Mid-April 2025 Grab-Bag

I have to start this posting out with the kindest of comments.

One of the more recent posts to which I have had a surprising reaction is my recent post on the Mazda5.  I thought it was good enough to send to my friend of 20 years Rainbow, an actual writer.  She sent back the following comment:  "The people who leave comments on your blog...wow...you've created quite a lovely community."

To be clear, I did not create the community; at best I curate it.  Thank you all for being stellar human beings. If anything, my friend's comment encapsulates precisely what I had hoped to create.

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Spring is springing in the slow manner it seems to here in New Home 3.0, a bitter struggle where Winter seems quite reluctant to give up its grip until leaves, clawing and gripping the whole way.  Having now been here for over a year, I begin to get the sense of the season:  it is not so much that Winter disappears as it is that is slowly fades away. 

We are not quite there yet, but the 10 day forecast now has more sun than rain and days about above 60 F/15 C than below it.  And we have already surpassed 12 hours of daylight a day (one of the blessings of being much farther North).

I am looking forward to the Spring/Summer/Autumn here, now that I have my relocation sea legs under me.

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Last week, my tax package arrived.

As part of my relocation package, I got a year of having my taxes done by someone else - a big someone else, of all things.  Which is fantastic this year, because of the relocation.  Final damage is that we have to pay this year - more than I like, but less than I have to.  And for an added bonus, we now have state tax to account for.  

Usually I prefer to have a refund rather than to pay; on the agenda after this tax season ends is to find a local tax professional.  Sadly, I fear I have reached the end of my ability to easily do my taxes.

I also spent part of the weekend doing the taxes for my mother-in-law.  It is something I have done for both her and my father-in-law for years.  Their taxes are very straightforward, so it consumes a rather small part of one afternoon and a small part of another to check my entries.

There was a bit of a panic when I realized that two of the documents were made out not to my father-in-law but to their trust, which sparked a rushed online to find out one has to do in that situation.  Turns out that there is a whole different form for trusts (Form 1041, if you were curious).  After pawing through the IRS website (never a solid idea on a weekend), it emerged that they fell below the threshold for reporting this year.  Panic averted.  That said, likely I have reached the end of my ability to do their taxes as well.

Looking at the tax forms and tax language on the official IRS website, I think we are far beyond the point of "simplifying" the tax code anymore than one can "simplify" any other extremely complex system.

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This weekend, after a two year hiatus, I officially joined an actual gym.

It was almost to the month two years ago that, due to Hammerfall 2.0, I had end my membership at the gym I was training at.  The last two years have been maintenance at best or managing a decline at worst through a variety of my local HOA gym, hotel gyms, or the small gym at our new apartment complex - all serviceable enough, but not of a nature to sustain or maintain the progress that I had been making.

The membership is indirectly through my work (another one of the fine benefits of my job) and the monthly fee is less than if I just enrolled there. And it is conveniently a scant mile away from work on my way home, so there is no excuse for me to not stop there every day after work.  And they have all the things.

I have communicated this to my coach The Beserker.  He seems genuinely pleased to start punishing me....er, programming me with the Olympic lifts (Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press).

I went and worked out there on Saturday. I cannot tell you how good it feels following a real workout.

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Long time readers here know that I am a big fan of Rod Dreher (yes, I know, I still owe a review of his most recent book Living in Wonder:  Finding Mystery and Meaning in a Secular Age).  He writes regularly on Substack now (to which I do not have a subscription, but might end of getting one - I enjoy him that much).  His reflection on Palm Sunday yesterday entitled "Seeing and Not Seeing" is well worth your time and is a free view.

(My reviews of his books:  The Benedict Option and Live Not By Lies.  I will note that Live Not By Lies has now been turned into a 4 part series on Angel TV.)

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This weekend, having some russet potatoes that I had bought some time ago and still had a fair remainder, I did something I have not done in 30 years and made Potato Farls.  It is also (apparently) known as Irish Potato bread, and is considered a staple of the Ulster Fry from the North of Ireland.

The recipe I used is from A Little Irish Cookbook.

Ingredients: 

2lbs/1kg/1 cup mashed potatoes

4 oz/25 g/1 cup plain flour

2 tbsp butter

Salt

Boil the potatoes and mash them (ideally these are freshly boiled and mashed; even better is to push them through a food mill).

Melt the butter and add into the potatoes with the salt.

Work in to flour quickly but thoroughly and knead lightly.

Divide into two and roll out each half on a floured board to form a circle about the size of a large dinner plate.  

Cut into quarters (farls) and cook for about three minutes on each side in a heavy frying pan in a little bacon grease.

TB Notes:  I had no food mill, I reversed the butter/flour/salt additions and probably added too much flour to boot,  I had no rolling pin to roll them out so I just patted them out, and I lightly fried them in olive oil.  That said, they are pretty delicious none the less.  They made a great meal paired with a Caesar salad and the beverage below: