For the first time in my 69 years of life, I’m having to deal with our tax return. Up until now, I’ve happily relied on others to handle that nasty little chore. From the time I was 14 and started receiving a paycheck until I got married, my dad handled my taxes. And when I say “handled,” I’m pretty sure that means he handed my W2 over to the accountant who was doing his taxes and paid him to do mine as well. Look up “spoiled” in the dictionary and you’ll see my face.

From the time I got married, someone else handled my tax returns. My first husband, my second husband, you get the picture. There must have been someone who handled things between my husbands, because I don’t remember doing my own taxes and I’m not — nor have I ever been — in prison next to Al Capone.

Bill has always done our taxes. Given that we are not sophisticated investors with billions of earnings, he hasn’t complained. Much. But last year almost did him in, and so with the sale of our house this year, we decided it was time to have a professional do our taxes.

This decision resulted in me having to find all of our important tax-related papers and put them into “the Box” that I created with the help of my accountant’s assistant. The Box is an internet program into which I put all of my important tax documents. Sounds easy, but it has been highly stressful. But I’m easily stressed. You would think that I had been asked to do Elon Musk’s taxes.

Anyhoo, we finally got everything into the GD Box yesterday morning. By that time my blood pressure was discernably high.

“Let’s go for a ride to see the Super Bloom,” I suggested to Bill.

The newscasters had been talking about the Super Bloom the evening before. It’s the time in spring when all of the cactus flowers and mountain blooms start popping up. This year its anticipated the the Super Bloom is going to be a Super DOOPER Bloom because of all the winter rain. I knew seeing the beautiful blossoms would calm my nerves and subsequently lower my blood pressure.

Here’s what we saw maybe three miles from our home…..

Consider my blood pressure lowered.