It is already March? Tax time?

The last six months have flown. After the cruise we had more Ranch time, football, Thanksgiving with Di and Daniel (and their baby shower), Christmas with Kenneth's family, and then suddenly it was 2023, where 6 days in, we greeted Eleanor Ruth Stucky. Phew! I have spent 5 weeks in Parker helping with the baby, and now it is tax time. Our taxes are completed and I decided it is time to clean out files. I have done that before, but I have every tax return we have ever filed along with supporting documents. Don wants me to keep the returns, but I am dispensing with the supporting documents for at least 30 years . . . and I should do more. But I thought it would be interesting to document a few costs from then. For example, our long distance bills were not free . . . as a matter of fact, calls placed after 7:00 a.m. and before 8:00 p.m. (I think) were much more expensive, and weekend calls until about 6:00 p.m. Sunday were the cheapest. In August of 1977, 6 long distance calls cost $8.54, with some calls costing $.25/pminute. Glad cell phones have changed all of that! Our June electric bill of 510 KWH was $16.35 . . . that seemed like a lot back then, but wouldn't it be great to have those rates now. But the most interesting find was the bill for our avocado full-sized refrigerator freezer. We put $30.00 down on a $514.99 refrigerator - and sales tax was 3%. We bought our house in February of that year, and we paid 14% interest - today's rates still feel like a deal! I don't have time to document the past few months, so a few pictures will have to do. Pictures include Kenneth, Staci, Diana and Brianna at the shower; Daniel, Diana and Kathy Dunlavy at the shower; Baby Eleanor; heavy hoarfrost in Las Vegas; and celebrating the Super Bowl and the basketball 'Cats with the Gaskills. Fun times.

The National Geographic Venture

I have only taken two cruises in my life - one of the Greek Islands in 1970 and one several years ago with Kenneth's Senior Class. I wasn't sure what kind of ship we would be on this time, but I knew it would be different from the ones on which I had previously sailed. First, the ship was small. It only holds 100 passengers, but for our cruise we only had 74. Second, since the primary mission of the cruise is education, there was no casino (to our relief), no excessive drinking, no partying . . . just a nice group of people who are interested in wildlife, nature, and learning. Third, since we were on an expedition, we did not have to dress up. We were not there to impress, and most of us wore jeans and casual shirts. Fourth, rather than entertainment, we always had a talk after dinner. We learned about the rainforest, whales, the Kermode bears, the First Nations . . . and more. Fascinating information! We had booked a medium-priced room which was not so different from staying in the RV. The bathroom was bigger than the RV, and we found the entire set-up quite accommodating. One interesting aspect was that the doors could not be locked from the outside. I was a little uncertain about it, but it made sense once we were there. Surely made it easy not having to keep track of an key. Having a nice balcony helped, too. We didn't spend a lot of time out there, but just being able to open the door made the room more spacious. We would highly recommend this ship for future tours. Intimate is much better!