Power

We got power back last night! Yay! I don't know if I said it yesterday, but we need to talk to the solar panel installers so that they will work without the grid. We don't have things set up with the electric company to sell electricity back to the grid anyway, and the amount we would get is trivial. On the other side, the power goes out at our house at least once a month. Usually, it doesn't last for long, but I would much rather be sure that I'll be able to cook than get some small amount of money from the electric company.

In interesting other news, I'm listening to The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't by Julia Galef, and I think it has finally explained to me the problems that we see with some of the people on the left in the US. I am not alone in having noticed that activists on the left often turn on each other. A friend of mine pointed out that one of the reasons for this is the use of COINTELPRO (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO) by some government organization to disrupt protest movements. I totally believe this. However, in the book I'm listening to, the author talks about the difference between having a belief and having a belief that is part of your identity. A lot of people who I know who feel the need to eviscerate anyone who even remotely shows signs of any ideological impurity have belief as part of their identities. The book is really thoughtful and full of interesting ideas.