Hi neighbors. We've been (April) fooled again, and had time changed on us when we were sleeping. I hope the dairy cows get the time change figured out early on. If not, setting the clocks ahead will at least give the farmers time for a second cup of coffee before starting the milking machines in the mornings.

Yes, it's "spring forward" time which you should have figured out by this morning if you planned on getting to church on time.

I never get up at 2 a.m. to set my clock ahead in the spring or back in the fall. Not since I no longer work night shift any way. I remember the time-change night in the spring we always held off changing the clock till 2 a.m. It just gave us a little thrill to so easily dismiss an entire hour of work by simply turning forward the clock.

In the fall though, we set the clocks back early on to avoid the shock of facing a nine hour night. We all brought snacks on the long night to help staunch the natural dismay of seeing an hour's work evaporate with a single sweep of the clock hands.

Things weren't always easy when I worked the day shift either as I had no safety zone. Usually I had a set routine once the alarm went off and followed it obsessively. So, getting to work an hour early once a year wasn't unusual, but was always embarrassing. I wasn't the only one who did it over the years of course.

All three shifts enjoyed April Fool's Day. Counting on the supervisor being too harried to notice the date, staff would hide until seconds before time to be on duty, then appear yelling April Fool's! As often as this happened, it still caught supervisors by surprise often enough to raise their anxiety levels for a week and give everyone else a good laugh.

April Fool's Day doesn't get adequate participation these days I think. Not enough jokes are played, not nearly enough people think up harmless mischief to tease their co-workers, friends or family. Maybe it's because there are too many weird things going on in April and people are too worried about another date -- April 15.

With all the strange things going on in April, I started wondering why tax day was on April 15 instead of April Fool's Day.

I did find out the history of the April 15 choice. The 16 Amendment, adopted February 3, 1913, allowed Congress to begin collecting income tax. The following March 1 was chosen as the deadline for filing returns.

In 1918, Congress passed the Revenue Act and for still unknown reasons, changed the date to March 15.

In 1955, Congress changed the date to April 15 to 'spread out the peak workload.' Since the income tax of that year applied more to the middle class, it turned out that the government had to write more refund checks. Some claimed changing the date to one month later gave the government a little more time to hold on to collected tax money.

We have to pay by April 15, but, by law, the IRS has to mail us our refund within 45 days or pay us interest. I have no idea what the percentage of interest is they charge themselves on our behalf; but I have a funny feeling it might not be as much as they charge us for being late in paying them. I've never figured out why they don't owe us interest anyway since they have our money all year. It is technically "due" April 15, not every paycheck. But, as someone said, you can't fight city hall -- or at least not the Big Hill.

People have claimed the right to hold onto their money through the year and only pay their taxes on April 15. They claim that they can put the usually with held amount in their own savings account and collect interest.

Sounds like a logical choice if a person has any self-control and can figure out how much they will owe and put it away.

Probably most of us would spend it and then be like the first year they implemented taxes -- no one paid! I think that's why they started the whole with holding process in the first place.

I've learned through the years that Uncle Sam and his IRS accountants have little sense of humor and no patience. So I suppose changing tax day to April Fool's Day won't fly.

Until the next time friends remember; you can fool some of the people some days in April, but don't try to fool our favorite uncle on April 15!