December 27 – January 02 (2022 -2023)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

My folks sent me this recent photo of the house we lived in when I was a mere lad. It was in this house that I first discovered the “Batman” TV series. It looked quite a bit different back then, but it sure is nice to see that the old house is in great condition and still standing proudly!

My new Rad Rav plays songs from my phone through its BlueTooth system. But it only plays the same 7 songs over and over. Very strange. One of the songs it plays is Jonathan King’s “Everyone’s Gone To The Moon.” Appropriate, since during the holiday week between Christmas and New Year’s, it really seems that way!

Tuesday the 27th – IT’S HERE (KIND OF…MAYBE)! – The week between Christmas and New Year’s is traditionally one of the weirdest weeks of the year. Is it a holiday week? Is it not a holiday week? Some people think so. Some don’t. It’s a crapshoot. You just never know what’s going to be operating and what isn’t. On my way to lunch I stopped at the Toyota dealership to see if my new Rav4 had arrived. But it was utter chaos at the Toyota dealership. Nobody seemed to know anything. The finance guy was distressed because the VIN number on the paperwork didn’t match what he had in his records. At first they said it had been delivered. But nobody knew if the car was on the lot, or not on the lot. I know it’s a weird week, but I can’t believe it’s this chaotic. Since I didn’t finance the car, and was paying a cashier’s check for it, I didn’t understand why the finance guy was even involved. I guess because there’s some purchase paperwork to sign. But he was beside himself with aggravation so I told him to just relax, take his time, work out the paperwork during the afternoon, and I’d check in with him later in the day. I mailed off a few packages, and then drove the Torino over to Bob’s Big Boy to meet up with my old radio pal Amy Hiatt. We used to work at 94.7 The Wave together back in the 90s, and she used to come to movie night every week, back when I was having movie nights every Saturday. It was fun catching up. Speaking of radio, I also happened to run into my old friend Michelle who used to work at Pirate Radio in the late 80’s. We went out a few times back then but lost touch. It was great seeing her again and catching up for a little while. Amy hadn’t seen Roxy in a long time and asked to see her. So she followed me over to my place so she could give Roxy some cuddles, hugs and kisses. By then it had started raining, so I decided since I was comfy at home, I really wasn’t interested in going back to the Toyota dealership and dealing with more madness. I’ll go on Wednesday when my pal Edi can give me a ride from my auxiliary parking to the Toyota dealership. I did what any self-respecting person would do on a rainy evening; I took a nice nap. My friend Amanda dropped over later for a visit, and after she left I did some work around the house. Knowing that I’ll have to put the Torino back to bed on Wednesday, I “undecorated” it and put all the Christmas accoutrements away. I had it pretty dolled up for the Christmas week, with holly on the antennae, and a mirror-ball ornament on the top, blinking lights on the dash, and a plush Bumble looking out the front window. But I put everything back in the storage boxes in the garage. Later that night the rain stopped. But we’re going to get a LOT more the coming week! It’s shaping up to be quite a wet winter for the L.A. area.

Wednesday the 28th – FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS! – Since I was up early I put on my brave face and phoned a place called Hearts and Halos. It’s a veterinary service that provides at-home service for end-of-life issues. I was not looking forward to this conversation. But the gal at the office was very nice and we had quite a fun discussion about horror movies, which put me at ease. She answered all of my questions and I jotted down pertinent details to refer to in the (hopefully distant) future. I did a quick Voice Over session in my home studio as the voice of a really bored guy, and then I hopped in the Gran Torino and drove it to the Toyota dealership. I finally got to eyeball my car! It’s gorgeous! I took 10 minutes and signed all of the final paperwork with the promise that I would come back to get her once my Torino was safely put to bed. I had a fun time driving it onto the Toyota lot and asking how much I could get in trade for it. The look on the salesmen’s faces was priceless! But after I sat down in the finance guy’s office, and was looking over the contract, I caught an error. I was scheduled to buy a 2022 Rav4, but the paperwork said 2023. I pointed it out to the finance officer, but he assured me that it was indeed a 2023 model. This could explain why the VIN numbers didn’t match up the day before! This could explain all of the chaos that ensued! I was elated! I’m getting a car that’s a year newer than I expected! And for the same price originally quoted! I needed some good news in my life! I drove over to BJ’s in Burbank to meet my friend Edi for lunch, parked my Torino in my auxiliary parking, got a ride from Edi back to Toyota, picked up my car and drove home! Sweet! I’m gonna love this vehicle! When I went inside Roxy tried to get up from where she was lying but couldn’t. As she tried to get up she piddled on the rubber padding. As we had a vet appointment later that day I cleaned her up as best I could and got her ready to go. Sad that the first errand in my new Rav4 was to take Roxy to the vet to see what was ailing her. I had recently detected a urinary issue with her that could be one of four things…dehydration, change of diet, a UTI, or her kidneys were shutting down. I was fearing that it could be the latter, but hoping for one of the former reasons. We got to the vet and got her seen by the doctor. I sheepishly asked the vet if she thought that Roxy’s kidneys might be shutting down, but her vet happily reminded me that they just checked her blood about a month and a half ago and they saw no signs of such a thing. The pain and inflammation medication that Roxy takes regularly can adversely affect the kidney values over time, so she needs to have those checked periodically to make sure the medication isn’t doing any damage. Since she was just in recently for those tests, the vet was able to rule out the shutting down of the kidneys. More logically, was that Roxy had a UTI. As all elderly dogs do, Roxy had a bout with diarrhea recently, and that can promote a UTI based on how a female dog is built. (I won’t go into the nasty details) They took Roxy to the back room to get blood and urine samples and we were back in the Rav4 and took off for home. It sure was nice being able to load Roxy in the back easily, as opposed to having to squeeze her into the backseat of the Mustang or the Torino. She’s not that ambulatory anymore anyway, so this really helped. I was encouraged by the hopeful news that her issue might be easily solved with some simple antibiotics. The Burbank Auto Doctor called with more good news. My Mustang didn’t have another blown cylinder, but rather just had a bad fuel pump. Mike said that it’s an “age thing, not a mileage thing.” It simply gave out after 20 years of faithful service. The pump is easily replaceable (though a bit of a bear to install) but the car should be back very soon in perfect working order. But with a car that will be 20 years old next year, more of that kind of thing is bound to happen in the future. It made me extra glad that I’m relegating the Mustang to semi-retirement. I got home and was exhausted. I napped for a while, and then got up later to do some things around the house. Previously I had to take Roxy out for potty breaks every five hours. But now, with her current condition, it was every four hours. So whatever I was doing, I had to make sure to be available to her every four hours on the button. I did an audition, made some lasagna and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger.”

