![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Sorting Out Stuff
In an attempt to be organized recently bought two bright shiny expanding folders. The bright lime green one is for packets of seeds sorted by month and season and the lurid pink one for bits and bobs, scraps of paper and articles that don’t really fit anywhere else.
But while 18 brown pockets might be all right for seeds, it is not so useful for other stuff. Had already considered clearing out the contents of an old folder and assigning it to this new purpose. But like so many other good intentions this one ended up in the too hard basket. That was until tonight.
Been meaning to dust off the old passport for a while as it will be soon due for renewal and this was the perfect way of killing two birds with the one stone.
The old file was surprisingly empty. As well as the alphabetical option there were also categories such as bills, utilities, bank statements, medical and financial etc etc.
Aside from two sections for bank and mortgage statements and another three devoted to utilities, superannuation statements and pay slips, the whole thing was pretty much empty.
All the old passports were still there and the most recent one has a use by date of January 2013.
But the source of most amusement and fascination were the stacks of electricity bills going back to 2001. An older folder stores ancient historical records from 1995 onwards.
The sensible thing to do would be to nuke them all. But they do tell a most interesting story. Everyone these days is squawking like crazy about how the price of electricity has gone up by 57% in about 3 years and we ain’t seen nothing yet.
No one but this serpent seems to remember that for at least eight years the price did not go up a single solitary cent and here was some of the evidence to prove it. No one complained back then although they should have wondered how this could have been possible when everything else kept going up. It was a really stupid political decision. No one wants to be the big bad wolf or bearer of bad news so reality kept getting put on the long finger until it was no longer possible. But the longer they delayed the inevitable the more undesirable the news was going to be.
Then in February 2004 there was a heat wave and a string of black outs as the network struggled to cope with the extra peak load from all those air conditioners. The writing was on the wall and something drastic had to be done sooner rather than later
The following February was just before an election so the government was going to do its damnedest to keep the lights on no matter what the cost. But now the genie was out of the bottle and the need for price increases and upgrading of the network could no longer be denied. The big price freeze would end some time in 2009.
That was the main reason why the serpent decided to go solar. There was a trade off between the price of panels falling over time as the technology got better but wanting to get in before the mad rush and the invasion of sharks and shonks as happened later with the government pink batts insulation scheme.
Most of the Izzie electricity bills from 2001 to 2007 hovered around 3-4 units a day with the odd outlier of 2 or 6 unit averages (in a 60 day billing period) Most of that was gobbled up by the old clunker 1956 Kelvinator fridge. A bright shiny very decadent Christmas present in 2007 saw that average drop right down to just over a single solitary kilowatt per day.
So in early 2008 the bright shiny panels arrived and other than two months in winter, electricity was an item that got pretty much ticked off the Izzie’s bill list. But constant vigilance is always necessary as the power goblins come up with some seriously ridiculous meter readings at time. It is such a hassle having to haggle with them and prove that their readings are a pile of porkies.
Since last Friday the IOU to the home loan goblins has gone below the magical $10,000 mark and if no bus of doom knocks the Izzie dead or no black swan comes flying to land in the Lair then that should be another expense ticked off by the end of the year. That will free up lots of loot for some big grand European tour. But best of all it will mean being not so dependent on the really evil goblins and their minions at the day job. In a way, it is precisely the awfulness of the present mob that was the incentive to put the downsizing mode on steroids.
Tuesday seems to be a good day for sorting out stuff. There is the added motivation of being just one day away from the Izzie ‘weekend’ (Thursday and Friday) and just sort of feeling in the right ruthless mood. Stacks of old tax packs bit the dust along with old atm receipts, bus tickets and assorted dockets on nasty flimsy thermal paper that were long past fading into oblivion.
Less than two weeks now till the start of a bright shiny new financial year. All these dates are rather arbitrary but they do have some power to them and it is best to make the most of the magic of deadlines.
