April 21 – April 26 (2015) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

I got this in a mass e-mail a few weeks ago, and it’s one of those pics that evokes a huge emotional response. Do you agree?

Last week, while I was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame festivities, I started thinking back at a song I used to play on the radio from a local band called Crow. I think they actually had a hit with this song called “Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games With Me).” I found it on iTunes and it sure sounds good! Have a listen! I’ve been humming it all week!

Tuesday the 21st – AWWW SHOOT! – When I got up at noon I finished unpacking and took Roxy to Rusty’s for a much-needed bath. I picked up some checks at Studiopolis and then headed off to DG Entertainment for an audition. I picked up my mail at my mailbox and headed to Jersey Mike’s for a sandwich. I ate half now, and saved half for later. I picked up Roxy and she was all clean and groomed. Speaking of which, I hit the shower and got cleaned and groomed for a video shoot in Planet Wallywood. There are some exciting things happening which I’ll tell you more about later, but suffice to say we had a blast filming scenes around my “museum”…I mean…my house. We shot all evening and when the crew left I recorded my auditions, recorded a few bits for the “Ellen” show and Daytime Emmy Award winning writer Troy Thomas (congrats Troy!), and did some work around the house. I ate the rest of my Jersey Mike’s sandwich and watched another “Magnum, p.i.” episode from the season seven DVD set. I eventually got to bed around 8:30am Wednesday morning.

Wednesday the 22nd – CATCHING UP ON ZZZ’s! – It was a perfect day for being lazy…gloomy, overcast and gray. Which is why I didn’t feel too badly about sleeping until 3. After my whirlwind trip to and from Sioux Falls I really needed it. Not much is going on so I’m taking the opportunity to catch up. After doing a few minor things around the house I laid back down on the couch for a bit. My buddy Daytime Emmy Award Winning Writer Troy Thomas from the “Ellen” show called me to do some pick-ups for the bits I recorded, so I got up to do those. Then my pal Brittney Powell stopped by to hear all about my wacky South Dakota trip. When she left I hit the hay and napped until midnight. When I got up I did some auditions, filed and categorized the receipts from my trip, did some bookwork, and made a Chef Boy Ar Dee pizza to eat while watching “Magnum.” The episode I watched was the Frank Sinatra episode, and it was kind of goofy and non-believable. This little old man (Sinatra) was beating up huge guys and slamming their heads through plate glass windows. Kind of far-fetched and silly. I’m willing to suspend my disbelief for my favorite television shows, but this was pushing it.

Thursday the 23rd – THEY TALK! – Around 1 the carpet guys came over to try and get rid of a couple of stubborn pee pee stains on my front room carpet. They pulled the carpet up and even cleaned the back and whattaya know?! It worked! The carpet looks great and the stains are gone! If Roxy is going to continue to forget her housebreaking, I’m going to put hard wood on the entire floor and she’ll have to deal with that. I did some bookkeeping, worked with bank statements reconciling my bank accounts, and dealt with the mail that had piled up during my trip. I received some copy from Go 96.3 in Minneapolis so I recorded the bits and sent them in. My pal Jim Ojala came over to hook up the voice boxes to my Batman and Robin mannequin display. Hidden speakers behind their capes play voice clips from the TV show. The source of the clips is a tiny voice box that comes inside the plush talking Batman and Robin figures that were recently released. Since the figures are in my cabinet, and would hardly ever get taken out to demonstrate, I decided to repurpose the voice boxes for my life-size Batman and Robin display. My pal Scott Sebring had this idea and I liked it so much I put my effects guy Jim Ojala on the case. He attached two little holsters on the back of a pedestal that hold the voice boxes, and then he wired the speakers into them nicely. The wires are hidden through the interior of the pedestal and through the backs of the figures. The capes help to disguise them considerably. I also created little logo stickers for the boxes so you can tell whose voice box is whose. I did some more banking stuff, scanned some checks for a deposit, took a dip in the Jacuzzi and grabbed a nap on the couch. I got up later to do my auditions and hit Denny’s for some food to go. I ate and watched another “Magnum, p.i.” episode. Hard to believe I’ve only got a few episodes left before I’m done with season seven!