Thursday the 29th – ANOTHER EBAY DISAPPOINTMENT! – The first order of the day was to call my insurance company and get my Rav4 covered before I drove it much more. It was easily handled on the phone and I was off and running. I had a full day of errands planned in the new Rad Rav (or The Grey Ghost, as I like to call her) and I was anxious to get started. I stopped at my box to get my packages. A while back I had bought 6 photos of Andy Kaufman in his black Elvis costume (the one I currently own) that I had never seen before. A dealer on eBay had them for sale and sold them all to me in a package deal. He’s in Australia and it took forever for them to get here, as he sent them “economy.” I opened them up and saw Andy in his blue Elvis costume. I thought the guy may have sent some extras as a gesture of kindness. But there were ONLY pictures of Andy in his blue Elvis costume, and NONE in his black Elvis costume. The seller didn’t double-check his shipment to me before sending it, and he sent me all the wrong photos! A month ago a seller sold me six Andy Kaufman promotional buttons from “Man on the Moon,” but when the package arrived I discovered with horror that it had come open during transit and all the buttons had fallen out. The seller had not secured the package adequately before shipping, and the end of the box easily opened during its journey. I’m starting to become really leery of eBay sellers. Nobody seems to care anymore about the products they’re selling. What’s up with people these days? With the buttons, the seller didn’t even apologize and was adamant that he secured the package with packing tape. But no evidence of packing tape was on the end of the box at all. He lied. So I’m out the money, with no refund possible. He asked me to change my “neutral” feedback I left for him, but I refused. The fault was entirely his and I’m sticking to my review. If you were the seller wouldn’t you just refund my money in hopes of at least getting a good review for resolving the issue? Nope. Not this clown. So, he had his feedback ruined over a mere 20 bucks and change. Weird. I certainly hope the guy who sent me the wrong photos from Australia is a little more amenable to the issue at hand. As I was thinking a lot about my new Mahna Mahna replica Muppet project I was becoming less and less interested in the color of fabric I originally chose for his skin. I have been studying how it photograps and realized it might be too red-purple for my tastes. It more closely resembled that of Barney the Dinosaur than Mahna Mahna. I wanted something a little more “honestly” purple. Today the fleece fabric I recently ordered from a website arrived, and when I opened it up I saw that it was more of a fuchsia color than an “honest” purple. As the fleece vendor’s selection was fairly limited on their website, it’s back to the drawing board to find the right fabric for my project. Given the problems I’ve been having recently with getting it fabricated, I had kind of lost interest in it for the nonce anyway. I stopped by the Burbank Auto Doctor to grab my garage remote from my Mustang, which I had forgotten during the melee of having it towed there initially. I saw the car up on the rack with the gas tank removed. The mechanic showed me the old fuel pump he had removed, and I saw the shiny new fuel pump which was going in. It was fun to watch him work on it. The mechanics gathered around my Rav and told me to open the hood. But when I did they all started making observations about how the new Toyota engines were put together. Learning, and looking. From their assessment, it sounded like Toyota had made several improvements from years’ past. Then they started removing covers and things to get a better look. I laughed and said, “Guys! Stop taking my new car apart!” But those car guys love to see how things are put together! I was having trouble getting my music through the Rav4 sound system, and was disappointed to find out that the USB port in the car was strictly for charging, and had nothing to do with accessing the sound system. I stopped by Al & Ed’s AutoSound to see if they could install something that would facilitate the use of my iPod through the system. Unfortunately the sound system in the car had no available ports to install such a thing, but the guy showed me how to get music from my phone over the BlueTooth. I know it’s the latest thing, and all the kids are doing it now, but I’d like to just use my phone for a phone, and not a music player. I like to keep those things separate. But until I can find a different solution I’ll keep doing this. I’m thinking of just buying a few cheapie BlueTooth MP3 players on Amazon and using those for my in-car entertainment. I went to Foam Mart to get some ½” foam, in case I wanted to make a second head for Mahna Mahna. At this point the new fleece wasn’t going to work, but on the off-chance I’d be able to find a suitable fabric I grabbed a new sheet of foam rubber. I went to Wendy’s to get some lunch at the drive-thru, and then Krispy Kreme to get some donuts. I headed over to Target to do some shopping, as that’s now the only place I can seem to find the Tombstone frozen pizzas I like. I’ve been enjoying Tombstone pizzas since the 80’s in Sioux Falls. But all of the regular grocery stores have stopped selling them. Sad. I guess the Tombstone company has decided not to pay for shelf space any longer at the regular grocery stores, and have put all their eggs in the Target basket. But the old adage still holds true…”If Wally likes it, it has to go way sooner or later.” I grabbed 6 pizzas and some other items and was on my way. This should do me for a month or longer. Then I got home to care for my elderly pets. I unpacked the Rav, got settled, and took a short nap. Later I did some work around the house. I’ll be glad when the holidays will be officially over and I can get back to life as it was. I like this time of year, but then again I also hate it. I get very restless after Christmas comes and goes. I want to get back to life. I made one of my Tombstone pizzas and watched a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger” before bed.

Friday the 30th – PERFECT PURPLE! – The lab still hadn’t returned any results for Roxy, and I was getting concerned. I know that they’re probably working with a skeleton crew during the holiday week, but in case she’s experiencing pain I want to get something going soon. The Burbank Auto Doctor called and said the Mustang was ready to roll, but since they’d be closing early that day for the New Year’s weekend I wasn’t able to get over there in time to get it. I’ll pick it up on Tuesday of next week. There’s no rush. It either sits in the garage at the Burbank Auto Doctor, or it sits in my auxiliary garage. It was a very cloudy end to the year, which is somehow appropriate. But there will be lots of cleansing rain expected over the weekend, so perhaps that’s symbolic of a fresh start as well. As I relaxed my mind drifted back to a few years ago when I was originally thinking about making a Mahna Mahna replica Muppet to replace the one I bought from a puppet maker in New York that was too “off-model” for my tastes. I remember that I had purchased some purple fleece that I thought would be great, but when it arrived I remember thinking that it was too dark. The original Muppet from back in the 1960s (the one I’m trying to replicate) was, in fact, a darker purple fabric than the recent incarnation. The one they made recently was more of a lilac color, but I didn’t much care for that one. I decided to go dig out that original fabric and have a look. It was PERFECT! It was a nice, rich, robust, and “honest” purple fleece. I had found my fabric! Now to get to building that puppet head. I decided to alter the pattern of the head somewhat, and make it a bit lower than the one I originally did. The head needs to be shorter in order to get the eyes to mount on it correctly. I made a salad and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger.” Once again, Tonto was absent. I began to wonder why Jay Silverheels had missed a few episodes in the fourth season. Based on the idiotic move the producers made in the third season replacing Clayton Moore as the Ranger, I thought that perhaps they were trying to work Jay Silverheels out of the picture somehow. But after doing some research I found out that Jay Silverheels had actually suffered a heart attack during production and had to miss some episodes as part of his recovery.

Saturday the 31st – A HILARIOUS HAUNTING! – When I got up in the afternoon I realized I had just missed a call from Roxy’s vet with news on my voicemail that she indeed had a UTI. What I hadn’t anticipated was that they would be closing early because of New Year’s Eve. They closed at 2pm. I got their message at 2:30. I missed them by about a half hour, and as a result, I missed out on getting her prescribed antibiotics and getting her on the road to recovery. I spent most of the day beating myself up over it. I guess I should have known they would be closing early…but 2? Who needs that much time to get ready to go out for New Year’s Eve? And wasn’t there another way of getting a prescription, even after hours? I knew I should have called them before I went to bed on Saturday morning to double-check on them. I really should have known better. One more reason to hate the holiday week, I guess. Nothing’s normal or predictable. So this would mean Roxy wouldn’t get to start on her medication until Monday morning, assuming of course that they’re not one of the offices that consider Monday to be the official New Year’s Day holiday. It was all so confusing. So I gave her a pain pill, on the off-chance she was having pain associated with the UTI, and I gave her a few of my cranberry pills that I take as a normal part of my supplement regimen. I called Rusty’s Pets to see if they had something I could pick up, and they had a special urinary supplement in drop form. So I walked over in the misty day and picked it up. I also stopped at Subway to grab a sandwich on the way home, and saw a guy sitting down inside smoking. I thought it was odd, because you can’t smoke indoors anywhere here. But once I got inside I realized it was a drug addict smoking crack, or something, out of a thin glass contraption. I really hate what this city has been allowed to become. The people responsible for ruining a great city should be ejected into the ether forever. The guy behind the counter who makes the sandwiches pretended the addict wasn’t even there. Depressing. I walked home utterly disgusted…at the stupid holiday week, at the druggie openly doing drugs in a restaurant, and that nothing was being done about it, and at myself for missing Roxy’s medication. I was disgusted at myself for not realizing that most places would have reduced hours today, and that I should have been more proactive about getting Roxy’s meds before they closed. I wasn’t starting 2023 with a very optimistic attitude. I gave Roxy some of the drops I had just bought and hoped for the best. It rained all the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. I heard people right outside our building lighting off huge fireworks. I said under my breath, “Rainy nights and fireworks don’t mix people.” And sure enough, the fireworks didn’t last long. I ended up sleeping right through the midnight changeover, (normally the panoply of fireworks wake me up at the appropriate time) and by the time I got up the rain had stopped. I fed Roxy, and then took her on our late-night stroll through the neighborhood. Hearkening back to my original “under-the-breath” comment, I saw a large plastic pack of abandoned fireworks lying on our driveway…that were COMPLETELY soaked. Apparently the amateur pyrotechnicians didn’t “keep their powder dry” and their considerable investment in fireworks got totally saturated by the rain. Normally, on the 4th of July and on New Year’s, the fireworks continue well into the night and through the next day. But the rain put a dampening damper on that this year. It was kinda nice, actually. Spook doesn’t seem bothered by fireworks, and Roxy can’t really hear them anymore anyway, but I can imagine that other people’s pets have a very difficult time with all of the noise. My dog Sassie used to literally soil herself at the sound of fireworks. But then again, my ol’ pooch Sassie was scared of her own shadow. Since I had the rest of the night to work on stuff, I decided to do all my end-of-the-year bookkeeping, reconcile all of the recent receipts I had, pay some bills, remove all of my 2022 corporate checkbook registers, and get ready to stash them all in a file in the garage to make way for my new 2023 receipts and paperwork. This is the kind of thing I don’t like to procrastinate on, and it felt good to have it out of the way. I still have some other random work to do, but I can do that the next night. I studied up on the original Mahna Mahna again, and since I’ve fallen in love with the “new/old” honestly purple fleece I found, I’m going to remake his head. But this time, not as high as the last one I made. The lower head will ensure that the little, flexible eye cones will sit on his head at the proper angle. I’ll alter the pattern of the head, make a sample head out of foam, and if it works, I’ll remake the mouth and build a new head to attach to it. Even though it technically wasn’t the first weekend of the month, it was the first HALF weekend of the month. So I made an “executive decision” and decided to start the New Year with a Laurel and Hardy film. If you recall, on the first weekend of every month I like to alter my usual viewing schedule and watch a Laurel and Hardy movie on the first Saturday of the month. This hearkens back to 1973 when I was able to see Laurel and Hardy movies every Saturday night on my local channel 9. Even though it’s a week early, I’m doing it. Before I got prepped and ready for my viewing, I decided to take my blood pressure. 119/82! Beautiful! The damage from the inhaler medication I took last week had finally left my system! I’ll be ready for my dental procedure by Tuesday! Maybe this year IS starting off well! As is my tradition with my monthly “Laurel and Hardy Theatre” celebration, I started making my Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box and popped my popcorn. The next film up on the agenda was “A-Haunting We Will Go.” This film is in the last handful of films they made before they retired, and one of the films produced by 20th Century Fox. Most Laurel and Hardy fans disavow any of the Fox films as being part of the L&H lore, as many of them were rather poor. The film I watched last month (“Great Guns”) was pretty bad. So bad I actually felt bad for Stan and Ollie. I was hoping for the best when I put on “A-Haunting.” I think the problem with the Fox films might have been that they didn’t give the fans what they needed to see with “The Boys.” As a fan, I love to see Stan and Ollie in their trademark suits and ties…and of course those famous bowler hats. But it seemed like Fox wanted to put them in different costumes and place them in different scenarios, completely ignoring their trademark look that made them famous. In “Great Guns,” at the beginning of the film they were pictured in butler and gardener outfits, and then were suited up with military uniforms. But I believe the producers learned from their mistake, and opened “A-Haunting” with Stan and Ollie getting out of jail, wearing their trademark clothing. And within the first few minutes two cops were kicking Stan and Ollie right square in their backsides! THAT was the Laurel and Hardy I knew and loved! And this film had a lot of laughs and great physical gags! Plus, I’ve always loved the character actor Elisha J. Cook, and he’s in this film (at the young age of about 30) playing a hoodlum! It’s a great film with lots of plot twists and turns! I thoroughly enjoyed it and laughed out loud at many scenes. And though I had NEVER seen the film before, I did have a poster of Stan and Ollie in their Arabian stage costumes they wore in this film when I was a kid. Even though I loved the poster, I didn’t understand why they weren’t in their usual wardrobe. And proving that “Easter Eggs” were no contrivance of modern-day filmmaking, Stan dropped an Easter Egg before they were even called that. Elisha J. Cook tried to convince “The Boys” that he and the other guys in his gang were all fraternity boys pulling a prank. (Had Stan & Ollie found out that they were in fact hoodlums they wouldn’t have participated in their scheme!) Stan perked up when he mentioned a college fraternity and he said something to the effect of, “We know how that goes. We were in a lodge once.” I laughed so hard I almost spit out my Diet Pepsi. It was an obvious nod to their time in the Sons of the Desert! It was very clever, and it left me wondering if it wasn’t a Stan Laurel ad-lib. An unlike “Great Guns,” which was utterly ruined by too much focus being placed on a young guy and gal and their romantic interests, and not enough on Stan and Ollie, “A-Haunting” de-emphasized the romantic leads in favor of letting Stan and Ollie be Stan and Ollie. This is a film I would easily watch again!

