RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
Good times. New Gumby toys and Archies records!
My three favorite Christmas songs of all time are…1) “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams. It reminds me of being a young boy anticipating Christmas as this song played on the AM radio in our house. 2) “Step Into Christmas” by Elton John. This reminds me of driving down the road with my family to my grandma’s house listening to this song on the AM radio station where I was now working as a teenage DJ. And 3) “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney. This reminded me of working at the radio station where I worked in my early 20’s. But the one I’ve been humming consistently this past week is the Elton John tune. Enjoy!
Monday the 19th – THE MOST WONDERFUL TAX OF THE YEAR! – As the owner of an S corporation, our tax structure is a bit different than that of the standard W-2 employee. We don’t have until April to pay our taxes, we have to close out our corporation at the end of every year, and start over fresh every new year. A calculation has to be made as to how much profit the corporation turned in the current year, and issue the employee (me) a profit sharing bonus check for the end of the year. This total disbursement can depend on a lot of different factors. Did the corporation turn a profit, and how much money in the corporation should be held over or the new year for first-of-the-year expenses are just a few of those considerations. So that the accountant can get a realistic view of the account’s financial standing, all corporate purchases and debits must be frozen for the last two weeks of the year. Sometimes that policy can be challenging, particularly since I have a new car on the way, and there was no way to expedite it any sooner. So I had a phone meeting with my accountant to talk about our attack plan for this year’s filing. It seems complicated, but it’s worth it in the end. I did some other work around the house all day and relaxed. Later I had a delightful dinner date, and then I came home to grab a nap. When I got up I recorded my nightly auditions and sent them to my agent. I typed out Wally’s Week and hit the hay.
Tuesday the 20th – R.I.P. CUSTOMER SERVICE! – The past few years have done no favors to the customer service procedures in this country, but truth be told, they’ve been diminishing slowly over the past decade. The manager at the Toyota dealership was supposed to call me at noon to confirm that my new Rav4 had been delivered. I was supposed to go to the dealership, take a test drive, confirm that I indeed wanted to take it, and then let them take it to their factory to install the leather seats I ordered. But no call at noon. No call at 1. I tried calling them and all I got were voicemails. RING RING RING. Still no call back at 2 or 3. Were they all at a Christmas party? I called every number I had at the dealership from every business card they gave me while I was in the shopping phase. RING RING RING. Funny that now that I’ve made a purchase, I get ghosted. Normally when I make holiday reservations at the Smoke House restaurant for our large group they call a week or two before to confirm the reservation. Since I hadn’t gotten a call I grew concerned that they may have lost the reservation. I called the Smoke House to confirm and RING RING RING. An automated system picked up and I waited on hold forever while listening to overly-loud Frank Sinatra deafened me. And what I always say about Sinatra is, “Frank occasionally hits the right note whether he wants to or not.” (NOT a Sinatra fan) I couldn’t take the droning on any longer so I hung up. I called my mailbox place to see if I had any packages that needed to be picked up and RING RING RING, and finally a voicemail. Last time I was there I saw several employees all hanging around playing games on their phones. Odd. But I really wanted to see my new car in the light of day before the sun went down. So I called Toyota again and finally got ahold of the manager. He said the Rav was in and I told him I’d be right over. I sped over and took the test drive and it’s gorgeous! I told him in order to take the corporate deduction this year I needed to have it back with leather seats installed no later than Monday the 26th. He shook my hand and said it was a deal. (We’ll see) I stopped at McDonald’s for some food and headed home. After a short nap, I got up to do my nightly auditions and edit “The Best Of Christoween,” a four minute best-of video highlighting all 13 stories in my audible story series. Just before I hit the hay for good after the sun came up, a few last minute auditions came in that I did, and then I went to bed.
