Victor's retirement funds

Black hole of paperwork

In December 2023, when Victor turned 60, he received a letter from AFORE, the government-mandated company that manages pension funds, saying he had nearly $10,000 (USD) in retirement funds!

We began a l-o-n-g series of trips to various offices tracking down different needed paperwork: his official identification number, his tax ID card, opening a bank account, papers only available from one specific distant office, his original birth certificate, his official police record, and more.

Additional time-consuming complications: several times at different agencies, computers were down; several times, he was told the next step would take maybe fifteen days, after we would be back in L.A.; many steps had to be done in person, not online nor by anyone else (such as Victor's niece); because we are married, he had to change his listed beneficiary from his niece to me; some appointments made online disappeared; some of his signed papers had to be sent to Mexico City first; one time when he signed on a computer screen, they said his signature was insufficiently similar to that on his ID, so he had to go get a new ID. 

It really did seem like they made up requirements to avoid paying out money.

After he got an initial deposit in his bank account, AFORE said there was some police investigation and Victor began another round of pointless visits to multiple police agencies.

Months went by with no new deposit. When we were next in Mérida, they sent him for another police report. After that, they needed a new bank statement. 

Finally, they said deposits would resume in a month, and they did! And they have continued monthly.

WHEW! What an ordeal.

Copper Canyon — October 2025

Link to more photos. View the photos individually to see the captions.

We took a group tour to Copper Canyon (Barrancas del Cobre) in Mexico. The weather was good: mild temperatures and daytime rain only twice. 

Copper Canyon is remote, requiring several days to get to either end. Our tour began in Phoenix, continued by bus to San Carlos on the Sea of Cortez in the state of Sonora, then past the giant Mayo Deer Dance statue to El Fuerte in the state of Sinaloa. Dinner included a Zorro performer, because the hotel claims to be on the site of the birthplace of Zorro.

In the morning, we enjoyed a gentle float trip on the El Fuerte River. After lunch, a female version of the traditional Yaqui Deer Dance, followed by nine other dancers, each with an elaborate costume, and ending with a female Zorro dancer. (Click here to view a separate photo album of all these dancers.)

That night, our tour director Carlos told us he had been in pain for the last two days, and was now diagnosed with appendicitis! He said he was leaving for the nearest hospital, an hour away, and we would have a new tour director the next evening. We once had a tour with unplanned bus changes, but this was the first time we experienced a change of tour director! (Carlos appears in the background of several photos of the dancers; probably the best shot of him is in the photo of the female Zorro dancer.)

The next day we learned that Carlos had a laparoscopic appendectomy and was doing OK. Directorless, the hotel staff took us to begin the canyon train ride, frequently along the very edge of the canyon, finishing at the small town of Barrancas in the state of Chihuahua, where we stayed in a hotel on the rim of the Copper Canyon, at an elevation of 7,300 feet. While there, we also shopped from the indigenous Tarahumara artisan vendors.

When we left the canyon, we returned to our bus and traveled to the city of Chihuahua. There, our new tour director, after only a few days, had been speaking too loudly too long and now had laryngitis, so we got one more tour director to speak for him. At our farewell group dinner that night, we were serenaded by a Mexican band. The next day, we went to El Paso, where the tour ended.

Autographs — The Yes Men

At Occidental last night, they showed the 2009 documentary The Yes Men Fix The World, and then the two Yes Men spoke, answered questions, and signed books.

I've always been torn about them. I appreciate their intentions, and they choose deserving targets, and sure, their "culture jamming" hoaxes are fun to hear about, but I don't like lying and tricking people, including news media. That affects innocent bystanders like me who rely on mainstream news being generally truthful.

Autographs — Tim Greiving

 

Tim Greiving spoke and signed books at Vromans last night.

Tim Greiving

I even brought my 'Celebrating John Williams' CD just in case Williams made a surprise appearance. Alas, he did not.

I also asked the first audience question: "If asked, would John Williams enjoy writing another Olympic fanfare for the 2028 games?" Greiving said yes. I hope LA28 asks.

(index to autographs)

Autographs — Ted Chiang

 

Ted Chiang spoke at Occidental last night on "The Incompatibilities between Generative AI and Art."

(index to autographs)

Jack Kirby exhibit

 

Link to more photos.

