August 5 – August 11 (2019)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

After seeing my old pal Leonard Stone in a “Mod Squad” episode, I started digging around in my computer to find screenshots I had taken for him all those years ago. He wanted me to grab some good poses from the “Lost in Space” episodes he had done to have printed into photos for autograph shows. What a truly gifted human being.

I had forgotten what a great song Steely Dan’s “FM” was in 1978. No Static At All! But after seeing the movie this past weekend at movie night, I recalled how much I loved the lyrics to this song. “Nothin’ but booze and Elvis, and somebody else’s favorite song!” (Remember, in 1978, when “FM” was released, Elvis had just died a few months earlier!)

Monday the 5th – HE’S GOT LEGS! – Mid-afternoon I woke up and headed to my effects guy Jim Ojala’s studio to bring him the legs of my future Captain Kirk figure. Jim needed to drill a hole precisely in the bottom of the heel of the boot to access the opening where the support rod will slide in to support the mannequin. It’s tough because, once his boot is on, it’s hard to determine where the hole in the mannequin’s heel is. But he always seems to nail it. On the way over to Jim’s studio I spoke with a guy from ADT security (I’m switching security companies) and told him I wanted my service discontinued. Instead of thanking me for my 19 years of patronage, he launched into a HIGH PRESSURE sales pitch about why I should stay with ADT. I thanked him but told him to please discontinue my service. Not only did it take me 15 minutes on hold to even get to him, but by the time he came on I was almost at my destination and had to go in to meet with Jim. I explained that to Mr. High Pressure but he acted like he was doing me a favor by giving me a new deal on my service. I kept saying “Please, just discontinue my service!” He kept on. It was starting to aggravate me to the point of turning into the Incredible Hulk. I couldn’t get this guy off the phone, and Jim only had a few minutes to chat between projects. If I ever had any thoughts of using ADT again, those thoughts were dashed after this painful conversation. I told him I know he’s trained to try and salvage an account, but I was getting angry fast. Finally he said with a sarcastic tone, “Ok. But if you want to come back I can’t offer you this great deal again.” I told him I wouldn’t be using ADT ever again. Good grief! Are they that desperate for business? I guess with services like Simpli Safe and others out there who only charge 1/5 of what ADT charges a month, I can see why ADT is so desperate. Never again. Never. I came back home to feed the pets, did my nightly auditions, and then sped off to Jerry’s Famous Deli with Officer Mark to meet with a guy named Eric who wanted to get me involved with the Cameo app. If you don’t know what it is, you should check it out. It sounded like a great idea to me, and I’ll be signed up soon. I came home to grab a short nap. When I got up I did more auditions, typed out Wally’s Week, made some soup and a sandwich, and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad” on DVD.

Tuesday the 6th – ANTS IN MY PANT-RY! – One of the few things I hate about summer are bugs. Not only do I have a proliferation of those little “meal” bugs that fly around and get into my grains, but I discovered an ant infestation in my kitchen. Since I had my kitchen flooring redone, I completely reorganized my kitchen, and it’s super clean. So they weren’t finding much to eat. But it was still aggravating. I killed them every time I’d see some. Having played the voice of Flik the Ant for Disney (when original Dave Foley isn’t available) and also Ant Man in several projects, I feel a little guilty when I have to kill them. But if you don’t, more appear and soon you’re overwhelmed. So I needed to stay ahead of it. I did some auditions, then drove my cat Spook over to the Rusty’s to get his nails trimmed. He was starting to get hung up on blankets and things, so it was time for a mani-pedi. I went home to drop off Spook and then sped off to Jack in the Box to get some dinner. Then I drove back home to meet with my seamstress Mariah who brought a shirt over that she had been working on. I fed the pets and then got back in the car to head to JoAnn’s to get some fabric for another new project. I went to CVS to get supplies, and then headed back home for the evening. I did some more auditions, designed my new project, and then went to my pantry to get a snack. The entire top shelf of my pantry (where I keep my cereal, chips, etc.) was covered with dead “meal” bugs, and there was a line of ants marching up into the shelf from down below. THE WHOLE THING WAS CRAWLING WITH ANTS! It was time for a mass extermination. It looked like a few pieces of cereal had fallen out of the cereal boxes and that’s what they were all feasting on. I took everything off my shelf and cleared it out for my mass extermination. I sprayed the whole thing down with Windex and started wiping up the little dead bug bodies. I knew I’ve been needing to clean that shelf out for a while, but it was time! It was a huge job! I took a shower, grabbed a nap, and got up later to finish off my nightly auditions. I worked around the house, walked Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood, and hit the hay!

