More eloquent people than me have written about events on this day, whether as a day that will live in infamy or the day yet another brave, classy person passed from this life after a fight with cancer. Today it was a public figure, Elizabeth Edwards, tomorrow it will be some one equally brave that few know but who will also make a difference.

Yes, there was a day 22, but shorter than ever, and unless this strange head cold passes this night, I need to take a break to try to heal.

A Really Wierd Headache

Me & My Friend on Day 21 - walked 0.35 miles in 10 minutes on a flat surface treadmill, burned 30.5 calories. I'm still fighting lingering effects of a head cold, mostly a really wierd headache that has moved from the back to the front to the back again and now on both sides simultaneously.  An earache joins in from time to time.  I've been sleeping more and that has helped ... some.

We had a nice family Christmas dinner today, also played with the chimes and "guess the christmas song". Willyne played the first five notes of 25 songs, then we guessed. Danielle won, she got 24 of them right. It was fun!

Everyone has gone home now and we are getting ready to finish our day with the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. The colors and the music are amazing!

Winterfest Parade 2010

 La Verkin has a winter festival on the first Saturday of December each year, one of its highlights is the light parade.  I'll let the pictures do most of the work ...

The float for the Mayor and City Council included a generator to provide power for the Christmas lights.  Luckily, it was still going when I took the picture.  Overall, it was off more than it was on ... :-(

Pictured here is Mayor Wilson with one of his grandsons, just before the parade began.  Ray Justice and I joined them a moment later.

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We were near the front of the parade, with Frosty leading the way!

I have always liked colored lights in motion

You might remember me writing about recycling in La Verkin last August.  This well-lit float features one of the recycling binnies.  Councilman Phil Jensen, who represents our city on the county solid waste disposal board, rode on this float.

It was overcast, which kept it relatively warm -- yea!  There were also exciting fireworks tonight!  These little hometown celebrations and a fun part of the character of living here.

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One other note of the day, I'm a lifelong Dodgers fan, but that didn't stop me from being sad to hear of Ron Santo's death. The picture on the right is how I remember him, back in the day ...

He was one of those rare people who hustled every day and really cared about his team and his community. I will miss him.

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And last, but certainly not least, today is number 20 for walking.  I haven't felt well in a few days now, mostly a head cold, but I have cut back to 10 minute walks because of it -- but I really want to keep going no matter what.  Today wasn't the treadmill, I walked 0.5 miles after the parade to meet up with Willyne.  No grade, but it felt good!  Thanks for your support, it is really helping me!

Say's Law

Random observations from the second and final day of the 23rd annual USU Income Tax School ...

• Steve Radmall likes 529 plans better than Coverdell plans for saving for education.
• Coverdell plans do have one advantage in their ability to use them to pay for private elementary and secondary school tuition.  But like a lot of things, they expire after 2010.
• You can avoid paying income tax on US Savings Bond interest if you use it to pay for qualified tuition
• But you really ought to roll the savings bond proceeds into a 529 plan first because then you can use them for a wider range of education expenses
• I started asking everybody if they had gambling winnings 3 years ago because I tired of the IRS letters asking for more money because of gambling winnings they didn't tell me about (but I have offsetting losses so it shouldn't matter -- but it does).  Now the tax authorities are telling me I should be asking if people have felony drug convictions because they won't qualify for some of the education credits if they do.  I really don't want to know some of these things ...
• There are now 10 different programs for giving tax benefits on education expense and endless permutations of the interactions between these 10.  You can't totally rely on the computer.  Some extra effort on "what if" goes a long way ...
• There is a Form W-9S that can be used to qualify credit card debt for the student loan interest deduction -- if you jump through the right hoops
• Schedule L is back this year with more choices than ever.  You can file Schedule A or L or neither.  Sometimes skipping Schedule A and paying more federal tax is good because you save more on state tax than you pay on federal tax.  Especially if AMT is looming. Good luck getting the computer to give you a straight answer on any of that, another place you have to eyeball multiple options.
• If you hire one of those "one call, that's all" personal injury attorneys, and they get you a big settlement, it might be tax-free.  Or taxable.  Or a combination.  The part that is taxable, you have to report the gross settlement, before attorneys fees are paid, as income.  Then you can possibly claim the attorney fees as a deduction on Schedule A.  After deducting 2% of income.  And good luck dodging AMT on that one.  Really, how unfair is that?
• A presenter made a case today for filing a tax return for your child's babysitting or lawn mowing business income so that they can make a contribution to a Roth IRA.  Wow.
• We got a good laugh out of this 3 minute video ...

