The Sting of "The Three Weeks"

Although "The Three Weeks" is now over, we can still suffer the consequences of it. During the last weekend of "The Three Weeks" I was mowing the back lawns, or rather, the abundant weeds of the lawns which due to the recent rains had grown quite tall, up to six inches! It's a pity these are NOT the "weeds" that one can smoke for much increased pleasures!!!! LOL!!!! Also due to recent rains, the weeds retained quite a lot of moisture. So my trusty ole little lawn mower was being put through its paces. It was only a little mower, really too small for the large area size of my lawns, but it was all I could afford at the time I bought it. Also it was an electric mower, one which needed connection to a power source via a long extension cord!! So that fateful day on that weekend of "The Three Weeks" I was literally working that little lawn mower to death!!! But I managed to complete the job, and the lawn mower seemed to have survived unscathed!!

However I went to mow the front lawns last weekend I immediately noticed a burning smell from the mower, which soon manifested as smoke coming from the mower. Needless to say I immediately turned off the mower, now a smoking mass of previously functioning parts!! It turned out that some of the weeds from the previous job had gotten inside the rotary mechanism while still wet, then over the past days it had dried out. So when I next switched on the mower, the dried weeds caught fire, which basically fried the motor!! Goodbye lawn mower, it was nice knowing you!!!!! And so it was the curse of "The Three Weeks" manifesting - it was when the fatal flaw manifested, the damp weeds getting inside the motor, which ultimately caused its demise a week later!!!!

So I was now in desperate need of a new lawn mower!! The front lawn is rapidly turning into a jungle, the weeds grows so fast during the wet season that you could almost sit there and watch it grow!!! It grows THAT fast!!! Soon I'd be seeing lions and tigers in the jungle - I mean - front lawn!!!

So this time I am going to invest in a bigger and better mower, especially since I am now on a two-year lease in this house! One of the reasons why I gotten a small and cheap mower, aside from affordability, was cos I thought I'd soon be moving out into an apartment. However that turned out not to be so, with now a two year lease. So time to invest in a bigger and decent mower!!

So I searched Bunnings online to see what they have in mowers. I still wanted an electric mower, less carbon footprint, and no emissions - none of those nasty gasoline exhaust fumes!!! On my PC I gotten a list of electric mowers available from the cheapest upwards. I would NOT be getting the cheapest model, about $100 or so, I needed something bigger and better. Next in line on the price scale the mower was bigger, more the size I needed, and it is cordless, that it runs on battery. However, the battery lasts for only 30 minutes before it needed recharging, and well it takes me close to an hour to do the back lawns. Also the battery was NOT included. Now the next in line, by now the price has risen to $500!! It is bigger again, and the battery lasts for one hour between recharges!! That is more like it!! An hour minimum is what I needed!! Furthermore, the battery and charger unit is INCLUDED in the package. OK!!! THAT is the mower that I would be getting!!!

Next the moolah.... the $$$$'s I needed for this mower. So now that "The Three Weeks" is over it was time to do my tax return - which I did that Sunday. I always do it online, it is easier, and I always get a refund check deposited straight into my bank within two weeks of lodgment. I didn't expect much in my refund this time as I am no longer carer for sick wife on a pension! So no more $3000 checks, I expected more like $200 or so, which would help pay for the mower.

However in the govt wisdom - or lack thereof!!!!! - they decided to introduce a brand new method for lodging tax returns online. You first had to created an online account with "MyGov", then link it to the Tax Office, and the theory goes that you can also link it to other depts such as Medicare and Centerlink. Seems a good idea in theory, but as per usual with govt, the practice really sucks big time!!!! grrrrrrrr..... typical!!!!!

Creating the MyGov account, that was the easy part!!! Linking it to Taxation, that was far more difficult!!! You had to verify your ID THREE times using three different methods, but all that is done automatically online, well at least in theory anyway!!! This is when reality really hits you - that the govt knows so much about you!!!! That is really scary!!! The greater reality is the govt knows a lot more about you than they are willing to admit!!! They probably even know the number of times you fart each day!!!! But conspiracy aside, it is still very scary just how much they at least willingly admit to knowing about you!!!!