Wednesday the 7th – DEAD ANT! DEAD ANT! DEAD ANT! DEAD ANT! – Shortly after 1 I got up and did some last-minute auditions that had just come in. I noticed there were more ants around on my counter top. I got ready and walked over to Voice Trax West for an American Airlines session. It was a gorgeous day, and not at all hot or miserable! We did the brief session, then we went into another studio and started laying down tracks for some of the elements in my upcoming radio show in my hometown of Aberdeen, South Dakota! For my class reunion, happening over Labor Day weekend, a local radio station in Aberdeen asked if I would do a 6 hour radio show full of 70’s music, stories, memories and anecdotes of living in Aberdeen in the 70’s. I wholeheartedly agreed! It’s going to be epic! Even if you’re not in the Aberdeen area you can still listen on-line! I’ll post the info as we get closer to the event, which will happen on Saturday August 31st from noon to 6pm central time. It was fun teaching Evan the studio engineer how to mix songs and elements like AM radio used to. On the walk home I stopped at Kit Kraft to get some more supplies for my new project I’ve been working on. Then I stopped by the hardware store to get some little pods of ant poison to put in my kitchen. They said the ants take the poison back home and poison the entire colony. Sad, but necessary! I picked up a tuna sandwich at Subway on the way home, some CBD oil for Roxy, and then went home to feed the pets. I grabbed a shower and started in on my auditions. I checked e-mails, edited some music for my radio show, and then took a nap on the couch. I got up later to do more auditions, edited some more music, recorded some more story elements for the radio show, and edited those. It’s VERY exciting to work on something like this! It’ll be fun to be back on the radio for the first time in about 20 years! I made some spaghetti and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad.”

Thursday the 8th – FLIGHT TRACKER! – I woke up around 2 and checked my e-mail for urgent auditions. I recorded a few and sent them off. Then I headed to my seamstress Shelley’s house to take her some new projects and patterns I’ve been working on. I hit Taco Bell for some drive-thru lunch, and then went home to do some work around the house and record a few more auditions. I also recorded a few more stories for my radio show. I have the hourly clocks designed to feature 4 “remember when” stories an hour. Over the course of 6 hours that’s a total of 24 stories. I’m recording them at home, sending them over to Evan the Engineer so he can put music behind them, and then building the music sequences from there. I did some editing of the stories to get them to fit within the time constraints I’m working with, and then grabbed a nap. I got up later and decided to start tracking the daily progress of the Delta flight I’d be taking to Aberdeen later this month. The layover in Minneapolis is only an hour, and the connecting flights are usually on the other end of the airport. So I’m worried that if the flight from LA leaves a bit too late, I’ll miss my flight to Aberdeen. And there aren’t that many flights to Aberdeen, and the one I’ll be on is the last flight of the day. So if I miss my connection….I’m screwed, blued and tattooed. So I’m going to check the arrival and departure times of the exact flights I’m taking leading up to my trip to see if there’s any cause for concern, or if I need to make a Plan B. I took a long walk with Roxy through the complex in the middle of the night, and then I came back inside and cleaned up, made some food and watched another episode of “The Mod Squad.” I checked the ant trap, and it looks like the poison is working well.

