FPL's "Budget Billing" Program

Just to recapitulate, I got solar panels in about August, 2019.  My bill drifted down (as it would have in part for seasonal reasons anyway), and it hit $9.99 a month for two months.  It then inexplicably increased to $10.05 a month, and it stayed there, every month, all year, for about two years.  Early this year (2022), it started to destabilize, so that one month, I got a rebate of a little over $30 (I assumed they had a minimum monthly bill, so no one could go without being billed, no matter how little electricity they used, or how much they produced.  So it was unclear why I was getting a rebate.)  The fact is that I always produce more than I use, but I get a small bill anyway.  But it's a small bill, and FPL is desperately trying to hang on to income, so I don't worry about it.

But two months ago, I got a bill for $30.17.  That's two cents more than triple my "minimum" monthly bill.  So I called.  I got some meaningless song and dance from the agent (actual people are very hard to find in the FPL system), and it included some sketchy interpretation that my bill wasn't really triple the normal bill.  I couldn't get this poor fellow to explain to me how $30.17 wasn't almost exactly triple of $10.05.  He was dancing as fast as he could, and reading whatever script he was given to read, and I just wasn't going to make any progress with this pathetic attempted conversation.  But the e-mail I got letting me know about my upcoming bill did suggest that I could lower my bill to just over $17 (instead of $30.17) by signing up for the "Budget Billing" program.  The poor dope to whom I was talking couldn't exactly explain that, either, but I figured that $17+ was better than $30.17, so I agreed to be switched to this program.  And this new endeavor on FPL's part included that if I used little enough, my bill would be $25.  So at some point in this scheme, the less electricity you use, the more they bill you for it.

I just got the warning e-mail for the upcoming bill, and it's $20.25.  I had figured that the "good news" was that my bill would now be $17+ every month, but this one creeped up.  The fact is that I produce more than I use every day, and the daily estimate from FPL was always 36 cents, which is about $10.05 a month.  

It took me a long time to find a real person again, but eventually, I did.  I didn't say too much before this woman said that maybe the "Budget Billing" program wasn't right for me.  She seemed a lot smarter and level-headed than the first guy a month before, so I could have an actual conversation with her.

The sneaky/skanky program of the higher minimum bill (especially if you don't use too much electricity) is still FPL's new normal, but she also told me that the "Budget Billing" program is intended to prevent the summer high bills and the winter low bills, so people can pay a more or less similar amount every month.  But it's not the same amount, as the monthly estimate is not fixed for a year, but it "rolls" somehow.  And if someone has unpredicted usage, they're eventually going to get a bill that will make up the deficit.  So since my usage is low, and I can afford my electric bills, this woman and I decided I should cancel being in the "Budget Billing" program.

I also, of course, treated myself to a bit of a very frustrated rant, during which I said that I understood that FPL needed income, and wanted to stay in business, but it accomplished this by picking the pockets of people like me.  I said again that I can afford it, but it's just that I resent it.  And I said that I realize FPL will say the PSC gives it permission to bill people (like me) this way, but that the PSC is directed by the electeds, and the electeds are purchased by donors like FPL.

It was at this point that this woman told me I'm a smart man, which I don't consider particularly or uniquely true, but I did take her to mean that I had a very clear understanding of how the system works, and why it works that way.

When I see the resistance to transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, including the complaint that people will lose jobs, I imagine the time that common transportation changed from horses to cars.  I wonder how many people connected to the horse industry railed against this change, and the fact that they know how to breed, train, care for, and shoe horses, but they don't know how to repair cars.  As if it was all so unfair to them.

The difference now is that people who drive cars that burn gas or diesel, or buy electricity from FPL, have no choice but to burn something.  But FPL does have a choice.  It is not limited to burning stuff.  FPL can create electricity the same way I do, if they want to.  And if they choose not to do it, why is that everyone else's problem?

Season Four, Episode Eight, Was Definitely the Best.

I know why I binge-watched "The Gilmore Girls."  Yes, it's an intensely girly series, and there's no reason I would ever have watched even one episode of it, except I have a mad crush on Lauren Graham.  What's more appealing about one person over another for a given other person?  How should I know?  It's a lot of things, and they're essentially all intangible and unconscious.  Especially if you've never even met the person.  Really, I think Lauren Graham is too skinny for my tastes, but I have a mad crush on her anyway.  I've now seen her in two series: "The Gilmore Girls" and "Parenthood."

The other things about Lauren Graham are that she's too young for me, she lives in Los Angeles (so there's no way I would ever meet her), and until recently, she was in an 11 year relationship with Peter Krause, who was one of the main actors in my favorite TV drama, "Six Feet Under."  What's interesting about Lauren Graham is that she plays (chooses?) roles which are women who are shockingly incapable of stable relationships.  At one level, actors are very eager to work, and they are sort of inclined to take what's available.  But one does hear of actors choosing certain roles, and declining others, for various reasons.  So I wondered if Lauren Graham chose these roles because they "resonate" with her: because she identifies with women who are incapable of maintaining stable relationships.  But then again, she did maintain a relationship, for 11 years (who knows how stable it was), with Peter Krause.  She has no children, though, and I have no information as to why not.  But that relationship reportedly fell apart recently.  So who knows about Lauren Graham's ability to be in a stable relationship (Peter Krause probably does).  Although one thing I read placed the blame for the break-up on Krause.

