April 10 – April 16 (2023) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

With apologies for the language, I feel that it’s needed in this circumstance. I’m sure these books are on the shelves of many of the people I encountered this past week.

This song by the Bloodhound Gang is a GREAT song to listen to while you’re walking outside! It’s “The Bad Touch!”

Monday the 10th – THE MARVELOUS, MARVELOUS MUSTANG! – What an amazing day! Warm and sunny and gorgeous! It was a perfect day for a walk, so I strapped on my walking shoes and headed to the grocery store to get some supplies. On my walk I saw a lot of Traffic Directors in the intersections who were directing traffic since all the stop lights were out. A lot of the stores and shops I walked by were closed because they didn’t have power. One particular ice cream store had all of their freezers open and it looked like they grabbed what ice cream they could and put it away into a colder place. I heard that the local cable company was doing some digging and made a mistake, and hit a central power line which knocked out the power for several blocks. That guy is SO fired! Luckily the power outage didn’t extend to the grocery store where I needed to get my goods, as the lights and power were on full blast. When I got home I cleaned up and headed to Paty’s for a salad on the patio. I got my packages at my box, and was delighted to see that my Square Terminal had arrived. This is an autonomous device (no other devices needed) which will allow me to take credit card purchases at conventions and shows (as long as there’s good Wi-Fi at the venue). I look forward to learning how it works. After lunch I drove to my auxiliary parking structure, parked the Gray Ghost, and got out my Mustang for a few days. It really needs to be washed! I popped the top and stopped at the local Foster’s Freeze for a sundae. I got back home, did some work, and grabbed a quick nap. When I got up later I did my nightly auditions, worked on my packing list for my upcoming trip to Anime Las Vegas, and typed out Wally’s Week. I paid some bills, reconciled the receipts for my bank accounts and hit the hay. I was still a bit tired from the amazing weekend at SacAnime!

Tuesday the 11th – IT’S OVER, FOLKS! – Though it was hazy out it was still a very warm day. I walked over to the post office to mail off some bills, and on the way home I stopped at the hardware store to buy some more short bungees for my Mustang’s car cover. Since it’s very breezy in the building where I have my auxiliary parking spaces, I have to make sure the car cover is securely fastened down so the cover doesn’t blow completely off. I’ve found that placing bungees around the spokes of the tires and through the edges of the car cover helps that considerably. I decided to make the call to the surgeon my eye doctor recommended for a touch-up on my lasik. I had it 25 years ago and it’s been great, but I can tell (and my eye doctor confirmed it at my recent examination) that I could use a little “enhancement” to bring my eyes back completely into focus. My right eye is still pretty good for distance, but my left eye has lost a little bit of its “long distance focus” over the past two and a half decades. I called the surgeon’s office, made the appointment, agreed to pay the $300 exam fee, acknowledged that it would be a 1.5 hour appointment and that my eyes would be dilated. But right at the end of the conversation the lady told me that they were still enforcing that masks be worn in the office. That was the deal breaker for me. “I don’t do masks anymore,” I said. “Please cancel my appointment.” I said I’d call back in a month to reschedule if they had removed the mandate by then. She said she’d talk to me then. Good grief, folks. IT’S. OVER! Get over it. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t care if THEY want to wear a mask, that’s their prerogative, but don’t make ME wear one. Especially when I’m accommodating them on every other request so willingly. I’m not going to sit there for an hour and a half wearing a mask. End of story. So, I’ll either find a different surgeon, or call them back in a month to see if they’ve changed their policy. I drove the Mustang to the car wash for a wash and hand-wax, and walked down to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch while they worked on it. The car looked fantastic! I drove home and worked around the house the rest of the day. Then I napped, did my nightly auditions later, and decided I was going to pretend it was a normal Saturday night. I made a huge salad and watched an episode of “The Saint,” just as I would have done four nights earlier had I been home on Saturday night.

Wednesday the 12th – BOB’S A BAD CHOICE! – The day began with a brief home session for a video game. I linked up with the main studio via Source Connect and worked for about a half hour. It was for some downloadable content (DLC) for a video game I worked on several years ago. Sometimes game companies will revisit their world to keep the game fresh for their players by offering them this new, updated content. The session went very well, and I got my recording area returned to normal. A little bit later my friend Angi came over and we headed to dinner. I’ve taken her to just about every other good eating place in the area, and she said she’d never been to Bob’s Big Boy. But once we got there I realized that it was probably a mistake. She doesn’t eat meat, and while Bob’s has some very good vegetarian and vegan options, it just didn’t seem like it was her style. After all, you don’t get a body like THAT eating fries and cheeseburgers! After dinner I headed home for a nap, and then got up later to do my nightly auditions in my home studio. I made a Tombstone pizza and watched a few episodes of “The Muppet Show.” They were hilarious! In one episode a magic incantation turned Miss Piggy into stone, and in the other episode Beaker gets multiplied in a copying machine, and there are EIGHT Beakers running around! REALLY COOL!