Friday the 9th – ANT’S SCANT! – When I got up at 11, I had a last-minute audition to do, then I walked over to the corner café to have lunch with my pal Secunda Wood, a fellow Voice Actor. It was another fantastic day out! After lunch I walked home to get ready for the arrival of my maids. I did auditions until they arrived, and then I let them in to clean Planet Wallywood. When they left I sped off to the car wash, as my Mustang was FILTHY! After a gorgeous wash and wax I went to my mailbox to pick up my packages, and then went home to do some more work on my radio stories. I got them all recorded and edited and sent them off to Evan the Engineer for music and sweetening. I took a short nap, and got up later to work around the house. THE ANTS HAVE LEFT THE BUILDING! I drove to Denny’s to get some food to go, looked over a new sketch that was just sent to by my illustrator Patrick Owsley for our kid’s project, and then walked Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood while I enjoyed a nice cigar. It was a gorgeous, clear night, and it was the first time I had seen the Orion constellation in quite a while. Seeing it always reminds me that fall is coming, because you never see Orion during the summer. It’s a sure sign that the seasons are changing. As I walked around the quiet neighborhood, under a clear starry sky, I felt a deep peace. Beautiful! I went inside to make some food and got ready to enjoy another “Mod Squad” episode. But I noticed that there was some water bubbling up through some of my new vinyl floorboards in my kitchen, and when I put my food down on it there was a squishy sound. NOT GOOD! I shot a video of it and sent it to my contractor. Uh oh! I’ve got a leak again coming from somewhere!

Saturday the 10th – FROSTY, AUGUST BREATH??!!! – After having slept most of the afternoon, I got up and headed out to get some groceries and supplies for that evening’s movie night. We watched the 1978 film “FM” on Blu Ray. The movie didn’t have much of a plot, but as Amy, my former radio cohort at 94.7 The Wave said, it’s a time capsule! Seeing all the old equipment, and seeing how radio used to be was a real thrill. And the soundtrack is incredible! After movie night I got a nap, and then worked around the house all night. My contractor Handy Don is coming over Sunday evening with Greg the Flooring Guy to investigate the leak under the new vinyl flooring they just laid a month ago. I made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched another episode of “SNL” from the fourth season with guest host Milton Berle. It was amazing! As I was walking Roxy on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood I SAW MY BREATH! It was THAT cool outside! In August? Unbelievable! The sky again was beautiful, and there were lots of stars. I pulled up a chair by the pool and just watched the sky until it started to dawn. Gorgeous!

Sunday the 11th – DAMN DISHWASHER: PART 2! – Handy Don and Greg the Flooring Guy arrived just after 5 and started in on my kitchen to try and determine the source of a leak that was putting water under my new vinyl flooring my kitchen. They looked all around; under the sink, under the dishwasher, etc. BINGO! The source was a bad part in my “new” dishwasher that I just had installed a month ago. Though my dishwasher is a top of the line model, it WAS a ‘scratch and dent’ model. Which means that, while the dishwasher has never been used, because it has a few cosmetic flaws on it, it couldn’t be sold as new. So I got a $700 dishwasher for about $250. Great deal! Except for the fact that it had been sitting on the showroom floor for so long, the little rubber gasket in this particular part seems to have decayed, since there wasn’t any water running through the system to keep it moist. After sitting around for so long, this part had gone south! So I won’t be buying any discount ‘scratch and dent’ models anymore! Don and Greg sped off to Home Depot to get some new hoses, fittings, and other odds and ends. Ironically, my faucet had also developed a pinhole leak in the side, so there was a little tiny stream of water shooting out each time I’d turn on the faucet. Handy Don said that the minerals in the hard water in L.A. tend to decay the metal in the faucets pretty quickly. He got the new faucet installed, pulled the bad part out of the dishwasher, and they propped open a few of the vinyl floorboards so they could blow a fan under there and dry out all the water. They said they wanted to mitigate any possible mold or mildew. So for about 48 hours I’ll have a huge fan blowing into my kitchen. Handy Don will get a new replacement part for the dishwasher and bring it over on Wednesday. Then hopefully everything will be back to normal! I’ve about had it with all of the house-type things that have been going on lately. I’m ready to get back to some peace and tranquility. After they left I napped, then got up to do a bunch of bookkeeping, accounting and bill paying. I got some autographed photos addressed and ready to send out, and Monday I have to make a point of getting the ol’ Gran Torino out and getting the battery fully charged up again. I walked Roxy, made a Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box and watched another “Mod Squad” episode. One of the guest stars was my old pal Leonard Stone (“Grandpa Leonard”) who passed away many years ago. Every time I see him in an old show I always get a little bit choked up. I miss him. But I’m always blown away by what a GREAT actor he was! Solid!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK