Yesterday, we learned how much we’re going to have to cough up for taxes this year.

We knew it was going to be bad.

We were hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as we thought it might be.

Unfortunately, we were wrong. It was even worse.

Fortunately, though, being retired now and normally on a relatively fixed income, the taxes for 2007, our transition year to retirement, should be the worst and future years should be relatively painless.

We had an certified public accountant do the taxes for us this year. It was expensive, but worth not having to deal with the tax return anxiety.

This was the first year I haven’t done my taxes myself. There were just too many variables and potential expensive pitfalls.

I’ll probably be back to doing my own taxes next year.

All that stuff in the middle of the radar image below is heading straight towards us. It’s about an hour and a half out.

Tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, and severe thunder storm warnings.

The weather service is calling for the really heavy stuff to come in tomorrow during the daylight hours.

Update: April 10th, 6 A.M. — we had heavy rain during the night — bad news for the areas prone to flooding with all the precipitation we’ve had lately.

This radar image shows the front edge of the next round of storms.

.

.

.

.

.

With being back to work now, I have a lot more on my plate that I want to do than I know what to do with. I’m going to have to cut back on something and I’ve decided that — at least in the near term — I’m going to be doing less commenting on blogs than I had been doing. I will still be dropping in and reading posts of my blog-friends, but unless I really have something that I want to say, I probably won’t comment. I’ll just be there on occasion “lurking” without commenting.

On a lot of the blogs that are in my reader, I won’t even be doing that. Blogs like John Chow’s and Shoemoney’s will get a “mark all posts as read,” and I’ll move on to a blog of someone that I read and comment on.

I did consider stopping one of my blogs, but the one I was thinking about is used by a few folks that are doing home schooling so I decided to continue it, at least for the foreseeable future.

During the month that I was off, I didn’t get much done that I had hoped to do. I was sick with the flu followed by a nagging cold that is only now completely out of my system — I think. Our youngest daughter’s father-in-law had a heart-attack and she, her husband and our grandkids made a trip to Arkansas because of it. Our daughter and grandkids ended up spending several days with us. It was a bit of a disruption, but one that I’ll take any time. Strange weather has also caused issues as did things like income taxes. I didn’t spend as much time online as I usually do, didn’t do as many posts.

Composite image stiched from several photographs.

The back yard of my great-aunt on her ranch in the Nebraska sand hills.

see my “out to the ranch” flickr set

September 23, 2007 at 1.16pm CMT
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/9.5
Focal Length: 43 mm
ISO Speed: 100

my Canyonlands National Park flickr set

Karen and our oldest daughter went for a hike at the Bona Dea Trails near Russellville Saturday while I stayed home to do some work on the shop. We had heard that there was an alligator in the wildlife refuge that the trails wind through. Karen was always looking, hoping to see it everytime she was there. Of course, I was a bit skeptical that any of us would ever see it.

I was wrong!

Our daughter took these pictures yesterday. Karen estimates that it was 70 to 100 feet away. She has a post about it on her blog, too.

It doesn’t look like this guy — or gal? — needs to go far for a meal!

Devils Den State Park, Arkansas

March 1, 2008 at 12.49pm CST
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/6.7
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 100

This is a composite image created from several photos as this arch was just too big and we were too close to get it all in one picture.
(photos from Arches National Park, August 24, 2007)

This abandoned farmstead stands in ruin from blasting winds which
have shifted topsoil from field to cover the house and improvement.
The old turning plow in foreground was left at the end of row in the field.

Date: 1935
Photographer: B. C. McLean
Location: Bacca County, Colorado
Watershed: unknown
(see digital image source)

From early March — first of two heavy snowfalls in three days — 12 1/2 inches this time; 8 1/2 three days later.

March 4, 2008 at 12.13pm CST
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 100