The first point of ID is your employer income statement, and although I had not submitted that in my tax return, the govt already knew about it!!!! Not only that I received an income statement but actually last year's salary!!!! That formed part of my first ID check, input the salary I earned according to the statement!!! Next was last year's Assessment Notice, and well fair enough, Taxation had sent me that so it seem reasonable that they should know about it!!!! Finally however was my bank account details, the govt knows THAT too!!!!! Dang!!! So much for spiriting much of my fortunes to an off-shore tax haven!!! LOL!!!! Unfortunately I don't have enough money to be able to do that!!!! But my bank account number, that was my 3rd ID check, and the govt knows THAT too!!!!!!

But as per usual with govt depts, it is never that simple!!!! The system returned the error "Your details does not match"!!!! arrrrgh!!! Bullshit!!!!!! OK perhaps a typo somewhere, so I did it again which frustratingly  involved having to start from scratch again, it didn't even allow the auto-fill feature!!! grrrrrrrrrr...... but still the same error!!!! grrrrrrrr.....!!!... OK maybe its case sensitive..... but still no joy..... in fact I must have tried this at least TEN times, wasting close to TWO hours of my time....... and I was so close to giving up and calling the help number..... So I did that!!!! I called the help number, and despite the reassuring promise on the website that help was available even on Sundays, there was not a soul available, or at least it went to the automated system claiming there is no one available on Sundays!!!! But then it is GOVERNMENT, and you never believe the "promises" of govt!!!!! grrrrrrrrr....... So OK I tried to link the Taxation Office one last time...... and SUCCESS!!!!!! Yay!!!!! I finally was able to navigate through the minefield of my 3-point ID auto check, and successfully linked the Tax office to my account.

So now the relatively easy part..... doing my tax return!!! And being such a mere mortal as I am, with no complicated financial affairs, no shares, no income from rental properties, no off-shore earnings, nor any other shady dealings, I qualified for the much simpler "MyTax" form rather than the more complicated "e-tax" form. And so after the relatively painless process of submitting my tax return, I was in for a pleasant surprise!!! It turns out that my refund check would be about $500 - the cost of my new lawn mower!!!!!

So tomorrow, when I get my pay check, I will go pick up the mower. Hopefully it will be in stock, but if not in stock at the particular Bunnings store, there are plenty of other Bunnings stores around, so at least one of them should have the mower in stock!! I won't have my tax check until at least the following week, but I can't wait that long!! Those weeds you can literally watch then grow, they grow THAT fast!!! So I need a mower NOW for THIS weekend. Indeed I have gotten this Friday off work, so if all goes to plan, I will do the lawns this Friday. And knowing that the tax check will almost certainly come just the next week, that will help with the budget.

Next thing I need is a new vacuum cleaner, which I originally planned to spend an upcoming tax check on!! My cheap old vacuum cleaner blew up a few weeks ago, and manually sweeping the carpets with a straw broom gets old real fast, plus it is not that effective in getting all the dirt!! So a new and better vacuum cleaner is a requirement!!!

Due to the greater need for a new lawn mower, it seemed I had to give up on the idea of getting a new vacuum cleaner..... until a bright idea gotten into my head!!! FLYBUYS!!!! For a number of years I have been faithfully swiping my flybuy card each time I made a purchase at participating stores, and so had accumulated quite a number of points. And you can actually redeem the points for certain items - which INCLUDES vacuum cleaners!!!! So I took a look at the list online. The cheapest vacuum cleaner I had enough points to cover it, however, I did not want the cheapest cleaner. I wanted at least a mid-range one. So the next of the three available.... dang!!!! I don't have quite enough points to cover it!!! However there was the "points+purchase" option where you needed a lesser amount of points plus a payment. And well I DID have enough points in this instance, I just needed also to pay $80, and I will acquire what seems to be a reasonable vacuum cleaner, well better than the one I had anyway!!!! So whether I will also get this tomorrow or wait until my tax check comes in, that depends on a more detailed look at my budget after I purchase the lawn mower. Either way, I will be able to at long last get a much needed vacuum cleaner!!!

Anyway.... a random vid with a message..... there is actually a lot of truth in this.... for us enlightened souls who does not belong to this planet........ so we get off it ASAP!!!!.....