the mellow tigger's musings

I'm a member of an organization in Minnesota called MN350. It takes its name from the carbon dioxide parts-per-million that we wish we had. We passed 350 ppm long ago. We should aspire to having numbers that low again in our future. This year, I can't remember if I've seen any measurement in my house (even with windows open) below 500. The longer that humans burn fossil fuels, the higher that number will go.

I mention it now, because a few minutes ago I took additional measurements on 2 floors of my house. I was so tired again today, and I spent about 2 hours trying and failing to get some needed sleep just now. I thought maybe the sleep apnea was a lot worse (which might also be true), but I used the app on my smartphone to check the readings on the AirThings device (mentioned last year too), and the CO2 level was not great. I grabbed the even more portable Aranet and placed it next to the bed. It immediately switched over to the "red zone" alert level. That's not good.

• ground floor: 1,250ppm CO2
• upstairs bedroom: 1,452ppm CO2

Okay. So... I need to stop talking about how tired I always am and actually do something about the air quality indoors. I need to finally schedule that sleep test, so I can also get a new sleep apnea solution, since I didn't use the old machine when it gave my face a rash everywhere that it touched my face.

I'm tired of being tired. The potential causes are measurable. I just need to overcome inertia and rationally do something about these issues.

It's not Moody Monday yet, but I don't care.

So... I just have to survive tomorrow, the busiest work day of the year, then I'm good for another year.

Two Thursdays ago, I had another emergency dental visit. After the dental visit, I discovered that I had a rash on my left arm. It remained there for many hours, but it was gone the next day. I have no idea what triggered it.

To recap (pun intended), at that molar tooth location I have now busted 1) the original tooth, 2) the repair work on it, and 3) two different temporary caps on it. Thankfully, I have a scheduled appointment tomorrow to get the final custom fitted metal crown for it. Hopefully that fix lasts my remaining years without further incident.

During the last week, we got new features on the block where I live. First, there appeared an actual roundabout in the middle of the previous intersection on the north end of my block. This is great news to prevent the cars speeding down my block at all hours of day and night. It hasn't been as much of a problem recently as it was several years ago. This will help, though. The city calls these roundabouts 3.7F traffic circles. There are plenty in my area already, but "mine" is new.

I have no idea what this means for fire trucks, though. The fire station is a few blocks directly north of me. They frequently travel down our block to get to locations quickly, because my street is the intersection right outside their fire station. They'll have to travel elsewhere now, maybe? Unless they just have to travel more slowly through intersections. Obviously the roundabout wouldn't be allowed to block emergency vehicles, but it does seem like an unusual impediment to their fast travel.

A few days later, my block also got not just 1 but actually 2 speed bumps!

That seems like overkill, but maybe the people pushing for speed bumps didn't know we were getting a roundabout. I had no idea. My block just got a whole lot safer for kids on the block.