• Wish it weren't real
• We got 45 minutes on conversions of traditional IRAs into Roths. 
• We got 75 minutes on new tax legislation.  72 of that was on the new health care legislation.  It is actually a huge new tax law...
• Lots of info on tax court cases that settled this year
• When you have to pay a lot of tax because you didn't have enough money to pay your debts.  (So how are people going to do that?)
• How to figure basis on assets that are inherited from someone who dies in 2010.  It's different from 2009 and 2011, because of the repeal of the estate tax for this single year.
• The final speaker was the head of USU's Department of Economics and Finance.  He is a CPA who went on to get a Ph.D. in Economics.  He gives an economic outlook talk each year, but wasn't too excited to do that this year -- admitting that economists haven't been doing well at predicting where the economy is going next.  So .... we got a short explanation of Say's Law, with the admonition that we are talking about the wrong things.  His view is we won't get a long term benefit by stimulating demand, instead we should be stimulating supply, and demand will take care of itself.  Bravo!

Day 19 of the tortoise on the friendly treadmill...0.38 miles in 10 minutes @ 3% grade, burned 45 calories. Legs a little stiff, heart pumping, how does this happen in only 10 minutes?!?  Benjamin, you don't have to answer that, I can hear what you are saying from here ...  :)

Ho Ho Ho

We just finished dinner at the La Verkin city staff Christmas party.  Now we're all gathering in a circle to begin playing our yearly pick a present game.  It is definitely good for some laughs, which these good hard-working folks deserve!

I made it to day 18 with my treadmill friend this morning, walking 0.39 miles in 10 minutes, gradually increasing grades 4-12%.  I burned 58 calories.  Heart going fast, but less than last night. It is a good way to kick start my day!

Most of my day was devoted to the yearly Utah State University tax update school in St. George.  It goes for two days, we covered such exciting topics as how tax law changes have affected how to calculate basis of assets, and thus how much tax is due when they are sold, and recapture (of a lot of things besides just depreciation, we even covered recapture of alimony deductions under certain situations -- meaning in some cases, people who deduct alimony payments from their income have to add it back in a few years later and pay tax on it).  The IRS is going to require more to be done electronically, for example, there is going to be a new form this year that clients will have to sign if they insist on not filing electronically.  The state of Utah spent most of their hour on rules on when partnerships and other pass-through entities have to withhold tax from the income paid to its partners.  I thought it was an "interesting" choice of topics from among everything they could have chosen to discuss.

The longest session, held in late afternoon was 1 1/2 hours on ethics, split about equally between theory from sources such as the Josephson Institute and practical application in tax situations.  For example, a low-income woman comes in who has been abandoned by her husband, barely surviving financially and clearly needing a large refund.  Her youngest child, and the only one living at home, is 19 years old, which means there are income limits for her to be claimed as a dependent, and also so the woman can qualify for head of household status.  The child has one W-2 showing wages of $3,100 for the year, low enough for the mother to qualify for deductions that would give her a large refund.  In the course of the conversation, you learn that the child also received a few hundred dollars for selling plasma, for which there are no records and no one will ever know that this money was received.  With that money included, the child would not be able to be claimed as a deduction and the mother would actually owe tax.  The scenario ended with the rhetorical question:  "What would you do?" after which several other rhetorical question scenarios were presented.

I go back for a second day of this school tomorrow.  It is great that it is in St. George, most continuing education requires travel to Salt Lake or Las Vegas.

15%!

I don't know my heart rate but it is high...0.40 mile in 10 min with my ter-ree-blay friend on Day 17, 6 flat, 4 at 15% grade. That will get you going! Burned 57 calories. Definitely wasn't bored, Doug Jr.