vintage or old is definitely suspect, as is anything with crack and chips and anything fired with bright colors. Yes, lead is still used in the manfacture of many NEW dishes, and where are 80% of ceramic mugs made? China. The FDA does not ban lead, but only "monitors" levels. (Dido, I would not be offended if you wanted to get rid of the mug I got you; I don't know if you're as risk-averse as I am when it comes to this stuff.)

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, weather-wise, and today promises to be the same. I'll work out today, then do more yardwork, as I did yesterday. I noticed a large pile of gray feathers under a large evergreen....a hawk got a bird, probably attracted to all the activity at my feeder, although the feeder is a good 200 feet away. I'm guessing a tufted titmouse.

My heating oil tank is about one-quarter full. I had planned to see if I could squeak through March with what's left, but that might be a stretch. Given Rump's invasion of Iran, I decided to schedule an oil delivery as a hedge against rising prices, so that delivery is set for Thursday. I checked my favorite (cheapest) suppliers and both prices have risen. I bought at $3.59 a gallon, which is pretty high, historically, though it was higher for the last 10 days of January.

With the exception of 2022, I have never paid such a high price in a given year. In 2022, I paid an average $3.72 a gallon and made 2 oil purchases totalling 260 gallons. My average for this heating season may be somewhat less than the $3.59 I'm paying today if I wind up making a 2nd oil purchase sometime in early winter.  

So I'm locked in at today's price of $3.59, regardless of delivery date, though if the price drops by the delivery date (unlikely this time around), I'll get the lower price.