Thursday the 13th – GLOOM AND GLAZE! – By the time I got out of bed, and fully intending to go for a nice walk, I realized that it was quite gloomy and cold out. So I made the executive decision to stay inside and get some work done. I recorded a few auditions and then grabbed a nap. The gloomy weather makes me sleepy. Spook was being very annoying and he wouldn’t let me get any peaceful rest. I noticed that it had rained a little bit. Not a lot, just enough to put a glaze on the area streets. I got involved in recording several complicated auditions for a new video game which took a lot of focus and concentration. When those were finished I did some work around the house, and prepped some photos for a little tribute we’re having Sunday at the Smoke House in honor of those kind souls we’ve lost so far in 2023. This includes our “adopted grandma” Shirley, my dog Roxy, and my friend Edi’s dog Bunny. I made a salad and watched a few more episodes of “The Muppet Show.”

Friday the 14th – STUPID PEOPLE DAY! – As usual, my maids did a stellar job cleaning up Planet Wallywood. I was feeling pretty good and headed out to enjoy a brisk walk over to CVS to get some enlargements printed for this Sunday’s tribute dinner. But several stupid people I encountered ruined what could have been a marvelous day. First, a guy at the checkout at CVS was holding up the line and complaining about the price of a container of gum. The gum was $7 (which does seem outrageously high for a container of gum) but instead of complaining to the guy behind the checkout counter who has absolutely no say whatsoever about the price of the gum they sell, he should have just put it back on the shelf if it was too expensive for him. The people in line (myself included) were getting restless. Sorry, but I just don’t suffer fools easily. I went to the grocery store to get some food items, and once again a guy at the checkout line was holding everything up. So much so that the checkout gal was getting frustrated too. This guy couldn’t have been more than about 30, but he sat his huge backpack up on the counter and was searching for something through every zippered pocket. I think he was searching for his “club card,” but he couldn’t find it. As if the buck thirty he was going to save by using his club card was really a life or death matter. Again, the people in my line were getting restless and were sharing the checkout gal’s frustration. And if Stupid People Day couldn’t have gotten any worse, I was enjoying a brisk walk home with both hands full of heavy grocery bags. I like to walk through the alley behind the main street as there’s less traffic and obstructions (no stop lights either). When I walk I move fast and have a great deal of momentum. I was also carrying heavy bags of groceries so I’m always on the lookout for those rare obstructions. Sure enough, to my left, a girl had just parked her car and had gotten out to walk somewhere. I was keeping a careful eye on her in case she decided to walk in front of me. Not only is it Stupid People Day, and she could be another one, but so many people are completely clued out to their surroundings that they sometimes just don’t see what’s going on around them. So to prevent me having to put on the brakes quickly and dance out of her way I kept an eye on her movements to ascertain where she would be heading. She didn’t move in front of me and I walked on. I got a few feet away and I heard her say, “Are you OK?” I stopped and turned and thought she might be on the phone. I said, “You mean me?” She said, “Yeah. You were staring.” Now this girl wasn’t anything to stare at, trust me. She was a chunky brunette that I would never have even given a second look to had she not presented the potential to cause a pedestrian crash-up. I said, “I was just wondering if YOU were OK.” And I walked on. Odd. I just wanted to go home, eat a pizza and hide from the rest of the world on Stupid People Day. I called Barone’s to order a pepperoni pizza with double sauce to go. But when I got to Barone’s the gal at the front said, “Pizza with double sauce?” I said, “Pepperoni pizza, right?” She said, “Oh, there’s no pepperoni on it.” She checked her notes and, sure enough, she had written the order down correctly when I phoned it in. Without even having the couth or civility to say she was sorry for getting the order wrong, she told me she’d take it back to the kitchen and have them throw some pepperoni on it. Normally, Barone’s bakes the pepperoni ON the pizza, as it’s covered with a fair amount of cheese which melts over it. By just simply popping pepperoni on top of it, it was going to seem like an afterthought. She could tell by my reaction that I wasn’t very keen on the idea. “Is that all right?” she asked sheepishly. I said, “I guess so.” I didn’t want to wait a half hour for them to remake it. So I took the pizza and left. Good grief I was SO done with that day! Hopefully Stupid People Day won’t turn into Stupid People Week, but I fear we’re getting closer to that with every passing year. I chatted with a friend of mine in South Dakota as I drove home and when I got back to Planet Wallywood I ate my pizza with the “afterthought pepperoni” on it and took a nap. Later I got up to organize some stuff on my computer, and put the enlargements in the frames for Sunday’s tribute dinner at the Smoke House. But as I slid one of the photos into the steel frame, I cut the side of my thumb on the sharp metal of the inside of the frame. It was a pretty deep cut too, and it bled for quite a while. It was the perfect, miserable end to a lousy day. Oscar the Grouch would have been proud!

