o sole mio

My hubris may not be as bad as Niobe's. But it is in the running.

I am sure you remember her. The Theban queen whose boasts before the gods ended up in a list of Homerian tragedies. Six dead sons. Six dead daughters. Eternal weeping. Turned into a rock.

Job thought he had it bad. At least he did not end up stoned.

By that standard, I am just a modest pensioner trying to make some sense of a confusing world. Except when it comes to my electricity bills. Then I Niobe up.

The CFE guy pushed my two electric bills for September-October under my front door this morning. I did not even need to look at them to know what I would need to pay the government-owned electric company in the next few days. 42 pesos on one; 43 pesos on the other. Or, for those of you who still think in those terms, less than $4.50 (US) for two months of electricity.

The amount is what I would pay if CFE supplied all of my electricity and I decided to shut the house down for two months and turned off everything that used power. It is the CFE's connection fee for all customers -- whether or not they use any of the CFE-provided power.

As most of you know, I no longer need to use any of CFE's power because I installed a solar array that has been my sole source of electricity for the past six months.

I was not certain I could write that last sentence with the veracity of Sister Teresa. When we installed the array, I purchased enough panels to meet my maximum historical demand. Even with that calculation, I suspected I might need to draw on the energy credits I have been banking with CFE during most of the year.

It turns out the arrays are sufficient to meet my maximum demand. And I did put some demand on the array this summer. As you can see by the usage graphs on the back of the bills. That is not the profile of a green advocate. Especially, since most of the electricity went to power the air conditioner (one of the most-polluting appliances) in my bedroom. Air conditioners make Greta weep. Just like Niobe.

Of course, my power is not free. Certainly not until I recapture my capital investment. By that time, I suspect there will be a sizable tax on recycling dead solar panels -- another of those activities high on the pollution list.

So, the power is not very green, and it is still expensive to produce (until I recapture that rather large capital outlay for installation). But it is still a cool toy.

And I hope by falling back on a fatuous argument like it-is-cool will be an excuse good enough to keep me from being turned into the weeping cliff Algodón. We already have too much of that.