Morton Fox's journal

There was a snowstorm forecast for Friday evening and Saturday. The snow didn't start until after dusk here but I stayed home anyway to do a couple of things. First, I worked on photos from the last few days. Then I did a bit more of my tax return, which I started a few days ago. I won't be able to finish it until mid-March because some of the forms typically don't get to me until early March but I'll do as much as I can now. Also worked on a new TwitVim feature, which was suggested by a user.

( Friday Five )

Got a Where's George hit in the UK, specifically in London. Not incredibly rare though. I have over 40 UK hits already.

Did a number of errands this afternoon, but one of those errands was to drop off the Roth IRA distribution and excess contribution forms at the broker's office. I was surprised that they moved a few blocks up Route 17. I went to the old location first and had to call them for their new location. That little adventure aside, it went smoothly. This is the 3rd year in a row I've had to remove an excess contribution. The problem is the AGI-based phase-out. I estimated how much I can put into the Roth IRA but had a better than expected year in the financial markets. Then when I did my taxes, I found out (for the 3rd year in a row) that I couldn't contribute as much as I thought. Of course, I could also have recharacterized the excess contribution as a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution, but I'm not sure it is worth the extra paperwork and recordkeeping. Better to get the money out (since I can do that without penalty) and redeploy it elsewhere. By the way, I'm not sure why there's even a phase-out. So what if Bill Gates funds a Roth IRA? As though shielding a paltry couple of thousand from taxes is going to mean anything to him. It just complicates my tax planning.

In the evening, I visited two geocaches at the Wallisch Homestead in West Milford. This location currently has an old house, dirt driveway, and soggy field, but TwistedT, who came along when I was at the cache site, told me that the town is planning to develop the park and put in a paved parking lot. The two geocaches were Mountain_Man_Mike's Micro #2 - Wallisch and Scout Hideout. The micro was actually a nanocache, a button-sized container. Due to a lack of dexterity, I generally have problems manipulating nanocaches. When I opened this nanocache, the bottom half slipped from my fingers. I'm 99.44% sure it fell somewhere in my car but I could not find that piece. Luckily, TwistedT had another nanocache container on hand and he generously replaced the one with the missing half. Thankfully, the second cache was much bigger and easier to handle. After I found that cache, TwistedT gave me a ride back to where I parked on his ATV. This photo was taken from the back of a moving ATV in a bumpy field. It was a wild ride! :)