The snow piled up pretty deep on the front yard. The anti-skid piled up on the tree lawn. The voles made several pathways under the snow leaving lots of dead grass behind. Now that the snow is gone, the yard needs some serious attention. I raked a strip last Saturday. I took a few days to recover (with an intervening snow storm) and raked another strip yesterday. I figure at this rate it’ll take a couple of weeks to get the front yard raked and ready for fertilizer and ready to have the sprinkler system checked out. Raking is definitely a workout! I was pooped for the rest of the day.
Of course, with the departure of the snow, thoughts turn to … motorcycles! My battery wouldn’t hold a charge so I picked up a new one this morning and have it on the charger in the garage. It’ll go in the bike tomorrow and I’ll fire it up for the first time this spring … and maybe take a short trip around the block. The appointment is set on Tax Day for the oil change and spring tuneup. Let the riding begin!
Speaking of Tax Day, I finally entered everything into Tax Cut Pro. There’s a couple of small adjustments needed, but I’m very close to being able to file. We will get a refund from the Feds but have to write a check to the State of Idaho. A few years ago the competing program TurboTax very stupidly tried to combat supposed piracy of their software by putting a hidden program on the user’s computer. This hidden program caused a number of computers to crash, including mine. They eventually refunded my money but it took a lot of work to get the malicious program off of my computer. While they quickly realized their mistake, I’ve not returned as a customer. Tax Cut does just fine and there’s no reason for me to change providers. By the way, I just ran across an interesting article on H&R Block and Tax Cut. Click on the link.
Speaking of piracy, a luxury yacht was seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden yesterday. Fortunately no passengers were on board, but the 30 crew members are being held hostage. I think we’ll avoid doing any cruises in that part of the world! According to the news article, more than 25 ships were seized by pirates in that area last year. Looks to me like a captain needs to find other work.
Finally, in the weird news department, some ten years ago a woman underwent a sex change procedure to become “male”. “He” is now six months pregnant in what “his” obstetrician is considering “a normal pregnancy“. I’m speechless.