Saturday the 15th – RETURN OF THE SADS! – As I walked to see my stylist Andie I enjoyed a brisk walk on a gorgeous day. She gave me a touch up on my color and a trim. As we chatted we got onto the subject of dogs. Of course I started reminiscing about Roxy. By the time I walked out of the shop I had been hit with “the sads.” I quickly cried it out and walked next door to the liquor store to pick up some Pure Leaf iced tea. A lot of the stores in my area are constantly sold out of Pure Leaf unsweetened iced tea; something I drink on a very regular basis. Luckily the liquor store had plenty in stock, so I bought all they had and walked down the street to my house. But when I walked by my old church I got hit with “the sads” again. I recalled how much fun we had at the Sunday evening service (which hasn’t returned since it was shut down in 2020), and how much Roxy enjoyed going to church with me. So much so that she would always have this great reaction when I mentioned the word “church” to her. As I walked the rest of the way home with my groceries it was a constant fight to see the way ahead of me through the tears. Just as I regained my composure I got back to my complex and saw my neighbors with their dog. I knew that their dog had just had a series of small strokes and was recovering, but from the looks of it, their dog had recovered amazingly. Then we started talking about Roxy again. Sheesh. The minute I got behind the safety of my front door, I collapsed on the stairwell and cried it out for about 10 minutes. I fear these periods will occur from time to time for years to come. I just have to learn how to deal with them. I decided to go grab some lunch and enjoy the rest of the gorgeous day. I popped the top on my Mustang and headed to Carney’s to get some really decadent food. Carney’s is a famous eatery in the Studio City area that is basically a train car. It’s kitschy, but they also have great food. I got a delectable New Yorker hot dog with chili, fries, drink and a banana shake. I sat out in my Mustang with the top down, eating and enjoying some music. Basking in the sun felt amazing. I drove to Staples to get some paint markers for my upcoming convention appearance in Las Vegas, and then I headed home. But I still had lots of energy (and a huge hot dog I had to walk off) so I put on my jogging clothes and walked over to the post office to mail some bills. On the way home there was enough sunshine left, so I stopped at the local cigar store to grab a nice cigar. My Voice Actor buddy Dave B. Mitchell was there and we chatted for a while. The cigar and the fun fellowship and conversation were just what I needed to defeat the recurring “sads.” I continued to enjoy the cigar on the walk home and things were looking up. But as I walked along the back driveway behind my house, the Roxy memories kept flooding back again. I finished my cigar and went inside. I just have to realize that these days are going to happen from time to time. I did some work around the house and recorded all of the auditions that were in my inbox. Nothing like focusing on some acting pieces to take my mind off things and refocus it. By now it was late in the evening, so I heated up some goulash, grabbed a hot shower, and took a nap. I spent all Saturday night doing work around the house, and later I made a Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched another episode of “The Saint.”

Sunday the 16th – SQUARE, SMOKE HOUSE, SAD, SARA & SPOOK! – Late in the afternoon my pals Officer Mark and Miss Connie came by to help me set up my Square account on my new Square Terminal device. I even made a mock purchase of $25 just to make sure everything was working perfectly! GREAT! Then we drove over to the Smoke House for our long-awaited tribute to those loved ones we’ve lost in 2023. At the memorial for our “adopted grandma” Shirley at the church in late February, many of Shirley’s movie night friends couldn’t make it because it was on a weekday morning. So we decided to set up our own “tribute” at Shirley’s favorite restaurant…the Smoke House. The date we all agreed on was April 16th. But between the time we set the date, and by the time the date actually arrived, we lost several more kind souls in the process. So we turned it into a group tribute. In addition to Shirley, we lost Roxy, my friend Edi’s dog Bunny, Edi’s step-father, and my friend James’ dad. I had three enlargements printed up and put into frames that I had intended to put on our tables for our tribute. One photo was of Shirley with the little Laurel and Hardy dolls she won at one of the Sons of the Desert meetings. One was of Shirley and Roxy, along with Edi’s daughter Ems. And the other was one of Shirley and Bunny at one of the Palm Springs street fairs. We had the entire back room of the Smoke House to ourselves, and it was great. I got there at 7:00, and most everyone had already arrived by that time. I walked in to put the pictures on the tables, but I noticed three nails on the wall that looked like they used to have pictures on them. So I took the three frames I had and hung them on the nails. It was PERFECT! We had a very nice dinner, toasted those we’ve lost, and had some nice conversation and fellowship. It was a much-needed release of emotions and comradery. Many of us had not seen each other in years! It was a very, very nice evening. After dinner I drove the Mustang to my auxiliary parking and swapped it out for the Gray Ghost. I got home just in time to meet up with Sara, who came by to do some work and trim Spook’s nails. I grabbed a nap, and when I got up I was craving Denny’s salad and buffalo chicken strips. I drove to Denny’s (which was very quiet on a Sunday night) and got my order. Then I watched a few episodes of “The Muppet Show” and ate my food. One episode had a cameo of several “Sesame Street” Muppets, and it was absolutely delightful! I finished off the night by watching a couple of episodes of “Have Gun – Will Travel” and then I hit the hay.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

The Mustang is clean and bright again!

“No, no, no. You’re supposed to MIX the asphalt and fill the hole, not just throw the bag in it!” More evidence I saw of lazy people on Stupid People Day.