Wednesday the 21st – AND HE COUGHED, MAN! – A second part to last week’s feature article about my story series “Donnie Druthers’ Christoween Capers” in the Crescenta Valley Weekly is going to drop this week, so they emailed me the article for approval. I only had to make a few small changes and I sent it back in. Then I got ready for another “Bleach” session. I walked to Subway and got a 6 inch tuna and headed to the studio. It was a chaotic session, and I felt very bad for the director and engineer. First off, as I’m on the tail end of my battle with bronchitis, I occasionally get into a brief and nasty coughing spell. They’re getting to be fewer and farther between as I’m at the end of this hell. This happens as my lungs still think they need to produce gunk to flush out the infection. But the infection is long gone, but nature is still telling my body I need to produce this crap. As I was yelling and screaming some of my lines and efforts in the show, my lungs were getting quite a workout. I started another coughing spell because of the robust breathing required to vocalize all the lines. So with profuse apologies to the director and engineer, I had to cough violently between lines to try and clear my lungs. I also was expecting a call from my doctor’s nurse to set up another telemedicine call so I could ask him if what I was going through was normal or not. During the session I noticed on my phone that I had missed two calls from my doctor’s nurse while we were recording. I called her back and got her voicemail. Luckily, the third time I was able to catch her call coming in and I scheduled the doctor’s call. Then, another interruption. When I sent in the corrections to the CV Weekly article I forgot to attach the two images they needed. Unless they heard from me soon (they were going to press later that day) they would just use the same two I sent them last week. I had very specific ideas about the images I wanted them to use, considering the focus of the article had taken a different angle this week. So I called my pal and webmaster Scott Sebring and had him send them the images I wanted. Whew! What a chaotic day! Luckily we were able to finish the episode in about an hour, and then I headed back home. I walked back home, got in the Mustang and headed to the bank to get a cashier’s check cut to pay Toyota when my new car came back in after getting the leather seats installed. I went to CVS to get some supplies, and the grocery store to get some groceries. I hit Bev Mo on the off-chance that they had those little Pepsis in the glass bottles again. They did! I bought all 24 that they had left in stock! I got back home to take care of the pets and relax. I did my nightly auditions, worked around the house, and did a consultation with the puppet builder I hired to build my new Mahna Mahna replica Muppet. Unfortunately it looks like we have vastly different perspectives and philosophies on puppet building, and I’m pretty particular about the end result that I’m looking (and paying) for. It may not end up being the job for him, and I may have to search out another builder to finish the job. We’ll see. Just so that we’re on the same page for it all, I stayed up all night creating a build manual for us both to use. This spells out every step (as I see it) that is required to achieve the result I’m looking (and paying) for. Just before I finally hit the hay I did another last-minute audition that came in.
Thursday the 22nd – I’M DONE PEOPLING FOR THE DAY! – My doctor called and refilled my cough medicine prescription, and also gave me a particular type of inhaler called Advair that I can use at future appearances to try and prevent another bronchial infection like this one. I am in NO rush to go through this again! The maids arrived and cleaned up Planet Wallywood. But it seems like every time the maid service sends workers to my house, it’s a totally different crew. It’s frustrating because there are certain ways to do things here, and if it’s not a regular crew that knows the routine, I have to try and cover all that ground with them anew each time. Inevitably, things get missed. I had a series of fairly frustrating emails and phone calls, and decided that I was done “peopling” for the day. I took a nap and shut out the world for a while. Later when I got up, I edited together the submissions for my weekly Aspiring Voice Actor event for my Christoween stories. Each week I post a snippet of that week’s story and let aspiring Voice Actors record it and send it in. I’ll compile everything and post it for my thousands of social media followers to hear. You never know where the next great Voice Actor will come from! Tomorrow I get my final dental work to remove the temporary filling and replace it with two new “onlays.” I made a salad and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger.”
