RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I recently put this up in the Tranquility Zone.  I put glow tape on the edges of an old wooden cross I purchased at my grandma’s care facility back in the late 90’s.  It looks really great when the lights go out!

As we continue with great story songs, here’s one written by Rupert Holmes (The Pina Colada song guy) called “Timothy” and done by The Buoys.  Listen to the lyrics carefully and see if you think they cannibalized their friend Timothy, or if Timothy was the name of their pack mule, as the group attested to in various interviews.  Either way…interesting song.

Monday the 19th  – I SEE A/C! – My air conditioning guy Pete came over to inspect my air conditioning unit as part of my semi-annual check-up protocol.  He said it’s all good, but before I use the heater in the winter some work has to be done to replace some rusty conduit.  Glad to know the A/C is good for another summer!  Sara came over to do some scanning while I typed out Wally’s Week.  My pal Brittney Powell came over so we could all go to Jerry’s Famous Deli for dinner. We picked up my new friend from church Leanette so she could join us too.  Then I came home for a nap, got up later to do auditions, fed and walked Roxy, and then made some sloppy joes and watched a few more episodes of “Taxi” from the first season.

Tuesday the 20th – HAIR, THERE, & EVERYWHERE! – Around 11 I got up to attend a meeting with my pastor and a few other church members about some plans we have for the evening service.  When the lunch meeting was over I came back home to relax.  It was hot out, as the first day of summer is the 21st!   So summer came a little early this year!  In the evening I went to Floyd’s Barbershop to get a touch-up on my color and a trim. Then I went home to nap for a bit.  I got up for my nightly auditions, fed and walked Roxy on our late night stroll through the neighborhood, worked around the house, and then made some soup and a sandwich and watched a few more episodes of “ Taxi” before bed.

Wednesday the 21st – SUMMER COMES! – At 1 I got up and ready to meet my old pal Greg Stone for lunch at DuPar’s.  I hadn’t seen him in a very long time, so it was good to catch up.  I stopped by my box to get my mail, and then headed back home where it was cool!  I spent a few hours doing a lot of writing for a new church project, and then took an evening nap when my eyes started to blur.  Later I got up to do a long session for American Airlines in my home studio that I voiced, engineered and edited.  Then I wrote up my invites for movie night.  I fed and walked Roxy on our late night stroll, made some spaghetti and watched more “Taxi” episodes.

Thursday the 22nd – THIRSTY THURSDAY THIEVES –  It was nice having a free day with nothing scheduled, so I slept until 3.  When I got up I did a few auditions, answered some e-mails, and headed out to go to dinner.  My water delivery was left out in the back by my garage as usual, but I noticed that the top of one of the cases of bottles had been ripped open and about 9 of the bottles had been removed. At first I just thought they gave me a damaged case, but I quickly realized that somebody came by and helped themselves to the bottles.  And I live in a good neighborhood too!  I called the water company and told them what happened, and they said they’d deliver another case in a few days.  Sheesh!  As my t-shirt says, “The More I Know People, The More I Love My Dog.”  I met Sara for dinner at Lancers, and after dinner we had a Lucky Charms shake at Burger King next door.  They’re pretty good, but it made me want to just have a bowl of Lucky Charms and call it a day.  We went over to Hobby Lobby to buy a few gift items that I wanted to make for my adopted grandma Shirley, and then we drove over to Walmart.  I normally steer clear of Walmart, but Sara ensured me that they had items I couldn’t find at regular stores.  Sure enough, they had several varieties of Tombstone pizza (my favorite frozen pizza) and I grabbed some!  I got home and grabbed a short nap, and then got up later to do my auditions.  I worked on Shirley’s gifts the rest of the night.  Just before bed I baked one of the Tombstone pizzas I bought and watched “Taxi.”  It was a rare overcast morning, so as dawn broke it was a gorgeous blue morning.

Friday the 23rd – WONDERS OF WATER! – I sprang from bed at noon to meet my carpet cleaners.  With all of the traffic in Planet Wallywood I need to have the downstairs carpets cleaned on a regular basis.  A few months ago at movie night somebody spilled some Coke, so I wanted to get that removed.  They did their usual great cleaning job, and when they left I put an ice pack on my face and grabbed a short nap on the couch.  Even though my sinus surgery was done five weeks ago today, the complete healing takes a while.  While most of the swelling has gone down, there’s still some stubborn swelling way back in my sinuses that may take a while to fully go down.  As my agent Pat told me (who had the surgery a few years ago) “Ice packs, baby!”  My friend Emily came over to do some scanning of my personal photo albums for posterity and the long, arduous scanning project is almost done.  My pal Brittney Powell came over to swim some laps in the pool.  Then she and I went out to Miceli’s to grab some dinner.  After some delicious lasagna I went home to nap for a bit.  I got up to do some work around the house, including plotting a way to replace one of my heavy fiberglass and metal torso busts with a lighter weight version.  I found a suitable replacement and ordered it on eBay.  I’ll have to consult with my pal Kyle at Plastic Depot to make an appropriate stand for it. But it’ll be about 10 pounds lighter in the end, which will be nice. The final two episodes of “Taxi” from season one was a two-parter, and Tom Selleck was in it. Oddly enough, in the show, he hailed a taxi to get a ride to an auction.  I had just been thinking a few hours earlier about a few Tom Selleck “Magnum, p.i.” items I’d be bidding on the upcoming week in an auction. Of all the weird things!  But those kinds of things happen to me all the time. “Taxi” season one was absolutely brilliant!  I’m excited to move on to season two, but my pal Randy Carver was only in season one, sadly.  I was just getting to bed around 10am when my friend Emily arrived to scan all afternoon.

