Irony

Today, the day I am writing this, is Monday, April 14, 2025. That information will be important later on. 

Rick and I have always done our own taxes. Some years I am not sure how wise it was, but it hasn’t been all that bad, until the last several years. When programs like TurboTax and other online tax prep programs came out the IRS decided that people didn’t need the paper forms anymore. So in the interest of saving paper, they quit sending out the big book with all of the forms a person used the last year and all of the instructions needed. Instead, one has to go online and download the forms to print. The forms aren’t a problem, the instruction booklets are.

 The stuff is available to order in paper form, so that is what we have done; go online and order the forms and schedules we need to do our taxes and they send them to us. This year was no different. Around the middle of February, I went online and ordered the Form 1040, Schedule C, Schedule F, and Schedule SE, along with the instructions for each. Oh, and I also ordered the payment voucher. I figured we should have them by the last of March at the latest and Rick could get the taxes done. Well, about 10 days after I ordered I got the payment voucher. It was all by itself with a note that the rest of the things I ordered were out of stock and would be sent as soon as they were back in stock. 

“Okay, no worries,” I thought. We still have plenty of time. About a week after that, we received the Schedule F and instructions. 

“Well, we are getting there anyway. Three more forms and over a month to go. We should still have them in plenty of time,” I thought. 

Well I should have stopped thinking. 

Week before last Rick got tired of waiting and had me download and print the forms and schedules. We decided if we needed something out of the instruction books I could download and print just the pages he needed. 

Last week he worked on the taxes and finished them up on Saturday. After breakfast this morning we drove into town and mailed the tax forms, etc., off to the place on the voucher form. We picked up some things at NAPA, lunch from CC’s, went to Dr. Waddell’s office to get Rick’s glasses adjusted and came back home. Stopped to pick up our mail at the county road and found a big envelope in the mailbox. 

Yup, all of the rest of the tax stuff I had ordered roughly two months ago. The irony makes me want to either laugh or cry. Guess I will laugh and go play with baby chickens. 

 Growing up Easter dinner was usually a roast leg of lamb, served with mint sauce. I saw a leg of lamb in the store recently and decided maybe I needed to refresh my memory on how to roast it. 

 Roast Leg of Lamb

1 leg of lamb, 5-6 pounds

1 ½ tablespoons salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

Remove shank bone, rub meat with salt and pepper, place fat side up on a rack in an uncovered roasting pan. Roast at 300º for 30-35 minutes a pound. My mom always put slivers of garlic through out the leg in slits. She also basted with mint sauce, which was melted apple mint jelly and apple cider vinegar. Then glazed it the last 15 minutes with just the melted jelly.