Friday the 23rd – WELL THAT’S NOT HOW I THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD GO: PART 1! – Today was the day for my follow-up with my dentist to get my finishing dental work. Two weeks ago he did some work digging out an old, cracking filling, and replacing it with temporary filling. Over the past two weeks two new pieces called “onlays” were being crafted at the lab. They’re kind of like a cross between a crown and a filling. It’s not a full crown, as it won’t encompass the entire girth of the tooth. But it’s made of the same material, but is made to just fit snugly into the open area in the tooth, get glued in, and it’s good as new! Before the procedure starts, which includes Novocain shots, they always take my blood pressure. I can relax in the chair, breathe, use my meditation techniques and I’m normally between 124 and 127. That’s still a bit higher than I like, but it’s how I run. Two weeks ago I was 127. But my blood pressure said it was 135. I thought that was too high and I told them to give me a few more minutes so I could continue to relax and breathe. Then it shot up to 140! Then 160! Then 170! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I felt completely fine! The doctor even used a different machine but the readings were the same. Something was wrong! I told him at about 6 that morning I took some prescription cough medicine, as I had a bad coughing spell a few days ago. I certainly didn’t want to run the risk of coughing in my dentist’s face as he was doing the procedure. I thought maybe that had something to do with my elevated blood pressure, and why the readings were fluctuating so much. He looked up that particular type of cough medicine and found that it actually LOWERS your blood pressure. I just couldn’t wrap my head around why the readings were all over the map. Obviously he was unable to do the work. He suggested that I go to a local Urgent Care facility. But all they would do is take my blood pressure, ask me how I felt, I’d say I feel fine, and maybe or maybe not give me something for it. But I felt completely normal!! So he rescheduled me for January 3rd to complete the procedure. DAMN! The new prescription for my cough medicine had just been called in by my doctor the previous day, so I headed to CVS to pick it up. As I parked I saw a guy walking around his car looking distressed. He said that the reverse gear had gone out of his car and would I be able to sit in his car and steer it back out while he pushed. He looked elderly and frail, and did not look like he would be able to push it very hard. I told him to sit in the car and I would push. It went pretty well, but wasn’t moving that far. It was UPHILL! Luckily some other people happened along and helped me push him out. He started it up and was on his way. Hopefully to the mechanic’s. I went inside to get my prescriptions and talk to the pharmacist. Again, he confirmed that this particular type of medicine LOWERS blood pressure. I tested myself on the blood pressure machine at the pharmacy and it was 172! What the hell is going on?! I guess I have to get serious about getting my bike repaired and get on the road again, and start my brisk 2 mile walks again! Plus, I believe that hypertension may run in my family, and I’m about that age now. I remember my grandma having to watch her salt intake for that very reason when I was a kid. I don’t particularly like salt, and I try to avoid salt as much as possible. But it’s in so many things we eat. I never, EVER salt my food, as I feel it’s salty enough (sometimes TOO salty!). But I’ve got to do something! I don’t feel particularly stressed, but then I took inventory of everything that’s been on my mind lately…Roxy’s advancing age and the decisions I need to make soon regarding that, trying to get a puppet built, trying to get my new car secured, etc. So maybe some stress does figure in as a component to this craziness. So I came home and dug out a blood pressure machine that I had bought years ago and never used. I fired it up and got really wacky readings…again, all over the map. 154, and then 2 minutes later 134. Then 136, 140, 142, 151, 150, 143, 149, and on it continued. The fluctuations baffled me, especially considering I was just around the house relaxing! I decided to take a nap. When I got up I did some more investigative work to try and figure this whole thing out. Thinking logically, I tried to ascertain what the different component was from two weeks ago when my blood pressure was only 127. It wasn’t the cough medicine. But what else? I sat at the computer and happened to glance at my desk. A few weeks ago, when I was having particularly difficult times with violent coughing spells, my Ear Nose and Throat doctor prescribed me an Albuterol Sulphate inhaler. Since I had the coughing spell at the “Bleach” session a few days ago, I had taken a few hits off that to try and settle my lungs down. I Googled “Albuterol Sulphate inhaler blood pressure.” BINGO! One of the main side effects of using the inhaler is HYPERTENSION! That explains