Saturday the 24th – POWER TO THE (MOVIE NIGHT) PEOPLE! – Right around 4 I woke up and checked my e-mails.  I got dressed and went to get some groceries for movie night.  Everyone was gathering for movie night and I was having a great time showing the collection to a new visitor.  Literally 10 minutes before we started the movie, my power went out again (just like it did a few weeks ago).  I was frantic.  Not only was it a hot day, and I needed the A/C, but I had a house full of people who were there to see movies!  I called the homeowner’s association hotline, but our onsite manager was on vacation.  I told them my power was out, but “power outage” was not on their list of emergencies requiring immediate attention.  I told the lady on the phone that it was near 100 degrees in L.A., and not having A/C WAS in fact an emergency.  (Am I going to have to run for the Board to kick some butt around this place?)  I had been assured by the onsite manager when my power went out a few weeks ago, that the master reset switch in the utility cabinet out back would be replaced, as I suspected it was getting old.  My neighbor had the same problem with his power going out several years ago, and after they replaced the master reset switch for his unit everything was good.  But apparently my master reset switch did NOT get replaced as he promised.  And he just went on vacation to have a good time while I’m sitting here with a house full of people on a 90 degree night with no juice. Luckily I found a key to the cabinet from a neighbor and I went outside with my assistant Sara to reset the switch and get power restored.  Luckily she was here the first time the power went out and she remembered what to do.  My friend James, who’s a manager at his apartment complex, helped out.  So we got power back on, but I was furious that a promise hadn’t been kept.  We had a fun movie night and watched the old 1978 movie “Harper Valley P.T.A.” starring Barbara Eden.  After doing an Adam West tribute two weeks ago, and watching “A Dog’s Purpose” last week, we were in need of some fun, wacky, mindless fun.  And that it was!  Just as everyone was leaving I got a phone call from the assistant manager who said he was going to order a new reset switch to install first thing Monday.  He said he’s even going to get a larger one to accommodate my power usage.  When everyone left I got a nap on the couch for a little bit, and when I got up I had a message from the manager who apologized profusely for the second outage. He said he conferred with an expert who said the switch didn’t need replacing, and that the first outage was a “fluke.”  I thought it was nice he called to apologize, but I’m wondering who this “expert” was.  Perhaps we need to sever ties with this “expert” if they can’t recognize a simple problem like this.  I did some work around the house and then made my traditional Saturday night Super Salad and I watched another episode of “Hee Haw.”  Once again by the time I was ready for bed it was 10am Sunday morning, and my friend Emily had arrived again to do more scanning.

Sunday the 25th – TOO HOT FOR ROX! – When I woke up at 4 I quickly realized that it was much too hot to walk Roxy to evening church.  She wasn’t going to be happy about that, as she looks forward to going each week.  I hopped in my car and drove to church, and it was great service.  I took my ‘adopted grandma’ Shirley to Paty’s for dinner on the patio.  As the day ended, the weather turned very nice.  We were later joined by our church friend Stephanie. After dinner I took a large curtain in to be dry cleaned.  It was fairly dirty and had a fair amount of animal hair on it.  It needed to be cleaned desperately!  I dropped Shirley off at her home and then came home to do a little work. I got an ice pack for my face and took a nap.  Later I got up to do a bunch of fun auditions, and then fed and walked Roxy.  I made some chili and started in on the first season of “The Outer Limits.” I remember watching this show late night Friday nights at sleepovers with my childhood friend Kent in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  We loved how the show was creepy and was a bit scarier than “Twilight Zone.”  We would order a pizza from Lu’s Pizza (a great mom ‘n’ pop pizza place) and get our sleeping bags set up in the living room to watch the show. The first episode starred Cliff Robertson and was fantastic!  I’m going to love watching this series!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

As my assistant is scanning a bunch of old photos from my albums, I’m coming across some great shots. Like this one of me dressed as Cornelius from “Planet of the Apes” on Halloween back in 1998.

Here’s the case of water I found outside my garage. I hope the stupid thieves enjoyed my water.

I found an old shot of me and Stan Lee from about 1994 at the TV Academy.

A few days ago I walked into the Chaney Room to get something, and the sun was shining in through a section of the blinds just right. It illuminated a part of my Michael Myers mask in such a way that it looked VERY creepy.

For some strange reason, my cat Spooky was sitting halfway down the stairs. It reminded me of the old song from “The Muppet Show” by Robin the Frog. Thanks to Scott Sebring for putting it all together.