Thu Oct 22 07:42:31 EDT 2015

Went to bed after eleven, slept OK, and woke up after seven.

Had interesting dreams. One involved the drive-thru roadside attraction Weird Tales World. It was in the slightly hilly forests of northern Michigan (though it could just as easily have been in New England). Lots of stuff integrated into trees (or fake trees). There was some sort of tree-integrated antiques vending machine, and restaurants. Sort of an arboreal automat. There were faerie lights. It was all charming, and not particularly Lovecraftian (or not that I discovered _before I woke_!!).

Mostly sunny with a high of sixty-six today.

Goals:

    Work:
    - Call Jason at Hazel Park about archie
      Done. We're trying to schedule a brief maintenance outage around two o'clock.
      Spent more than an hour troubleshooting. No dice.
      After a lot of fucking around, we used pstools to disable Windows firewall, and were able to vnc into the box.
      Still not fixed totally, but at least it's possible to fix now.
    - Call Tom C. about Central security improvements
      No.
    - Talk to Sherri about Pitney Bowes machine
      Done.
      Ran it by Sherri and Julie. We'll go with the DM300.
      I requested a lease agreement form PB.
      .... received, signed, and sent back.
    - Order USB flash drives
      Done.

Short walk at lunch. Spectacular day. Mostly green trees now a tiny minority. Loads of leaves on the ground (which I stomped through, and kicked into showers).

I know it's pointlessly terrible for the environment, but yesterday I was really missing the scent of burning leaves in the air.

    Home:
    - Read more K&R
    - Call George at the Toyota dealership again
      George called me back. He'll call again to let me know what time the guy will be there tomorrow.
      George didn't call me back.
    - Work of 5e encounter calculator
      Done, but only a tiny bit.
    - Think about setting up a 529
      Sort of like a Roth IRA but earmarked for education rather than retirement.
      Contributions are taxed, but earnings and withdraws are not.
      The beneficiary can be changed.
      The account holder can name themselves as the beneficiary.
      Can _not_ be used to pay off student loans or loan interest.
      Distribution not spent on education are taxable _and_ subject to an addition 10% tax.
      Contributions can not exceed the amount necessary to provide for the qualified education expenses of the beneficiary (probably $14k/yr).
      Contributions to a 529 plan do not have to be reported on your federal tax return.
      You won't receive a Form 1099 to report taxable or nontaxable earnings until the year you make withdrawals.
      You can change your 529 plan investment options twice per calendar year.
      https://www.irs.gov/uac/529-Plans:-Questions-and-Answers
      Maybe.

Took a half hour walk after I got home. Nice evening, though it colder as the sun dipped near the horizon. The moon was boldly out in the blue sky. Crunch, crunch, crunch of leaves.

May go to bed a little early.