As I've written before, I loved reading comic books when I was younger. My two favorite comic book artists were Steve Ditko for his occasional surreal psychedelic vistas, and Jack Kirby for both his muscular super-heroes and his action scenes. When I read that the Skirball Cultural Center was going to have a major Jack Kirby exhibit, I had to go.

I did not know that Kirby was Jewish, but I'm glad that that led the Skirball to hold this exhibit. I had not been there before.

It was fun seeing all the Kirby artwork. I never knew he worked for DC for a time, but that was in 1970, when I was no longer buying comic books.

Bowers Museum — August 2025

Link to more photos.

We went on a one-day tour to Orange County. The highlight was the Bowers Museum. It was my first visit there. The featured exhibit was China's Terracotta Warriors. 

Only a handful of the warriors were there (photo above), but there were many related items and other exhibits. (See the photo album linked above.)

As a novelty, you could take a photo of yourself as a terracotta warrior:

Iceland Cruise — July 2025

Our cruise ship (not my photo)

Link for more photos. (View the photos individually to see the captions. And see below for a second photo album of the botanic garden.)

Our first-ever cruise, encircling Iceland. Summary: almost no rain and pretty moderate temperatures, ate good food, saw beautiful scenery, lost an important and expensive first day, went to some onboard entertainment, visited several towns, saw waterfalls but almost none of the country's famed geographic wonders. For full details, read on.

Iceland has been on my travel wish list for a while, mainly for its geography. I saw an inexpensive 8-day cruise around the island with stops in four ports and decided to try it. It would be our first cruise.

When selecting a stateroom, I discovered why the cruise was relatively cheap: In the cheapest category, there was only one room available, and it had no outside window. The next level up had no rooms available. I went up one more level and took a room with an obstructed view window, and, I realized later, on the ocean rather than the land side, meaning we would only see water most of the time. I added a basic wifi package, and four shore excursions. I declined booze packages, fancy dining packages, spa packages, etc. Without paying $40/day for the cheapest beverage package, you don't even get sodas! (I'll buy some to bring onboard.) After all the additions, the cruise is no longer "relatively cheap."

We were to fly to Chicago then to Reykjavik. In the wee hours of the morning, over Newfoundland, halfway from Chicago to Iceland, the pilot said we were returning to Chicago! There was new volcanic activity in Iceland, and jets can't fly through volcanic ash. Here's the track of our flight:

Sounded reasonable, and we were trying to figure out just when we might get to Iceland or whether we would get there at all, but passengers discovered that NO other jet headed for Reykjavik had turned around. United Airlines provided us with alternative flights, free hotel and meals, but no one was happy. In our case, the suggested alternative flights meant waiting another day in Chicago (!!) and an added stop of more than 11 hours (!!) in Canada. Instead, I booked a flight on Icelandair. We needlessly lost one pre-paid hotel night and our pre-paid full day Golden Triangle tour. I will later hassle with United over just how much of an airfare refund I can get. (P.S. I did get a refund for the unused flights.)

I didn't think of it at the time, but what I should have done is extend the trip by a day or two and try to do the Golden Triangle tour after the cruise.

There was a little drizzle at the Reykjavik airport, but none when we got to town. We did not get to the hotel until after noon. We slept for a while, had a bit of dinner, bought the sodas for the cruise, and did no activities.

Boarding the ship involved health questions, security briefing, lines for photos, searches, sea passes, and more, but went fairly quickly. The first day, I opened one of the two 0.75 liter bottles of Evian water. I thought they were complimentary. They were not; after taxes and crap, that bottle cost me $7.21! Grrr! That first evening, there was a not very well publicized LGBT get-together; out of over 2500 passengers, there were only two other men and one woman who showed up. The second day was completely "at sea," but we did go to an onboard magic show. Meals are good, and because we are often full, we skipped a couple.

We went to a presentation about the Vikings. The next day included our first excursion, watching Icelandic horses and visiting a dairy farm.

The following day had two excursions. In the morning, we went to the Goðafoss Waterfall and the Akureyri Botanical Garden. (See second photo album about the garden) The afternoon excursion said it would be a "narrated drive through Akureyri; Laufas Folk Museum; Tour the turf farmhouse" Well, the Laufas Folk Museum included the turf farmhouse, but the rest of the excursion was the Goðafoss Waterfall and the Akureyri Botanical Gardens! That's right, a repeat of what we did in the morning. I'm pissed that I paid for both excursions when we could have just done one! I complained to the Shore Excursion people that the two descriptions should have explicitly said that they were nearly identical and that customers should not even be allowed to book both of them without acknowledging that they were practically the same.