But I didn't really intend to talk about Lauren Graham, or my massive crush on her.  After all, she's still too young for me, and I'm still never going to meet her.  Any more than I'm ever going to meet Catherine Keener, who grew up in our area, and whose mother lives on the southern border of North Miami, very near us, and on whom (Catherine, not Candy, her mother) I also have a huge crush, and who is no longer married to Dermot Mulroney, and who is also too young for me, and whom I'm also never going to meet.  I wanted to talk about Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband, Daniel Palladino, and the series they created and produced, and for which they wrote many/most of the episodes, and directed many/most of them, too.  "The Gilmore Girls" was one of them, and the other -- "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" -- was suggested by my daughter.  Now, there are a few things to note here.  One is that I do more or less whatever my daughter tells me to do.  Another is that one of my boyhood/school friends was Michael Maisel, whose name is pronounced Mai-SEL.  So it's very unnatural to me to pronounce the name of some of the characters in this series as MAI-sel, even though that's how Amy Sherman-Palladino wants it pronounced.  Third, the lead character in "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" is extremely capable and talented, but she, too, appears to be incapable of stable relating.  (The series starts with her married, living with her husband and her parents, and being the mother of two young children, but her husband inexplicably announces he's leaving her, and he's having an affair, but we're never told why he cheated on this magnificent -- "Marvelous," which she is -- creature.  Frankly, the Palladinos leave us with a lot of unexplained loose ends, in both series.)  And fourth, it's interesting to note that the Palladinos seem to have some favorite actors, three of whom were in both series, and one of whom, from "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel," was the wife of an actor who was a regular in "The Gilmore Girls."  I know you're thinking "who cares," and you're not wrong.  It's just a curiosity.  After all, Chris Guest commonly uses most of the same actors in all of his movies (one of whom is Jane Lynch, who had a significant recurring role in "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel"), and so does Kevin Smith.

So I binge-watched as much as I could of "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel," too.  And just so you understand the mechanics here, I'm in Massachusetts from early May until early October, because that's what my daughter wanted.  I work (virtually), I help out, and I bond with my young grandchildren.  My daughter suggested I do this, so I told her how much I was in a position to spend, and I told her to go find me any place she wanted.  So now, I have a condominium apartment (not like the south Florida type: it's the first floor of what looks like a three story house).  My daughter furnished it with a lot of stuff she got for free (this is apparently a thing up here), and some stuff she bought.  Some of the stuff she got for free included the TV set I watch (and I can watch DVDs on it, too, once my son-in-law comes over to tell me how to make that function work), which she got as a "hand-me-down" from her mother.  (I'm sure you can do that arithmetic for yourself.  It's sort of creepy, but I try not to think about it.)  She put an Apple TV or a Roku on that TV, and she loaded it with her sign-in credentials for stations she thought I might like.  So now, I have things like Netflix ("The Gilmore Girls") and (Sc)Amazon Prime ("The Marvelous Mrs Maisel").

Anyway, the lead character in "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel" ("Mrs Maisel," played by Rachel Brosnahan, who's even skinnier than Lauren Graham) is also appealing (but not delicious, like Lauren Graham), and once her marriage ended, also turned out to flit from one man to another, at one point getting caught by his wife in the bed of the guy she thought was her new boyfriend.  And in "The Gilmore Girls" and "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel," the lead woman has an ongoing connection/attraction to some other character you know is right for her, and she should be with him, but they keep not connecting in the right way and with permanent commitment.  It's very frustrating, and I do wonder if this is something about Amy Sherman-Palladino, or if it's her idea of a sustaining device in a "dramedy"/"rom-com."

So, these people keep bungling around, and, at what I'm guessing is the end of season four of "The Marvelous Mrs Maisel," some important things come together, at least for a possibly fleeting moment.  That's episode eight.  Mrs Maisel finally has sex with Lenny Bruce (yes, that Lenny Bruce), and some other things happen.  I know there's a season five, and now knowing Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino as I do, I can only assume that nothing will sustain stability (I don't know for how long they themselves have been married, if they have children, or if they're stable), no matter how badly it needs it, but season five is not on (Sc)Amazon Prime yet.  So we'll see.

I sort of want Lauren Graham as a girlfriend (even though I can't have her.  And she wouldn't want me, anyway.  She should have someone of the age and with the bank account of, oh, let's say Peter Krause.  I did read her explanation of why that relationship ended, and it was sort of unconvincing/unbelievable, considering that it had reportedly lasted 11 years.  Unless she's truly like Lorelai Gilmore, and she gets herself into untenable relationships that really don't have a proper foundation.  Although in "The Gilmore Girls," what was unreliable enough in Lorelai Gilmore's relationships was Lorelai Gilmore.), and I want Amy Sherman-Palladino (and possibly her husband) as patients (even though I'm sure I can't have them, either).