everything. Two weeks ago when I was at the dentist I hadn’t been using the inhaler much. But my usage of the inhaler had increased over the past two weeks. THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING! I immediately called my dentist’s voicemail (which they won’t hear until next week) and explained that my elevated blood pressure was medicinally created. And that would explain why the readings were so crazy. My body was trying to bring it back down and fight the effects of the Albuterol! Since Christmas Eve was a day away, I hooked up my sound system so I would be able to hear my favorite Christmas radio show “Christmas Across the Lands” as I stayed up all night Christmas Eve. My main receiver down in my living room is hooked up to an auxiliary amplifier which sends the audio signal from the main receiver to other speakers which are mounted all throughout the house. I used it to wonderful effect when I was doing movie nights every Saturday night. If I had to excuse myself and go to the bathroom, I didn’t have to stop the movie for the others. When I went upstairs to use my bathroom I could still hear the audio from the movie to hear what was going on. But since I haven’t done movie nights since February of 2020, the old auxiliary amplifier doesn’t get much use any longer. In fact, the entire system doesn’t get much use any longer. So obviously there was going to be a little cleaning required to ensure a strong, clear signal for my Christmas Eve festivities. I ran the long cable from my main receiver up to my computer so I could stream the show from my buddy’s radio station in Sioux Falls. (No LA stations run the show, unfortunately) I sent a signal to the receiver and it sounded great. Then I turned on the auxiliary amplifier and CRACKLE/SPUTTER/CRACK/CRUNCH was all I heard. My tech had told me a while back when that happens to work all of the knobs on the amplifier to work out any dust or crap that has settled in there. I also used some compressed air through the grid on the top of the amplifier to clean out any grunge and grime that may have settled in there. But once I gave a few blasts to the knobs and the electronics, it sounded pretty darn good! I kept it going so a regular signal would be continually sent through the system for a while. I signed some Brago items that came into my mailbox from a “Zatch Bell” fan and relaxed. I got ready for Christmas 2022! I was really excited because, for the second year in a row, I would be performing the character of Wally The Elf on the Christmas Across the Lands radio show! And the host of the show even let me do a quick plug for my Christoween.net website!
Saturday the 24th – WELL THAT’S NOW HOW I THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD GO – PART 2! – There were several things on my to-do list for Christmas Eve day, so I hopped in the Mustang and got my packages at my box. It was my intention to get some groceries and supplies, and then swap out the Mustang for the Gran Torino so I could drive that around for a few days before my Rav4 showed up. I went to the shopping center where I needed to go, and went through the Wendy’s drive-thru to get some lunch. Then it was over to Krispy Kreme to get some holiday donuts. But as I pulled into the Krispy Kreme parking lot, I felt the Mustang tremor a bit. It felt like it was about to lose power. It was a repeat of last summer, when one of the cylinders went bad and couldn’t feed fuel to the engine. Instead of getting into the drive thru line, my little voice told me to pull into a parking space instead. Sure enough…BAM. Dead. I tried starting it again. Nothing. Great. Two days away from getting my new car and the Mustang dies again. With a car that will be 20 years old next year, it’s going to happen a lot more. My timing on the new car purchase was excellent. So I called AAA, and the battery guy came out to give it a jump. But we soon figured out it wasn’t the battery. It just wasn’t getting fuel to start back up. So the next step was to call a tow truck and have it towed over to my mechanic’s and leave it there until they could get in next week and look it over. Luckily my mechanic’s shop is less than 2 mile away from where I was, so Charles hooked the Mustang up on his flatbed, we drove over to the shop and off-loaded it. I put my key and a note inside the mail slot so they’d find it when they came in next week. My pal Sara came to pick me up and took me to my auxiliary parking space so I could get the Torino. It started right up and I was on my way. It’s always nice to have options. With all of the chaos my plans all went out the window. I didn’t get a chance to buy the things I needed to get, as by the time I got my Torino out all the stores were closed for Christmas Eve. I didn’t get a chance to get over to the church at 5 for the Living Nativity. It was now 5:30 and I totally missed it. But on my way home I sped by my church in the fiery Gran Torino. The Living Nativity was still going on, and a few of my buddies recognized the car and shouted to me. I pulled over and parked and