Our fourth and final excursion was OK, not great. Most interesting was driving through a one-lane tunnel with two-way traffic! (There are short pull-out lanes every so often for the traffic in one direction to yield to oncoming traffic. Click here for a 40-second video.)

Overnight we were north of the Arctic Circle. We received certificates saying we were now in the Order of the Blue Nose.

I did use the swimming pool and jacuzzi once. We enjoyed a Broadway show tunes performance on the last night. 

All the Iceland geology I was looking forward to? We saw almost none of it! Missing the Golden Triangle tour was a major blow, but also the Akureyri excursions did not include any of the nearby lava formations of Dimmuborgir, bubbling mudpots or hissing fumaroles at Namafjall Mountain. 

Our return flight from Newark to L.A. left four hours late, because the aircraft was more than three hours late arriving in Newark. Sigh.

On the whole, interesting enough, but missed most of what I wanted to see. As for cruising, Victor got tired of looking at the sea. If I book another cruise, I might try a river cruise.

Good news, bad news and newsworthiness

I've never understood the common complaint that the news is mostly bad news.

One of the requirements for something to be newsworthy is being unusual.

Therefore, I've long held that the fact that good news is not newsworthy is good news. It means that good news is expected and normal, not unusual.

I don't understand why this isn't more broadly touted.

Autographs — Catherine Rhodes

Given my interests in linguistics, higher education, and Mayan culture, I would have to read this book. I would usually wait for it to be available at a library, but the very same announcement that brought the book to my attention offered more:

In January, Mérida English Library announced a book signing event for this book. But we would be arriving in Mérida five days later. I asked if they could hold a signed copy for me to pick up; they said yes, but then it wasn't until mid-February that they wrote to say they had a signed copy for me. We were back in L.A. by then.

I told them we would probably be back in Mérida in May or June and if they could hold a copy for me that long, I would buy it then. In mid-June we were in Mérida again, and I asked if there was a signed book I could buy. They said yes, but then said, actually, the two copies they had were not signed. They asked the author if she could stop by and sign them. She did, and, a few days later, I bought a signed copy.

(index to autographs)

Huntington Gardens and Art Galleries — June 2025

 

Quick visit to the Huntington today. With my aching hip, I couldn't walk all around the gardens, so we saw them mainly from the tram. Link to garden photos. We also didn't visit the Library. But there were some exhibits I wanted to see.

The current major exhibition is of Don Bachardy's work. I briefly met Bachardy and Isherwood a couple of times. Link to exhibit photos.

The Wang Mansheng exhibit was smaller than I expected. Here's one photo:

There is also one work by Mineo Mizuno:

DC Area — May 2025

The U.S. Capitol

Link to more photos. (View the photos individually to read the captions.)

We took this tour of some places around the District of Columbia. The tour specifically did not spend much time in DC itself. On my last trip to DC in 2018 I saw a lot. And whenever I thought of taking Victor there, I wondered how much someone not U.S.-schooled would appreciate all the U.S. history, past presidents' monuments, etc. So I hoped this trip, with just a bit of DC, would be suitable for both of us.

The temperatures were mild, but there was some rain, including thunderstorms.

Our first tourist stop was Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where the sight of the flag during the War of 1812 inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem we know today as "The Star-Spangled Banner." We also stopped at the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, where that flag was sown. In the afternoon, we were at the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum. Despite the title, it celebrates all Baltimore teams, including the Orioles and the Colts, so it also has the Colts' 1970 Super Bowl trophy. We enjoyed a short cruise of Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

The next day began with a guided tour of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. After lunch, we stopped at two houses associated with John Wilkes Booth: the Surratt House Museum, Booth's first stop after he shot President Lincoln, where he picked up guns and equipment he had stored there earlier, and the Dr. Samuel A. Mudd House Museum, where Dr. Mudd treated Booth's injured leg.

The following day included several home tours: Woodlawn Manor, the Pope-Leighey House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and George Mason's Gunston Hall. We stopped for lunch in Occoquan. Our last daylight stop was the National Museum of the U.S. Army, opened only 4½ years ago. 

After dinner, we had a Washington, DC illumination tour. But just as we were disembarking at our first stop to view the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, there was lightning, and we were hustled back on the bus. We stayed on the bus, viewing the many sights only from the streets. That was a disappointment.

