Sonia Connolly

I don't know canon, but I loved this story.
Halfway to Sky by Anonymous in Almost Brilliant (Singing Hills Cycle) by Nghi Vo. "Up in the hills there was a goatherd, who could spin the dark out of the sky or the soft light of stars."

The comments at the end of the story are delightful too.

In August 2024, I got a heat pump and switched my heat source from gas to electric.

PG&E has an arcane cost structure where not only do they charge more for electricity between certain hours (4-9pm for my rate plan) but they also have a baseline allowance and charge significantly more for usage over baseline. Neither the contractor nor my neighbor with a heat pump advised me that I needed to call PG&E and tell them I had changed heat sources to change my baselines, so I overpaid a lot for electricity last winter.

I was aware that I was paying a lot even though the heat pump wasn't maintaining temperature. I asked the contractor. I asked my neighbor. Neither mentioned the baseline amounts.

PG&E sent me a message earlier this fall saying I might pay less on a different rate plan, and when I called them (Oct 9, for my records), I found out about notifying them I now had electric heat. One agent told me the was refundable as much as 3 years retroactively, but it turns out he was blowing smoke, and it isn't. :-(

The new rate plan is even more complicated and I still had a really high bill this month despite not keeping the place very warm (and I have double pane windows and everything!), so I spent a long time on the phone with an agent today digging into the numbers and figured out the new rate plan is actually slightly more expensive than just having the right baseline amount, so I'm switching back.

*sigh*. I guess some lessons are just expensive. Looks like they instituted this whole baseline thing right around when I moved back in May 2022, which explains why I wasn't aware of it before, and maybe I missed both the existing customer education and the new customer education.

( Last year's missing baseline credits )

I'm continuing to send updates to the contractor who installed the heat pump system, which is under warranty for 3 years. At the end of last winter, he replaced the thermostat, and a control board in the downstairs indoor unit where he cut a jumper that it didn't make sense to cut. Now he says he's going to replace the whole indoor unit, and install one that's more powerful. It's supposed to arrive early-mid January. We'll see if that fixes the problem. He will also have to replace all the coolant, so if he had the wrong amount in there, that will also fix that problem. I suppose if that doesn't help then he replaces the outdoor unit. One step at a time...

Kids Deserve a New Gender Paradigm by Kai Cheng Thom.

[I]n the trenches of trans health care, there is a growing idea that pushes back against the “one true gender for each individual” framing altogether—one that could allow us to resolve the bitterly divisive culture war over the psychological and medical care of transgender children. What if, instead of viewing gender as a fixed trait, we started to think of it as something that could evolve over the course of a lifetime? Or if detransitioning wasn’t considered a sign of failure and was instead regarded as a natural and healthy part of the gender development process?

I made another appointment with the eye surgeon and went in this afternoon. I told her about the theory of my pupil getting bigger than the opening in the capsule, but she said no, it looks clear, she doesn't see any obstruction with the pupil enlarged, and my pupil isn't that big. Good to know! All sorts of variations in bodies.

I have been paying attention to when it's worse and tried to describe the direction of it but she didn't seem interested. She did honestly say she didn't know the cause, which I appreciate. Dry eye was her best theory, although I don't know why my eyes would suddenly be so much drier than before the procedure.

She offered to refer me out, so I have another name, and we'll see if I can get in to see him. I suspect I'm just going to have to live with it, but I'd at least like a better understanding of what changed.

I sang in a concert tonight. We got to sing in a local synagogue with fabulous acoustics because the synagogue's event director joined the choir this session. It was great to be able to hear each other and know that the audience was hearing us sound better too.

I had a small trio part in a Serbian song, and then a solo verse in a Ukrainian song where there were 17 (!) short verses and we each had one, except the last one we all sang together.

It all came together! I was nervous, but it all flowed, and I'm getting better at being able to open up and sing even with an audience there. As the sessions go by and we all get to know each other and get more comfortable with performing, the ambient nerves settle down and I have an easier time managing my own nerves. I used to outright panic, and now I worry a fair amount beforehand, but by the time the concert itself rolls around, I figure I'm as prepared as I'm going to get.

So grateful to get to sing with this teacher and these singers every week. This is a big piece of what I came back to the Bay Area for.