Here are my talking Batman and Robin mannequins

Friday the 24th – FRUSTRATING FED UP WITH FED EX FRIDAY – The day started out nicely, with a wonderful audition at Voice Trax West for my old pal Ralph, who used to direct me for the US Airways sessions. I got some spaghetti at the restaurant downstairs and headed to the post office to mail off some stuff. I checked the Fed Ex website before I left the house and it said the two boxes that I had sent myself from Sioux Falls had arrived! But when I got to my mailbox they said they hadn’t arrived. I asked them to check again as the Fed Ex website said they had been delivered at 10:50am. Nothing. They wanted to know if they had been signed for, so I headed back to check on-line again. Sure enough their employee had signed for them. Perhaps the Fed Ex driver accidentally put them back on the truck!? So I called the Fed Ex 800 number and waited on hold for a while, only to get put on the line with someone who did not have a solid grasp of the English language. It was frustrating. On the Fed Ex website I downloaded the Proof of Delivery form, and come to find out…the name of the recipient wasn’t me?! It was for something called Windsor Music Archives. The address was correct, but the name wasn’t. I called my mailbox and they had never heard of that name. Apparently the lazy employee at Fed Ex in Sioux Falls had punched in the first 3 letters of my last name…WIN…and Windsor Music Archives came up. Without double-checking their work, they just carelessly hit print and the label printed with the wrong recipient name. The best advice my dad ever gave me was, “You have to double check everybody. And double check them again.” Well, I didn’t in this instance and had I done that, I would have saved myself about 3 hours of frustration. Finally I got an English speaking associate on the Fed Ex line, and I had the guy at my mailbox on the landline. I was talking to them both at the same time on two different phones. After digging around some more, the guy at my mailbox found the boxes! Whew! I drove back down to grab them. Not only was it the fault of the Fed Ex employee in Sioux Falls who just absent-mindedly printed an erroneous label, but the guy at my mailbox wasn’t on his game either. Though the computer-generated label had the wrong recipient on it, there was a hand-written label DIRECTLY BELOW IT that had MY name on it. Had they been observant and looked at that label too, the mystery would have been solved. So both were at fault. Is everybody on drugs? People are too trusting of computers these days, and don’t do enough with human intelligence to prevent mistakes. From now on I’m double-checking EVERYONE! I don’t care if they think I’m an a-hole, it’s better to be safe than sorry. I took the boxes home and unpacked. I napped on the couch (I needed it after the three hours of frustration I endured) and when I got up I wrote a letter to the CEO of Fed Ex explaining the situation, and how their employees may need retraining to learn how to trust their own eyes…rather than the stuff the computers feed them. Not only did it cost me hours of time on the phone, but their own employees had to spend hours on the phone with me because of one employee’s careless error. I did some work around the house, drove to the grocery store to get some supplies, and then came home to make some soup and a sandwich and watch “Magnum.” I didn’t get to bed until around 10am.

Saturday the 25th – SLEEPATHON SATURDAY – After four hours of sleep I got up to greet a moist day. It had showered and everything was wet. The day was still gloomy and it was gorgeous and cool. I texted Sara to see if she wanted to meet for lunch, but I didn’t get an immediate answer. While I waited for her to call back, I laid down on the couch and fell asleep for another several hours. When I got up I fed Spook and did some work around the house. I went upstairs and laid back down on my bed. Roxy joined me and we slept some more. By the time I got up it was after midnight. WOW! My body just completely shut down! I must’ve needed the sleep. Perhaps I was still recovering from my South Dakota trip! I stayed up all night things around the house, working on my database, doing dishes and laundry and other miscellaneous things. Then I made a giant salad and watched 3 episodes of “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse” on Blu Ray!

Sunday the 26th – SQUIRRELY SUNDAY – Early in the afternoon I called my friend Cindy at Squirrel Rescue and got directions to her place. I had been curious about Kumquat, the little baby squirrel Sara and I rescued about a month ago. Cindy said she was doing great, growing like crazy, and hanging out in her cage with two other squirrels. When I got to her facility in Sunland it was great! She had dogs, cats, chickens, possums, horses and lots and lots of squirrels! This time of year she gets in a lot of orphaned baby squirrels whose mothers get killed. But Cindy feeds the babies formula with a dropper. When they get a bit older she gives them hard food to enjoy. When they are of age and ready, she gradually introduces them back into the wild. Sadly, some of those residents in the Squirrel Room can’t be released and are classified “unreleasable.” One is missing a food and its tail, a few of them are blind, some of them have been attacked by predators, and some have head trauma. But Kumquat is going to be released in about another month. It was great watching the babies get fed. When they’re babies they’re so affectionate and sweet. Did I mention they’re hilarious? The sweetest one of all, a female baby squirrel, was very curious. When she finished her feeding she darted around the desk and checked me out. She climbed up my arm for a little bit and then ran back down. She was hilarious! I got to feed peanuts to some of the squirrels in the cages, and I even pet the little baby squirrel as she was getting fed. Cindy doesn’t like to get them too used to humans, because it will inhibit their natural defensive instincts when they’re released into the wild. I drove home, after having shot a ton of photos and videos, and got Roxy ready for evening church. We walked over for the service, and then walked back. Sara and I went to dinner at DuPar’s and got caught up on all the news. I got back and took a dip in the Jacuzzi and then grabbed a nap on the couch. I got up to do my auditions and then did some work on-line. I made some sloppy joes and watched “Magnum.”

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Kumquat is doing well and hanging out with her new friends. She’s the one in the hammock.