In the morning, we stopped at Alexandria's Christ Church, where George Washington and Robert E. Lee, among many others, were parishioners. We spent the afternoon at Mount Vernon, which I had never seen. The museum was good, but the mansion itself was another disappointment. It is a bit of a hike, with a wait, and then you are rushed through just a few rooms of the mansion, and some of those are currently all torn up for renovation:

The next day started at Lincoln's Cottage, where he spent most summers and developed the Emancipation Proclamation. Next came Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot, and, across the street, the Petersen House where he died.

Italy — April 2025

 

Link to more photos (View the photos individually to read the captions.)

We took a two-week tour of Italy. It went pretty well. The weather was cooler than I expected, and there was some rain. My sore hip slowed down my walking and was a constant low-level pain.

Victor had never been to Italy. Fifty years ago, I was in Rome, Florence, and Venice. This tour included those cities along with much more. The tour began and ended in Rome.

Our flight leaving Los Angeles was delayed and we missed our connecting flight to Rome, so we arrived several hours later than expected, and missed the Mouth of Truth, St Valentine Bones, and the first group dinner.

The first full day, we toured the Vatican and the Colosseum. The following day we traveled to Pompeii and Sorrento. Next was the Bay of Naples and Capri, then Assisi the day after. In Verona, we glimpsed Juliet's house and continued to Venice. While in Venice, we cruised to Burano.

Next were Milan, Como, and Lake Maggiore, including the Borromean Islands and the Palazzo Borromeo. After that, we were in Pisa and Florence before returning to Rome.

My favorite stops were Pompeii and the bays and lakes. 

Differences from 1975: The all-too-frequent bag checks (ever since 9/11). Far more tourists now, meaning more crowds and queues. But at least, with smart phone cameras, we took many more photos; Victor took over 500, and I took 75, including many more photos of Michelangelo's David than the single one I had in 1975. 

Oh, and why, at IAH (Houston) and IAD (Dulles) is there no TSA Pre-Check for international arrivals making a connection? GRRR!

Julian, Anza-Borrego, Pechanga — April 2025

 

We took a two-day tour to Julian, Anza-Borrego, Pechanga and Temecula. The forecast called for some rain, but fortunately, it only rained while we were riding on the bus; I never opened my umbrella. It was pretty cold, though, and very windy in the desert.

Julian, in the Cuyamaca mountains east of San Diego, is famous for its apple pie, which we certainly tried.

In the afternoon, we visited Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. There were no wildflowers this year, but we saw a few of the sculptures by Ricardo Breceda. Here are my photos of them. 

We spent the night at Pechanga Resort Casino. Because they are a sponsor of the Lakers, they have a 2020 Lakers NBA Championship ring on display. Here is an 11-second video of the ring. (If necessary, click to enlarge the video.)

The next day, we had lunch at Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula and stopped in Old Town Temecula.

I wrote this on Facebook one evening:

Trump and Musk are deplorable.

Hillary was always right about this: "You know, ... you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it...."

On November 8, 2017, one year after the election, Trump thanked the "deplorables" for his victory

The next morning, I thought, "I should have sent it to the newspaper." So I sent it to the LATimes. They did not print it.

2024 was a somewhat difficult year

It started with a bang... literally: A car hit me as I was walking across the street in January 2024. This, along with arthritis, has left me with long-term pain in my lower back and in my right hip, and has forced me to cut back on walking, my only exercise. I also struggle to find comfortable sleeping positions. I decided I should try a hip replacement, but Physical Medicine doctors tell me not in my case. Many different meds and a bit of acupuncture have made no difference. Some stretching exercises sometimes help a bit. This is seriously hurting my well-being.

After years of fighting leaks, I asked for a quote about roof repair. But they insisted city inspectors would also want the big roof beams repaired, and I wasn't interested in that.

Upon turning 60 in December 2023, Victor learned that he has over $10,000 in retirement funds! After much paperwork over many trips throughout 2024, and with help from some of his family, he has yet to see a cent. We're still working on it. (If this ever concludes, I'll write it up here.)

In September, I bought an almost new car. But it turned out to be stolen, and I lost both the car and the $19,000 I paid for it! All I'm left with is a police report stating that I am the victim of "theft by trickery" (a crime I never before heard of). It's not even tax deductible, because it's not related a federal disaster declaration.

And, to top off the year, there was the dismal Presidential election, which left me depressed.