went up to see everyone. I didn’t want to hit the siren because the 5:30 service was in session, and it may have frightened the animals. It was nice getting a chance to talk to everyone and see the animals. Rather exhausted, I got home and turned on “Christmas Across the Lands” (nice clear, clean signal to my other rooms!), fed the pets, and napped in the Puppet Room. I got up in time to hear the beginning of the show (which repeated at 10pm my time) and I got ready for my church’s candlelight service at 11. It was a nice service, and the music was beautiful and moving. It’s unfortunate that the attendance still isn’t quite back up to what it used to be. Before the WuFlu madness it was packed so full that they had to put extra chairs in the aisles to seat everyone. Now it was only about 100 people. But it was still amazing. As is my Christmas Eve tradition, I enjoyed the nice quiet, cool walk back home on a clear Christmas Eve night. There were TONS of stars out! I got inside and attended to the pets, and started my fun, traditional Christmas Eve creative project. I didn’t have a puppet to work on this year, but in the past I’ve worked on all sorts of creative things to spend Christmas Eve at home. One year I painted my kitchen ceiling like a star-filled sky, complete with glow stars! It is my goal to have a sky full of glow stars that is the result of a community effort. Whenever friends come over I give them different punches and glow paper and have them punch out glow stars. Then they can place them on the sky background anywhere they want. When it’s complete, it will be the result of many of my friends’ hard work! I vacillated about what my fun project would be, and finally decided on a bunch of random things. First, I dug out my Christmas decorations in the garage and decorated my Torino’s radio antennae. In addition to silver holly, I put on a few ribbons and a mirror ball Christmas ornament at the top of it. I dug out some battery-operated LED Christmas lights and put them on my dashboard, along with a small plushie Bumble from the old “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” show. I put some holly in the back window and I felt very festive! I also dug out my old, broken Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I had to do some repair work on that, and I even found the one, solo red ornament that goes on it! I decided to take that with me to the Smoke House on Christmas Day dinner and put it on the table as the centerpiece. I’m going to start a new tradition! Oddly enough, as I worked on the tree, Aretha Franklin’s “Oh Christmas Tree” came up on “Christmas Across the Lands.” FUNNY! It was fun to hear Wally the Elf on the show, complete with all the sound effects that made it sound like Randy the host was connecting to Wally at the North Pole! Amazing! I packed up things that I needed to mail off next week, and I opened a gift from my pal Officer Mark. It was a COLOR Wolfman figure from NECA. He had gotten me the monochrome version a while back, which is terrific! But the Lon Chaney Jr. head that came with it was an amazing likeness. So I decided to display the Larry Talbot version of the figure. (I already have plenty of Wolfman figures up) But when I opened the box to find the human hands and feet to put on the figure, it came with TWO RIGHT FEET! So, I just displayed them as such, as it will be a funny story when people notice. I pulled out the Wolfman figure, rearranged a few things in my main showcase, and put him on display! It’s always fun to see how the artists interpret the colors in a black and white film. This figure came with gray pants and a dark green shirt. Who knows if those were the real colors? But it’s how these artists interpreted it from a monochrome to a color world. I did some laundry, changed the sheets on my bed, and had a nice long walk with Roxy through the neighborhood. She’s getting skinnier and slower as time progresses, and each time we’re out I wonder just how much time we’ll have left together. I cherish every day with her. As is also my annual Christmas Eve tradition, I made my Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box and got settled in bed to watch “A Muppet Family Christmas.” The show was originally made in 1987, and featured Muppets from “The Muppet Show,” “Sesame Street” and “Fraggle Rock!” It’s probably the only time you’ll get to see all those Muppets together in the same world, given that each show is now owned by different companies. But the version I saw looked like a VHS recording from a TV network called YTV, and it looked to have been broadcast as a rerun back in 2000. There were ads in the show for the new Grinch movie starring Jim Carrey. I had never heard of this show before, but I’m sure glad I saw it. There were several “lump in the throat” moments that were very sweet. Jim Henson sure had an amazing heart. There are lotsa great moments in it if you’re a Muppet fan. I watched a little TV, walked Roxy on a bright, early Christmas morning, and then hit the hay. Another great Christmas Eve has come and gone!