Sunday the 1st – HAPPY NEW YEAR! – While digging through some old photo files and scans on my computer I came across a Christmas card I sent out back in the late 1990s, when I was out doing jobs as Austin Powers on a regular basis. Back then my pal (and adopted big brother) Rob Richards was getting into computer graphics; which was quite new at the time. I asked if he could superimpose me as Austin Powers into a photo of me as Wally. He said he could. I set up my camera in my apartment and took some pictures of me next to my vintage 1960’s aluminum Christmas tree, and then I changed into Austin Powers. But I put my swimming suit on and applied a voluminous amount of fake fur on my chest. I took a few shots like that, had them printed, and gave them to Rob to begin work. What we came up with was my “Hairy Christmas and Happy Nude Year” card. To say that it shocked the recipients would be an understatement. I had Rob airbrush out my swimming suit so it looked like I (as Austin) was totally nude. Then he put a small British flag (not THAT small!) over Austin’s “bits and pieces.” For back in the day, Rob’s graphics work on the piece was really quite commendable! It got the reaction I was looking for! I thought it would be fun to post that on my social media, so I did. Later I got out some envelopes and started putting away all of my 2022 pay stubs, receipts, bank statements to continue clearing out my file folders to make way for all of the 2023 materials. Once I get the file folders cleared, and all of the stuff put in envelopes with labels, I have to leave them sitting out for about a month, so I can easily access them to take in all of the stragglers that trickle in during the month of January. I reorganized one of my display areas in my office space. I got sick of having my Darth Vader CD-AM-FM player on top of the file cabinet, as I hardly ever used it any more. I also got quite fatigued with an Ikea gooseneck lamp that had a faulty switch. I also decided I was sick and tired of a power strip that I had mounted to the side of the file cabinet with mounting tape. The tape never really fully worked, and the weight of the power strip (and all of the things plugged into it) would eventually pull it down. So I got out some super strong glue called E-6000, dug out some super strong quarter-sized magnets I had bought before my favorite craft store went out of business, and glued two magnets to the back of the power strip. I set it down to let it cure for a good 15 hours. This time, the power strip will stay put! I worked around the house some more, grabbed a short nap in the Puppet Room, and then got up to do some more organizing. The night was clear and cool (rain had completely gone) so I took the Rad Rav out for a spin to get some food at Denny’s. Later I watched a gorgeous sunrise to usher in Monday morning, and then ate my dinner while watching a few more episodes of “The Lone Ranger.” I never knew that the Lone Ranger met Zorro! Guy Williams, years before he was awarded the role of Zorro by Disney, guest-starred on the Lone Ranger as a heartbroken Sheriff. Within a few years from when this episode was filmed, Guy Williams would become his very own horse-riding avenger of evil! The last line he said in the show, speaking to somebody about the Lone Ranger, was something to the effect of meeting a true living legend. Little did the Ranger know, he was meeting one too! It was really fun to see them together! I stayed up long enough to call the vet at 8 to see if they were open so I could get Roxy’s medication. They were open, and they had Roxy’s medication ready. I got cleaned up and hit the trail to go pick it up. While I was out I swung over to Staples to pick up a new printer cartridge and some SD cards for my cameras, and at the hardware store I picked up a new padlock to lock my car cover when I put the Mustang away in storage. I’ll be picking up my Mustang on Tuesday, so I wanted to be ready to put her into semi-retirement. I got home and got Roxy started on her antibiotics, and hit the hay. By the way, the magnets on the power strip worked PERFECTLY! And I got an email back from the guy who sent the wrong Andy Kaufman photos. No apology. Nothing. All he said was, “I’ll send them.” Nobody has any pride in their business any longer. Truly sad.

