If Orwellian interrogators had to find my ultimate phobia in Room 101, it would be filling in tax returns. I would betray my family and friends to avoid filling in tax forms.

This is why I love Elena so much. This is the 3rd year she has helped me with my U.S. returns. She is very Russian and laments the fall of the Soviet empire. She understands my phobia and is gentle with me.

We spend a wonderful hour together resulting in completed tax for 2019.

I now have to do my Japanese taxes when I get back to Okinawa in March. This was very straightforward last year, so fingers crossed that nothing has changed.

I have been very lazy since the return from Mexico. I have luxuriated in the beautiful Spring weather and the resplendent flowering trees in the streets adjacent to the house.

I also had lunch at SLAC with the unparalleled Melinda but forgot to take photos. Met lots of friends who seemed strangely old.