Yesss. Nanowrimo noveling does have some serious side effects. It teaches you all sorts of useful stuff that has very little to do with squiggling and a lot to do with constant vigilance and persistence. Lots of little baby steps almost every day even crappy ones gets you there in the end.
But while 18 brown pockets might be all right for seeds, it is not so useful for other stuff. Had already considered clearing out the contents of an old folder and assigning it to this new purpose. But like so many other good intentions this one ended up in the too hard basket. That was until tonight.
Been meaning to dust off the old passport for a while as it will be soon due for renewal and this was the perfect way of killing two birds with the one stone.
The old file was surprisingly empty. As well as the alphabetical option there were also categories such as bills, utilities, bank statements, medical and financial etc etc.
Aside from two sections for bank and mortgage statements and another three devoted to utilities, superannuation statements and pay slips, the whole thing was pretty much empty.
All the old passports were still there and the most recent one has a use by date of January 2013.
But the source of most amusement and fascination were the stacks of electricity bills going back to 2001. An older folder stores ancient historical records from 1995 onwards.
The sensible thing to do would be to nuke them all. But they do tell a most interesting story. Everyone these days is squawking like crazy about how the price of electricity has gone up by 57% in about 3 years and we ain’t seen nothing yet.
No one but this serpent seems to remember that for at least eight years the price did not go up a single solitary cent and here was some of the evidence to prove it. No one complained back then although they should have wondered how this could have been possible when everything else kept going up. It was a really stupid political decision. No one wants to be the big bad wolf or bearer of bad news so reality kept getting put on the long finger until it was no longer possible. But the longer they delayed the inevitable the more undesirable the news was going to be.
Then in February 2004 there was a heat wave and a string of black outs as the network struggled to cope with the extra peak load from all those air conditioners. The writing was on the wall and something drastic had to be done sooner rather than later
The following February was just before an election so the government was going to do its damnedest to keep the lights on no matter what the cost. But now the genie was out of the bottle and the need for price increases and upgrading of the network could no longer be denied. The big price freeze would end some time in 2009.
That was the main reason why the serpent decided to go solar. There was a trade off between the price of panels falling over time as the technology got better but wanting to get in before the mad rush and the invasion of sharks and shonks as happened later with the government pink batts insulation scheme.
Most of the Izzie electricity bills from 2001 to 2007 hovered around 3-4 units a day with the odd outlier of 2 or 6 unit averages (in a 60 day billing period) Most of that was gobbled up by the old clunker 1956 Kelvinator fridge. A bright shiny very decadent Christmas present in 2007 saw that average drop right down to just over a single solitary kilowatt per day.
So in early 2008 the bright shiny panels arrived and other than two months in winter, electricity was an item that got pretty much ticked off the Izzie’s bill list. But constant vigilance is always necessary as the power goblins come up with some seriously ridiculous meter readings at time. It is such a hassle having to haggle with them and prove that their readings are a pile of porkies.
Since last Friday the IOU to the home loan goblins has gone below the magical $10,000 mark and if no bus of doom knocks the Izzie dead or no black swan comes flying to land in the Lair then that should be another expense ticked off by the end of the year. That will free up lots of loot for some big grand European tour. But best of all it will mean being not so dependent on the really evil goblins and their minions at the day job. In a way, it is precisely the awfulness of the present mob that was the incentive to put the downsizing mode on steroids.
Tuesday seems to be a good day for sorting out stuff. There is the added motivation of being just one day away from the Izzie ‘weekend’ (Thursday and Friday) and just sort of feeling in the right ruthless mood. Stacks of old tax packs bit the dust along with old atm receipts, bus tickets and assorted dockets on nasty flimsy thermal paper that were long past fading into oblivion.
Less than two weeks now till the start of a bright shiny new financial year. All these dates are rather arbitrary but they do have some power to them and it is best to make the most of the magic of deadlines.
Yesss. Nanowrimo noveling does have some serious side effects. It teaches you all sorts of useful stuff that has very little to do with squiggling and a lot to do with constant vigilance and persistence. Lots of little baby steps almost every day even crappy ones gets you there in the end.