About six months after cataract surgery, I had an annual eye exam. I had a similar experience to when the cataracts started seriously affecting my vision, where I wasn't seeing 20/20 through the new glasses I got a few months before. But the cataracts were already fixed!

I remembered that the surgeon had mentioned I might need a laser procedure after the surgery, so I made an appointment with her for the end of October. I figured she would tell me I had to wait since my vision had only changed a little bit so far, but she agreed to do it the week before Thanksgiving. She said the risk was negligible.

( Simple procedure, but... )

I feel like I tried to push things too far to fix my eyes. Tried to get rid of one disability and ended up with another one. There's grief and disappointment and fear of limitations. My friend says hers have gotten somewhat better over the years, so maybe mine will too. It's only been a couple weeks, so maybe my eyes are still healing, although I would think it would already be diminishing if it were a short-term issue.

A kaval is an end-blown flute common in the Balkans. In Bulgaria, they're typically made of cherry wood and come apart into three pieces. In Macedonia, they're made of a lighter wood (ash?) and are narrower and all in one piece. I have one of each and can kind of get a sound out of them, which is an accomplishment.

David Bilides writes:

In 2019, Steve Finney produced a CD of Nikolay Doktorov, one of the many excellent kaval teachers we've been fortunate to have at the EEFC [Eastern European Folklife Center] camps, playing 17 solo pieces on Bulgarian kaval. In the interest of getting this wonderful music "out there," Nikolay has given his blessing to it being distributed for free via online download.

You can read about Nikolay and this project, and access the free CD files and booklet (designed by Dan Auvil) by visiting this web page:

https://izvormusic.com/cds/doktorov.html

EEFC puts on a couple of week-long camps a year, one on the east coast and one on the west coast. They also host a mailing list where very knowledgeable people share words to songs, have deep discussions on their meanings, post events, and occasionally share free music like this.

Confessions of a ‘passenger princess,’ traveling Pittsburgh without a car by Emma Riva.

Taking the bus might not feel as sexy as driving a Mustang, but this is the role of the passenger princess: to romanticize the blue glow of the late-night buses; to celebrate the serendipitous conversations with poets, former MMA fighters and sommeliers doubling as rideshare drivers; to enjoy the intimacy and trust of a loved one driving you somewhere you need to go. Let’s keep the city yours and mine.

My parents gave me their older car when I was a senior in college, and later I bought one new, both small hatchbacks with few fancy features. I already biked around town a lot and arranged my life so I didn't have to commute by car. After a crash in September 2002 totaled my little blue hatchback, I decided I didn't want another car.

Over the last 23 years as cars have gotten bigger and more complicated and more invasive of privacy, I'm only confirmed in not wanting one.

I use public transit sometimes, and I get rides from friends sometimes, but mostly I get around on foot and by bike. Even in a place with good transit by US standards, it's still infrequent enough and unreliable enough to be a huge hassle. I'd rather be out in the cold and the rain on my bike than standing waiting for a bus.

Someone asked me recently how cold it has to get to stop me from riding. The answer is, cold won't really do it in the places I've lived. In Portland I had good enough gear to ride when it was 25 or 30 degrees. In the Bay Area it just won't get cold enough. Ice and snow stop me, and wind strong enough to blow me into the opposing lane.

I hope I can continue being car-free for a good long time to come. I love being out in the weather, breathing the air, saying hello to other cyclists, and being graciously allowed to cross big streets by drivers. I have a bike trailer to haul big items, and a bike pannier to haul groceries or sheet music or whatever else I need.

Here's another song we're singing this time, Nazdrave Ti, Chorbadžijo, "Cheers to You, Master of the House." This is a caroling song with a strong dance rhythm, and I took to it much more happily than Otče Naš. Koleda is the Bulgarian term for the Christmas season. And I love the design of this album cover!

Cheers to you, master of the house!
Oh, Koleda!
We sing to you, we praise God.
As much sand there is by the sea,
May you have as much grain in this house.
As much water there is in the sea,
May you have as much wine in your barrels.
As many leaves as there are in the forest,
May you have as many sheep in your pens.

Gina posted this lovely photo of a ramp her dad made for their 18 year old cat. The comments on the original post are worth reading too. <3

( Photo of a ramp for an elderly cat )