Actually, it seemed quite unholy for a while: I did a first pass at our taxes. As I have done for many years, I used Turbotax, which can deliver the bad news quickly and with little effort. And this year the news is really bad. I had not fully digested the implications of Tom’s move to a group home in June of last year. We can no longer claim him at a dependent. So instead of owing $200-300 as in the past several years, we will be paying well over $2000. Fortunately, we can still claim James, although I had a bad scare about that as well.

I am really annoyed with myself for not adjusting my withholding at the time, particular since I remember wondering about it then. Also, a few weeks ago I let myself get talked into an expensive event against my better judgement, and it wasn’t even something I really wanted to do.

I took out my anger on a defenseless branch mia_mcdavid had cut down from the apple tree in our back yard. I sawed the best parts into manageable lengths and split them lengthwise. I will probably carve them into spoons or other small implements for use at colgaffneyis events.

Actually, the branch was not entirely defenseless. One section had a large knot, and would not split cleanly. Both hatchet and wedge got jammed repeatedly. It ended up in the firewood pile for 2008 or 2009..

Tonight we are going to the Easter vigil at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. As Mia wrote in Like coming home, we are doing the special liturgies of Holy Week together for the first time in many years. I agree with her completely. I had forgotten how wonderful Holy Week can be. Perhaps more on that another time.