Monday the 2nd – HAPPY NEW YEAR (AGAIN!) – Since this day was “kind of a holiday” I figured not much would be going on. I walked Roxy in hopes of getting a nice long walk in before the next rainstorm that headed our way. She must be feeling pretty good, because she ate a full bowl of food! I started typing out Wally’s Week, and did some more stuff around the house. I napped for a bit, and then got up later to complete Wally’s Week. I’ll get my dental procedure completed this week, get my Mustang stashed in its new auxiliary parking spot so it can enjoy its semi-retirement, I’ll do a “Bleach” session, and have some lunch meetings with people I need to chat with. It should be a very fun first week of a new year. Plus, more rain is expected this week, so we’re in for another drenching. Great news! We really need the moisture! Everything is so green around here!

And how was YOUR holiday week?!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Here’s the only copy in existence of the Christmas card I sent out back in 1999. I’m sure all of the people who received theirs in the mail have long since burned theirs!

A gorgeous dawn on the second day of 2023!

It looks like my blood pressure is well on its way back to normalcy!

Usually when I get a new car, I like to take a photo shaking hands and taking the keys from the salesman. I did it when I traded in my tired old Ford Fairmont station wagon for a new Ford Escort, and I did it when I traded the Escort in for a Saturn. For some reason I never got any shots with any of the Mustangs I bought, but in getting back in touch with the tradition, here’s a shot of me taking possession of the new Rad Rav aka The Grey Ghost!

And speaking of the Grey Ghost, it really is quite impressive!

That time when the Lone Ranger met Zorro and didn’t even know it! It’s interesting to note that The Lone Ranger also met Dr. Bellows, Commissioner Gordon (from the old Batman serials), and Mrs. Cunningham!

Rox looks perfectly restful in her bed.

This past summer, when I was in Sioux Falls for the Voices Against Cancer event, my dad introduced me to his pal Sarge. Sarge was a paratrooper in WWII and the Korean war. Sadly, Sarge passed away just after Christmas. RIP Sarge.