Wally’s Week

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

YAY! I’m younger than I thought I was!

Though this isn’t one of Paul McCartney’s more famous tunes, it’s a wonderful song. From the album “Flowers In The Dirt,” the song “Distractions” is truly, truly lovely.

Monday the 5th – I’VE HAD ENOUGH! – Utterly frustrated with how things have been going with my #31 tooth, I decided to cut my losses and call an oral surgeon who did me right back in 2018. Back then I had major problems in the upper left part of my mouth. I was getting consistent sinus infections, and it was all due to the root of my #2 tooth becoming infected and injecting the abscess directly into my sinus. I had major sinus surgery to correct it, and then I had to have major oral surgery to remove the tooth (and the #3 next to it) to remedy the situation. I had so much bone loss from past infections I needed a major bone graft to rebuild the upper left portion of the roof of my mouth. It was a long, nasty ordeal. But Dr. Mizin was a champion and made it all right. I called his office and explained the situation, and told them I wanted #31 gone, as there was nothing more that could be done with it. Luckily they had an appointment the next morning at 11am for a consultation. Fantastic! I recorded an audition, and then had a long phone discussion with my accountant regarding taxes for this year. I drove over to Ernie’s Taco House to have a late lunch with my pal Sara Raftery, whom I hadn’t seen in a while. I mailed off some stuff at the post office, and then went to the hardware store to buy some wood pegs for my shoe rack. I was making great headway reorganizing my bedroom closet, but I needed these pegs to stack two shoe racks together. I can’t remember where I put the original ones that came with the rack since I bought them so long ago. I got back home and started work in my closet, shoring it all up nicely. Then I sat down at my computer and composed three weeks’ worth of Wally’s Week entries for my website. It was a lot of work. I rested a little bit and then got up for auditions. I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and there was just a little baby rainstorm going on. It wasn’t anything heavy – just mist. I finished up Wally’s Week and then hit the hay.

Tuesday the 6th – THE END IS NEAR! – During my visit with the oral surgeon he took a scan of the right side of my mouth so he could get a better idea of what he’s dealing with. It’s my belief that there’s still a living nerve in the tiny, third canal of my #31 tooth that the endodontist couldn’t access. Since there’s no way to get at it, it’s best to just pull the entire thing and prepare the area for an implant. I’m going back on Tuesday the 13th to have it yanked, and while I’m under the Dr. will include a bone graft in the empty socket. It will take some time to heal before it’s capable of taking the implant (probably a few months), but at least I’ll be out of pain in the meantime. When it heals I’ll have the implant installed, and then give that some time to heal. I figure by the spring or early summer I’ll have a new tooth there. So one more week to go of taking Ibuprofen every 8 hours for the discomfort. On the way home I hit Wienerschnitzel for lunch, got a few groceries, and then headed home. I did some work around the house the rest of the day. Later I did my WOG, but it was really chilly out! I recorded some auditions and called it a day.

Wednesday the 7th – SUN, SAVINGS & STUDIOPOLIS! – After recording an urgent audition, I headed to CVS to pick up a prescription. I went next door to Panera for lunch and enjoyed some delicious food outside in the warm sun. I headed over to my bank for an appointment with an advisor who is supposed to give me some options on getting better interest in my savings accounts. My appointment was at 2:30, but at 2:40 I was still waiting – so I took off. I had stuff to do. I’ll come back another day. I hit the cleaners to drop off a comforter for cleaning, and then headed to my endodontist’s office to give him a copy of the scan that the oral surgeon took the previous day. I’m not sure what good it will do him at this point, but maybe he’ll get some kind of useful information out of it. We chatted for a bit about the situation, and we both agreed that the tooth needs to go. I drove over to Studiopolis in Burbank to do 2 hours on a session for a video game. All the lines in the session were for characters I had established a few sessions ago. It was mostly just additional stuff for the game. I was craving a Little Toni’s pizza, so I picked one up on the way home and headed back to eat it. Delicious! I relaxed a bit, and then recorded some auditions later. I took my nightly WOG, and just as I was finishing up I saw something moving around in the hedges ahead. A SKUNK! Yuck! I took a wide turn out into the street so as not to aggravate him and get blasted. He looked like he was busy foraging for food and he probably didn’t even see me. But still – EEK! I came inside to do some work around the house and eventually call it a day.

Thursday the 8th – CELEBRITY DAY! – Of course on Elvis’ birthday I’d have some fun celebrity sightings. First, I was meeting with my old pal Drew Massey. It had been a while since we had gotten caught up. While we were eating my old buddy (and Voice Acting legend) Cam Clarke came in the restaurant to dine. We exchanged numbers and promised to meet and catch up soon. Then I headed over to Voice Trax West to record some more lines for American Airlines. Just before I started Jill Kenny (Tom Kenny’s wife) walks and we got a chance to catch up for a while! What a great day! It was a fun session for American, and when we wrapped I headed home to relax. Later I did some auditions, and took my WOG on another VERY cold night! I came inside to do some work, I made a salad, and I watched another episode of “The Virginian” before bed.

Friday the 9th – 5 FROM FREEZING! – Luckily I found out my friend Edi Lurie was in the area shopping and she was able to meet me for a last-minute lunch at Paty’s. After we finished dining I headed over to my box to get some packages, and then got some grocery items. I went back home and relaxed for a while. Later that night I took my WOG again, and it was 37 degrees out! That’s the coldest it’s been during my WOGs so far this winter. YIKES! I’m glad I was bundled up. But it wasn’t too bad, considering. In fact, I used to have to go out in MUCH colder conditions when I was delivering papers when I was a kid…but again…I was much, much younger! I came back inside to do some work on the computer, and then I made some lasagna and watched another episode of “The Virginian.” The episode was called “The Devil’s Children” and it was one of the best episodes I’ve seen so far. In particular, a lovely actress named Joan Freeman had me smitten from the first frame! She was GORGEOUS! I looked her up on-line later and found out that she was also in the Elvis movie “Roustabout!” WILD! The acting in this episode was top-notch, with the exception of one young man. His acting was still very “stagey” – as if he was performing on stage. His facial expressions and the volume of his voice were too telegraphed – and it was a bit distracting. But overall, the episode was utterly amazing. Even if the one guy was overacting like crazy.

Saturday the 10th – SATURDAY SNOOZE! – In order to relax as much as possible, given this wonky tooth, I slept most of the day. Also, some of the pain medication I take occasionally makes me a bit sleepy. Later I took my nightly WOG, and then came inside and packed up a lot of pairs of boots that I no longer wear. It cleared up a lot of space in my closet! I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched another episode of the 1970’s limited series “Fantastic Journey.”

Sunday the 11th – STUDIO SET-UP! – The pain medication once again had me laid out most of the day. I’m glad the countdown is on to finally get this tooth thing settled. Tuesday is the day! Later I did some auditions that were due in my agent’s office first thing Monday, and then I set up my home studio for a session Monday morning. I did my nightly WOG and turned in for the night.

And how was YOUR week?!?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

I hadn’t checked my blood pressure in a while, so I decided to break out the machine and give it a go. WOW! It’s still great! The nightly WOGs a really paying off!