Sunday the 25th – HAPPY CHRISTMAS! – When I got up later in the afternoon I called my “adopted grandma” Shirley back. She had left a message earlier in the day. Because of a health issue, she wasn’t able to accompany her daughter to their relatives’ house. So she just stayed put at home and relaxed. I talked to the folks for a bit, and then hopped in the Torino, turned on all the dashboard Christmas lights and headed to the Smoke House with my Charlie Brown Christmas tree in tow. There were 10 of us in our group and we all had an amazing time! I got back home and napped for a bit. Later I noticed that Roxy hadn’t eaten her dinner. She wasn’t even interested in eating her cheese (with a pill inside). Uh oh. If she doesn’t stay on her meds her legs get very stiff. I could hear her stomach growling so I knew she was hungry, but I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t eaten yet. She did, however, take a small bit of Christmas ham leftover from dinner! As she laid there sleeping I cuddled and pet her. At dinner my friend Tuesday had said that one of the signs that the end was near was a dog’s refusal to eat. With that fresh in my mind, I became very sad. And just like that it went from a Happy Christmas, to a Sad Christmas. With tears in my eyes I realized I’d probably have to make a decision sooner rather than later. I got on-line and looked at the FAQs on a website that provides for home end-of-life care. What a horrible way to end the year. But, it’s part of life. As Roxy’s now 14 ½ years old, it’s just going to get worse before it gets better. We did get outside for a short walk, though. And some more cuddling.
Monday the 26th – OFFICIAL CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY! – Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, everyone is taking the following Monday off as the official holiday. So basically, nothing’s open. So I took the opportunity to sleep all day. No seriously. I just slept all day. I’d get up from time to time to attend to the pets’ needs, but then it was right back to bed. And it felt GREAT! I kind of thought I’d hear from the Toyota folks about my Rav4 coming in, but I didn’t hear a word. And when I tried to call them I only got voicemails and music on hold. RING RING RING. Here we go again. I’m definitely going to mention that in the survey they’re going to send me about my customer experience. They need to be a little more communicative, I feel. That needs a LOT of improvement, given my experience with them. Later I typed out Wally’s Week and put Christmas 2022 officially to bed. Since this week is going to be kind of wonky, I’ve just scheduled visits and lunch dates with friends. I do have one Voice Over session on Wednesday morning from my home studio, but the rest of the week will be smooth sailing until New Year’s.
And how was YOUR Christmas week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
A Christmas gift from Officer Mark! What could it be???
Gotta do the obligatory pose with Bob before we leave dinner!
Christmas Day in L.A. (Neener neener)
A gorgeous December sunrise in L.A.!
Again…neener neener
Mystery solved! That damn Albuterol Sulphate!
With my buddy Alex from Record Safari on his birthday. FUN STUFF!
Christmas Eve in Planet Wallywood.
Always love the candlelight Christmas Eve candlelight service at my church!
Here’s how MY Christmas Eve day went! Poor old girl!
I found this picture this past week of the appearance at OG Collectibles. What a wonderful day!
Out with the old (retiring the Mustang) in with the new for 2023! My new Rav4 is delivered!
“Pardon me, sir. Are you SURE you’re a real reindeer?” I got to meet this gorgeous llama at my church’s Living Nativity on Christmas Eve.
In case you heard a radio show called “Christmas Across the Lands” this past weekend, you might have heard Wally the Elf! I was SO proud to be able to do this character on the show for a second year in a row!
